An Easy Way to Meet the Right New People

One of my roles is co-Founder of EventLoud, a social networking app that helps users meet new people and explore and organize events with their friends. We are getting ready to introduce our most excitng feature yet: Loops!

Check out my post at the EventLoud Blog.

 

http://blog.eventloud.com/2011/11/29/meet-new-people-using-eventloud-loops/

 

 

Gamification Trends

Gartner: 50% of Innovation will be Gamified by 2015 April 13th, 2011 Jeff Lopez By 2015, 50% of companies that manage innovation and research will use gamification to drive innovation, according to a press release by Gartner. As gamification is just beginning and few public examples exist today, this finding means that the next four years are going to see rapid changes in management of the enterprise. According to Brian Burke, an analyst at Gartner, “Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization.” The press release sites a few examples where changes are already beginning to take place including the World Bank’s Evoke, but the most interesting example is Idea Street. Idea Street is an internal project of the United Kingdom’s Department of Work and Pensions, where employees interact and share ideas. The project includes a few basic game mechanics like badges and leaderboards, but the intrinsic driver of sharing ideas and collaborating on projects is the primary motivation behind the project. Idea Street facilitates the process. There is a case study available on Idea Street from Gartner, and the findings show that within the first 18 months, the project had around four thousand users, generated 1,400 ideas, 63 of which have been implemented within the Department. Idea Street exemplifies some of the more general strengths of gamification, as explained by Gartner: 1. Accelerated feedback cycles. In the real world, feedback loops are slow (e.g., annual performance appraisals) with long periods between milestones. Gamification increases the velocity of feedback loops to maintain engagement. 2. Clear goals and rules of play. In the real world, where goals are fuzzy and rules selectively applied, gamification provides clear goals and well-defined rules of play to ensure players feel empowered to achieve goals. 3. A compelling narrative. While real-world activities are rarely compelling, gamification builds a narrative that engages players to participate and achieve the goals of the activity. 4. Tasks that are challenging but achievable. While there is no shortage of challenges in the real world, they tend to be large and long-term. Gamification provides many short-term, achievable goals to maintain engagement. You can find more research on gamification currently underway at Gartner from the press release and on Brian Burke’s blog.

MamboWalk is Ready for Early Testers

We've been working hard at MamboHg is get our very Minimally Viable Product(vMVP!) into the hands of some testers. Our goal is get a very basic step counter into some people's hands and to learn what they think about the idea of monitoring their steps on a daily basis while trying to complete the challenge of walking the Boston Marathon route over 14 days (3,900 steps per day). Give it a try and let us know what you think!

 

www.mambowalk.com/test

 

 

Men As Romantics - Surprising Findings

Here's a surprising article on men and romance.

Building Confidence Step by Step

A gentleman exudes confidence without being cocky, boastful or full of false pride. Confidence is not something that we are either born with or not. If we feel we lack the level of confidence we need to fulfill our dreams we can take action to improve our self esteem. Confidence can be developed through intentional actions and affirmations. Little victories add up to feelings of accomplishment which feed feelings of expectations of success, leading to a confident attitude. Just about everyone has feelings of anxiety and shyness in certain situations. The key to overcoming these bouts of low self esteem are to recognize them for what they are (building awareness) and understand you can survive and overcome even the most distressing situations.

For more continue reading here: Confidence

Maintaining self-esteem is a lifelong psychological process. Think of self-esteem as a mental muscle that must be developed and maintained through regular psychological workouts—or you will be vulnerable to depression and anxiety. It must be renegotiated at each stage of life and in each domain of experience. When we build up the self-esteem muscle deep inside us, we learn to like and respect who we are, no matter what is happening around us.

10 ways to Acheive your goals

Have a look at this list of 10 common ways you might go about achieving your goals. Most of these should be familiar, but which ones do you think work? More to the point: which ones do or don't you use?

Make a step-by-step plan.

Motivate yourself by focusing on someone who has achieved a similar goal.

Tell other people about your goal.

Think about bad things that will happen if you do not achieve your goal.

Think about the good things that will happen if you achieve your goal.

Try to suppress unhelpful or negative thoughts about your goal and how to achieve it.

Reward yourself for making progress in your goal.

Rely on willpower.

Record your progress.

Fantasize or visualize how great your life will be when you achieve your go

What Every Gentleman Needs To Know

I started ballroom dancing over 3 and half years ago and any man who wants to make a woman feel special should acquire this much appreciated skill. Here I am dancing a foxtrot with my beautiful partner Jenn!