Convention International I MICE News und Trends aus der MICE – Branche
When looking for the most innovative examples for business knowledge in Latvia, Roadgames is one of these companies which need to be told about. They change the way to look at and arrange future fam trips, corporate incentive programs, city tours through an App, developed by a young start-up team.
Some background for better understanding the context: Roadgames is the latest brand of the largest IT technology company in Latvia – Draugiem Group. They were founded in 2004 and have developed to date 12 brands under their umbrella. Roadgames was brought into life in 2019, providing scavenger hunts within Latvia, creating the app and testing the best working concepts.
Martins Licis, the head of marketing at Roadgames, says: “We are bringing experiential tours into the 21st century by switching the focus from the traditional way of sightseeing to interactive tasks to fulfil and having fun while doing the tour. The learning effect (or whatever is the purpose of the game) comes randomly, as a side result. There are different segments for a game which can be applied the way the game-owner wants it: challenges and tasks asking for creativity, physical actions, scouting actions (location-based) or AI Challenges, just to name a few.
So we can create any “tour” by adding a strong gamification element to provide fun and entertainment and experience to the participants. Themes can be anything that is relevant for the client: a retailer group can have a tour around shops, a city tourism office can present historical places, areas or topics (for example unknown corners of the city to balance tourist numbers away from overcrowded areas) and a Convention Bureau can create a new type of famtrip, which relates to different contexts. “
After testing the app and checking the best options, Roadgames started to offer open games at specific dates to explore different areas in Latvia. With a tremendous success and many participants keen to experience more games and more tours….
So the young company decided to ad “cities” to their portfolio, and started to develop city sightseeing games in 2020.
Just imagine, a self-guided tour which even big groups can participate in, with a lot of gamification elements and the big advantage (Pandemic learning!) that people can participate all by themselves each at their own pace and preferred times, seeing and experiencing whatever important for them in individual ways. Ad ice-cream parlours, coffee shops or restaurants along the tour – just depending on the game owner – because it is the client who creates the goal of the game and picks what he wants to have in it. The content development team of Roadgames then comes along for a concept meeting and explores the pivotal content together with local experts, ads gamification and tour flow which work best.
Once the game is conceptualized and all content decided upon, is technologically developed and all the preparation done, the client gets admin rights and can update or exchange elements easily themselves. Training is provided – it is a very flexible system. Of course there are messaging options etc. involved. So any tour can be as interactive as possible.
The access to the game will be provided through the Roadgames App itself; either it is an open game (like a city sightseeing tour, ordered by a city tourism office), which is first in ranking when guests arrive. A closed game (e.g. provided by a company) however, will be accessible through a code only, which is provided by the game-owner to his group.
Bigger cities can have a choice of different games according to topics relevant for them, smaller cities can change their game every year or seasonal… everything is possible.
Martins assures that the team of Roadgames (with its background of Draugiem Group as main IT technology company) has enough resources and talent available to run whatever projects are coming their way! They presently work with some Latvian DMCs on developing games for fam trips and many more plans pending.
Roadgames offers location-based entertainment, mobile gaming, outdoor recreation, way-marking, team game, and events services – in open or closed ecosystems.
For private tours (corporate, organizations, congresses etc.) specific city or regional games, team-building, corporate events or any other reason for a scavenging hunt adventure can be offered.
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