Keith Ng

Keith Ng is the CEO of Gametize, a gamification company that integrate game psychology into audience engagement. He leads his team to disrupt and “gametize” learning in enterprises and institutions such as SingTel, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS, NTU, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, focused mainly on mobile and Asia.

Keith has successfully raised venture capital (including from reality tv, Angel’s Gate), as well as designed Gametize’s gamification framework/engagement methodologies. He is a prominent gamification speaker in the region and globally, such as in Gamification Summit 2013, San Francisco. He believes learning and gamification is akin to toast and butter, and the tremendous power of play in learning.

Prior to founding Gametize 5 years ago, Keith sold his first software at 18, and later completed his BBM (Finance) and BSc (Information System) as a DFS Scholar in SMU, coupled with an exchange stint in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Today, he sits on the advisory board of a handful of startups.

Presentation Title:

Why Fun, Play, and Gamification will be the Future for Learning

Synopsis:

Estimates of the 2011 corporate e-learning market range from $26bn to $35bn worldwide. The best companies also spend more on e-learning relative to the total training budget. Yet, according to a CrossKnowledge survey of these global corporations, e-learning completion rates average barely 30-40%. These problems also span across to the education industry, where schools want to continue engage our generation gamers beyond classroom settings.

Why hasn't e-learning been a runaway success? Going digital is not enough. Going mobile is not enough. Simply bringing the material into a new medium doesn't change how users interact with it by itself. Instead of flogging the dead horse of e-learning content, it's time to focus on the learner. Digital and mobile platforms still have untapped potential for engaging learners, and gamification is one example of how we can leverage these capabilities to truly improve stickiness and retention.

Gametize uses game psychology to understand the problems behind e-learning. Only by connecting with the people doing the learning itself can we fix the problem of why e-learning seems to be stuck in a rut. Gamification taps on everybody's intrinsic motivation to have fun to make learning as easy and engaging as a game. Keith will explain why gamification is a lot more scientific than the term suggests and hence why gamification is the next big thing. Next, he will run through some basic gamification frameworks and real-life examples of how to effectively leverage on game psychology to increase engagement. He will describe B2E (Business to Employees) engagement with gamification with an in-depth successful stories and case studies of Standard Chartered Bank, and a mobile app game targeted primary to secondary school students in Ace Entrepreneurship Week 2012, both implemented by Gametize.