With advances in mobile technology everybody is connected to the internet. Almost all the time. It does not take effort to connect to that information flow, it takes effort to not connect or disconnect. And through that connectivity people become more and more aware of what is happening in far-away places. The downside is that at the same time they are becoming disconnected from what is happening here and now.

Think about the following example. Which of the two questions is easier to answer?

A) How old is the current president of Namibia, or

B) how old is the tree growing in front of the seminar building?

The difference is this – while we mainly observe what happens far away, we can experience what happens here and now. We are becoming more observers and less experiencers.

This can sometimes be seen in team trainings when somebody states.”I will not participate in this. I like to observe others and learn through that.” Fair enough. You will learn how it looks. But you won’t know how it feels.

Until recently this situation was reinforced by the state of technology. Average smartphone can display news from anywhere in the world. It can show you photos and play videos made anywhere. But until recently your phone did not really know it’s exact location or the direction it was facing.

The good news is that development of making mobile devices location aware is speeding up and the innovations make it possible to build useful applications that connect to real physical world around you.

Loquiz has been utilizing the improved location accuracy to create experiences here and now. The idea is simple. Platform allows you to connect your content to physical world around you. In basic form it could be just a quiz where questions open in physically different places. In more advanced form you could use complicated game rules and prepare the content so that it references physical world somehow.

Game-making process

For example:

How many building blocks were there in original Osterwalder business model canvas? Hint. The white bridge near you is exactly the same length in meters.

If you remember the answer you can double check it with the bridge. If you do not know, you can find it out by measuring the bridge. This bridge will naturally become the mnemonic device for this fact.

Adding a game makes your training content more sticky. People will remember the subject longer if they have tried to access it from their memory at least once. The effect is the same as with testing, but it is not a test. It is a game.

Your training also becomes more emotional. It gives an extra possibility for everybody to safely participate. Games are experienced. Even the simple game means that participants create the emotions for themselves. Not to mention the small stuff, like participants being more energized, your training has more variety and you will create a “silent” time for yourself as everybody is out having a great time.

Why not use the information technology and bring people back to here and now?

We are releasing a new version of Loquiz game creator shortly. Just enter your e-mail and we will let you know first when it is up and running for test drive.  NB! This will not subscribe you to our newsletter.

Use case 1

One day training with game to finish the training for 15

Your time as a trainer is scarce resources. Sometimes it is not wise to use your time in running a game, but to bring in somebody from outside.

Mercuri training client expected extra activity for the after training program. Solution chosen for the activity was Loquiz.

Choice was based on following:

a) the fun factor for the client,

b) ability to include content from the training to reinforce the learnings.

Outdoor service provider 360DEGREES was brought in to prepare the game. Mercuri supplied outdoor company with the questions from training. Outdoor company developed location based content to make the experience location specific and run the game.

Fun time for the client, learnings reinforced and resources wisely utilized.

Use case 2

One day strategy training with game in between for 20 persons

After strategy training session, light outdoor activity was planned for the client. Mainly as an energizer, but also to visualize planning and remind what was just spoken and agreed.

Loquiz was chosen because the activity level was right and planning is important part in playing Loquiz games. Trainers assistant had a task of observing a training session and formulating some questions based on subjects covered in training. The games content was developed during the session and played right after that.

Assistant wisely used questions to draw attention to some ideas and agreements. Questions ranged from the general to very specific things people said during the training.

For example one of the general questions was…

How many steps were there on the presented strategy development model?

A) Three  B) Five  C) Seven D) Nine

While easy to answer behind the desk, answering it in the different surroundings made teams usually naming all the parts out loud.

Or a question to reinforce the specific action…

Who agreed to take the role of communicating new strategy to our departments abroad?

A) Steve B) John C) all department managers D) everybody present in the training

Quite powerful discussions sparked after people got back from the woods.

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