Gamification is the use of game play mechanics  for non-game applications , particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans' psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.

Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer of GamesBeat at VentureBeat

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

Gregory Kennedy, Director of Global Marketing at InMobi

Gregory Kennedy has over 10 years experience in digital media on both the advertising and publishing side. At InMobi he is responsible for leading global marketing efforts including InMobi's developer community. Prior to joining InMobi Gregory held leadership roles for companies and clients including CUPR Inc., LiveJournal, Cyworld (a division of South Korea's SK Telecom), Estee Lauder, Tiffany & Co., Kodak, Scion, IBM, Sony Computer Entertainment, Dish Network and The Walt Disney Company.

Charles Yim, Strategic Partnerships of Mobile at Google Mobile

Charles Yim manages strategic partnerships with the games industry on behalf of Google’s mobile display advertising business. In this role, Charles works with both traditional and emerging game developers in building their smart-phone businesses. Charles has extensive experience in the online and mobile games eco-system as a venture capital investor and startup entrepreneur. Prior to Google, Charles was on the business development team at AdMob; he also helped launch Boomerang Networks, a virtual currency monetization startup catering to facebook game developers; and was an associate with TriplePoint Capital, where he was involved with gaming investments such as Acclaim Games (acquired by Playdom/Disney), TwoFish (acquired by LiveGamer) and QuickHit Sports.

Paul Chen, Director of Business Development at Papaya Mobile

As Director of Business Development at Papaya Mobile, Paul Chen is responsible for building the ecosystem of game and application developers that support the Papaya social network for Android devices.  Prior to joining Papaya Mobile, Paul served as Product Manager for NVIDIA’s line of Tegra application processors.  Paul has also held various engineering roles at Advanced Micro Devices and covered the technology sector as an investment banking analyst for Salomon Smith Barney.  Paul received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.

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