Wildly Different is a company whose motto is "play outside the cubicle." When employees are simply watching the clock, waiting for the end of the workday, productivity can suffer. But if you inject a little fun into the work environment, organizations can often reap big benefits.
Just ask Jane Lipps, chief fun officer at Wildly Different. Her company strives to put a bit of fun into company meetings, training events and team building endeavors. And with the help of OTI, she and her company have been wildly successful at doing just that.
Not your father's Jeopardy
Wildly Different specializes in providing fun and productive team building and networking activities. The company has turned to OTI's OptionPower system and related Group Competition Module to add a fun quiz-show experience to meetings and get audience members engaged with the meeting's purpose and presentation.
Research has shown that getting people involved through interactive presentations helps boost learning and retention. Wildly Different takes it a step further by realizing that adding a bit of fun to a meeting or presentation helps boost attentiveness and can dramatically influence the audience's acceptance of the meeting's presentation materials and goals.
"When we walk into a meeting and say it's time for team building, we see a lot of looks from the audience that say, 'Oh no, what are they going to make us do?'" says Lipps. "But once they start having fun with the quiz-show experience, things really start to happen. Leaders emerge, people start communicating and team building occurs."
Taking "cool" to the next level
Lipps also says that OTI's game show technology and associated keypad response system adds a "cool" factor to the event that helps to alleviate much of the reluctance to participate. "The instant feedback that the participants get through this technology helps them see how they're doing and makes them want to compete harder," she says.
And Lipps says that in playing together, participants gain information they can use to work together better. "People learn a lot about their coworkers and discover their strengths so they know who to go to for certain things and situations."
A fully engaged partner
According to Lipps, the partnership with OTI has been great. "We're continually asking them to do things that are outside of the confines of the OptionPower system. And they've been great about modifying and adapting game templates and software capabilities to our wants."
She's also grateful for OTI's behind-the-scenes help at the game show events. "They know the system so well that if we need to change something on the fly at an event, they can do that. And we're usually so busy facilitating the event itself that we love to have them there taking care of the technological aspects."
The company's relationship with OTI is a two-way street. Not only does Wildly Different push OTI to come up with innovative solutions for their presentation ideas, but the company provides valuable participant feedback that helps OTI improve its interactive response systems. OTI has been able to solve problems and then repurpose those solutions for other organizations.
Click here to learn more about how Option Technologies can provide an ARS system for interactive games at your next event.
