Revitalizing Scientific Poster Sessions: A Gamification Approach at an Academic Conference

Maintaining active engagement in learning and application of new knowledge in medicine is essential. Academic conferences, particularly poster sessions, are crucial for this purpose, yet limited attendee engagement and passive learning environments challenge these sessions. This report assesses the impact of gamification of the poster sessions at an international conference on engagement between poster presenters and attendees.

The authors gamified the 2023 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) conference, April 28 to May 1, 2023, Washington, DC, using Landers' theory of gamified learning. Poster presenters created a multiple-choice question based on their poster, which was linked to a QR code via the PAS application. Conference attendees engaged with the poster presenter and scanned the QR code to answer the question. Attendees earned a point for each correct answer, with leaderboards displaying scores. The attendee(s) with the highest point totals earned prizes. Evaluation included application interaction metrics, attendee scores, and narrative feedback from presenters and attendees.

The conference had 7,753 attendees with 2,680 poster presentations, with 1,889 poster presenters (70%) and 1,361 attendees (18%) participating in the initiative for 2,761 interactions. Of the 2,600 survey respondents, 51 (2%) thought that the gamification detracted from their poster experience, 198 (8%) reported that it enhanced their experience, 489 (19%) were unsure of its impact, 511 (20%) were not aware of the gamification, and 1,351 (52%) perceived that it had no impact. Although many conference attendees were unaware of the gamification, attendees who participated and won prizes showed a marked increase in their desire to win prizes on subsequent days.

Future studies should assess the technology required for optimal gamified poster sessions and determine whether the costs are beneficial. By expanding gamification features to reward more nuanced forms of engagement, the value of this approach could be better assessed and understood.