When you see the results of your honest work, when you understand its context and meaning and, ideally, you’re building up your own business, you experience the same delight as a gamer who’s in the zone. As a gamer, you want to be pulled into the game from your very first contact. From its marketing, to its packaging, to its actual content. Even the very best games don’t just sell themselves; nor does your business. And on the other hand, attractive advertising can’t replace content. But there’s one difference: your work brings real results—not just a fictional game score. You’ve found meaning in what you’re doing, and you’re fully aware of it. When you really look at it, you see that you’re not just effective, but actually happy too. Your work makes sense.

That’s what you want for your employees—but until your company finds them this context, in a world where the gaming industry is number one on the global “free time” market, other impulses will win out over attention, enthusiasm, and real benefits from them. You can either complain about this and reminisce about how in the old days things were better and kids didn’t whine, or you can run with the trend and bring people in with the same techniques that game designers use. In any profession where people work. I’ll show you that all you need is smart design.

Here’s what you’ll bring back from my talk:

Petr Pouchlý