Are You Ready? Life-size game fosters community, connection and promotes future fitness

Surprise and delight is one of our core values at InceptionU. We believe that learning can be fun and using games and play is a great way to get people thinking about and tackling big problems by breaking them down into sizeable chunks. 

We recently debuted our life-size interactive game, Are You Ready?, as part of LobbyFest, an urban futures festival that transformed downtown tower lobbies into pop-up future labs, conversation salons and community spaces.

The game design was led by InceptionU co-founder Greg Hart and drives home the message that today’s workforce must possess the skills to navigate an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous future. Achieving career longevity will come down to knowing yourself better, identifying gaps and constantly learning and adapting.  A special shout out to Exhibit Studio which built the hexagon structure and brought Greg’s vision to life. 

“At InceptionU, our goal is to prepare people for a world of rapid transition and transformation. We try to use fun and engaging ways to reignite the fire of learning, which has been tamped down by years of traditional and institutionalized education,” says Hart. “Go beyond the textbooks, challenge yourself to think in foundational ways, so your skills can transcend time, trends and changing circumstances.” 

This life-size installation allowed Calgarians to bet on their future - how much of your future are you willing to wager? Unpredictable and surprising, this game encouraged Calgarians to reflect on their skills, talents and mindsets to see if they are fit and ready for the future of work. 

There are several different categories including work, neighborhoods, society and living, learning and technology. The game is designed to challenge your critical thinking, systems thinking, creativity,  computation, communication and collaboration skills.

We also learned a few things through this experience. 

Critical mass 

Stepping out of our comfort zone and engaging with others can be intimidating! Lots of people stopped by and watched, but seemed hesitant at first to take part. What if they answered a question wrong? What if their drawing was illegible? What would their co-workers think? As humans, we second guess ourselves and even though we want to engage, fear can hold us back.

Thankfully, we had a few early adopters who agreed to participate. Soon, others gathered and curiosity and excitement grew. All it took was one and the rest followed. It’s a great lesson that as we work to make real changes in our city, we will need a critical mass of brave people who are willing to step forward, put forth bold ideas and have the courage to champion them at a city and government level. 

Many ways to communicate 

From drawing and building with Lego to trivia and wordplay, the game showcased the many different ways we can communicate and problem-solve. In a world that relies heavily on text messages and emails, the game embraced some of the most simple ways to solve a problem in a face-to-face setting. Tactile and visual, the game had us drawing and building like we did when we were kids!

Creative Capacity

We all have the ability to be creative and think outside the box. We often underestimate our ability to be creative, thinking it’s just musicians and artists. But, when put to the test, we all can tap into our creative side and create a masterpiece, ok…a drawing at least.

Community and connection

Most of all, the game brought people together in unexpected ways. As folks were wandering around Bow Valley Square at lunchtime, they happened upon the game show experience and stopped to watch, play, laugh and connect with complete strangers.

We’ll be bringing this game to more community events in the near future. So, stay tuned and get ready to test your future fitness with InceptionU.

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