project

Spring Point Partners

Making a conversation in the crowd of conference programming.

teams in collaboration

Witty Gritty

role

Product Designer

Project Overview

Witty Gritty was contracted to create a product that would encourage and evoke meaningful conversation between their event attendees and partners alike for Spring Point Partners, a social impact organization that advocates for community-driven change and promotes justice by investing in leaders, networks, and solutions. 

Someone reminded everyone, “Hey, doesn’t Jenny have a background in Game Design?”, and with the excitement of the client, the idea of the Conversation Cards was put into conceptualization. I contributed as a product designer, working in tandem with copywriters over at Spring Point Partners and Witty Gritty’s production team.

For this project, I utilized elements of gamification and worked to establish a sense of play in the corporate conference world. I led the product design of creating a conversation prompt deck for the conference space.

Conferences are a wonderful place for gaining knowledge, networking, and gathering resources from working professionals. While the medium of conferences has been translated into the virtual sphere, the style, and structure of how conferences are conducted have not changed much in recent years. This project seeks to improve the landscape of the genre:

  • Provide an improved user experience for conferences.

  • Utilize gamification elements to establish an agency for users to be engaged in conversation.

  • Increase attendee turnout of the annual Spring Point Partners’ Spring Convening in future years.

  • Gain general brand awareness of Spring Point Partners and the work they do.

The Why

There must be some research into the obstacles that get in the way of attendees having meaningful conversations with fellow event attendees. We looked closely at how the Spring Point Partners conferences typically play out and the unforeseen consequences of the traditional conference landscape.

There are things that are working within the traditional conference medium, but some issues have been observed that can work against Spring Point Partners’ goals of active engagement and connection:

The Context

Things That Are Not Working:

  • Conferences are solemnly interactive; only allowing conversing in short spurts.
    Humans on average only have an attention span of 8.25 seconds, and that time is getting shorter as time goes by. (Fortenbaugh, Francesca C et al., 2015)

  • Attendees have to be self-motivated to converse with other attendees.

  • Attendees often aren’t prompted to engage with any lecture materials past doing some active listening.
    People are capable of longer spans with intrinsic motivation. (Fortenbaugh, Francesca C et al.)

Things That Are Working:

  • Gain Knowledge. People go to learn relevant information about their field from professionals working in the field.

  • Presentation Experience. To give researchers the ability to share their findings of the ever-evolving growth of the work they do.

  • Forging Connection. Expanding their network of other professionals, scholars, and hobbyists in the area as they can put a face to a name.

our problem

Energizing the conference space with engaging conversations between attendees and panelists, cultivating connection.

We wanted to create a memorable experience that leaves attendees buzzing with enthusiasm and forming authentic connections. We conceptualized a conversation card deck that would truly stand out from the crowd. So we began constructing features with a focus: How can we encourage conversation in a large group?

  • Personalized Prompts. Users like to leave their mark and feel accounted for, adding in prompts that are curated just for their own introspection instead of the sterile corporate jargon is refreshing.

  • Intuitive Game Progression. While players are often okay with learning game rules, the conference crowd may not be familiar with that process. Making the game progression of this deck simple and easy can aid in lowering the entry barrier.

  • Gamification Principles. A group working towards a common end goal can fuel a sense of community and camaraderie between conference goers.

  • A Point System. A point system to give players a sense of accomplishment as they engage in the conversation and incentivize continuing in the conversation.

Now: How much effort would go into implementing this product?

Production was a huge factor in the creation of this project. As this client’s primary focus isn’t in gaming, having access to custom components such as cards, game pieces, and boards would require additional steps. (1) would provide the biggest impact on the problem we’re solving. (4) is great for player agency, but would be difficult to keep track of with a large group.

Our Ideation Process

Journey Maps for Gameplay

When constructing how the conversation cards were going to function, especially in a conference setting, there was a focus on getting the correct prompts to the player in a certain order.

GamePlay Structure:

  • The Introduction Phase: In a room full of strangers, let’s let players get acquainted with one another.

  • The Connect Phase: Start thinking deeply with personal prompts to invoke true discussion such as, “Over the past two years, what have you lost”? A vivid question that can be answered in numerous ways from many people’s different walks of life.

  • The Reflect Phase: A natural closure to an idea, a concept, a conversation, and to the conference session.

The Spring Point Partners’ Conversation Cards are composed of 20 prompts that ask you to introduce yourself to the world, reflect on your experiences, and build a connection. every attendee was given two decks of their own to use independently in their own professional introspection or within a group of loved ones and coworkers alike. The Conversation Cards were made available digitally, alongside a retrospective on Spring Point Partners’ aim with this project.

Deepen Connection with Our Conversation Cards.

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The Conclusion

Attendees and partners showered the conversation deck with so much love; sharing stories, swapping knowledge, and forming connections with each other during Spring Point Partners’ programming. The deck transformed networking into a reflective ride of collaboration.

  • 800 Conversation Card Decks were produced and disturbed by Spring Point Partners through their annual Spring Convening and through client gifts.

  • The decks have increased the Spring Convening attendance from the previous year by 5%.

  • The success of the conversation card deck has allowed me the honor of designing the second edition of the deck for 2023. Production has just ended in Q2 and embodies a blend of user feedback and fresh new prompts that take introspection, empathy, and problem-solving to new heights.

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