September 22, 2016 | Andrew Lawlor

This year, I’ll present a recent Aptaria success story at Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual convention in San Francisco.

I’ve had the privilege of representing Aptaria’s work at 8 Dreamforce conferences since 2008.

Attending Dreamforce is always a valuable opportunity for me to stay on the cutting edge of Salesforce’s products. I also get the chance to trade strategies with peers and share Aptaria’s applied insights.

My talk will focus on gamification as an emerging trend and its power to improve community engagement. You might be wondering: “Just what is gamification?” The term may sound intimidating, but it simply refers to competitive, game-like features designed to motivate users.

To show the advantages of gamification, I’ll discuss the Salesforce Community that our team built for Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).

CVA, a nonprofit advocacy organization, needed a way to coordinate a widespread base of volunteering veterans. During an election year, volunteers’ time is particularly sought after. CVA wanted a community portal that would give veterans a sense of accomplishment and keep them invested in its campaigns.

Aptaria set up CVA’s “Tour of Duty” Community with a gamified experience that:

• Awards points to members for activities like neighborhood canvassing, phone banking, and attending events.
• Enables volunteers to climb higher on regional and national leaderboards as they earn more points.
• Offers badges and medals to recognize an individual’s campaigning progress.

Cody McGregor, CVA’s National Outreach Director, will join me at Dreamforce 2016 to describe the benefits of the community. “Tour of Duty” launched with gamification features in late 2015. Since then, local team leaders have noticed more friendly competition and passionate campaigning among volunteers.

The Salesforce Communities have not only driven more participation, but also eased veterans’ transition back into civilian life. “Tour of Duty” helps returning service members connect with one another. The gamification features provide clear goals they can work towards, then reinforce their achievements.

During the presentation, Dreamforce attendees will get to see the “Tour of Duty” Community in action through a live demo. Finally, I’ll offer ideas for how other organizations can gamify Salesforce’s experience and better engage their constituents.

The talk will take place on Wednesday, October 5 at 8:30 a.m. in the Power of Us Theater of the the Westin St. Francis hotel. Here’s the official session listing. I hope to see you there!

Are you traveling to Dreamforce? Keep an eye out for Aptaria. If you want to meet up, let us know on Twitter (we’re @aptaria_inc).

If you won’t be there for Dreamforce 2016 (or want a sneak preview), you can read our case study on CVA and gamification.