Wanting to stand out in the typical sea of seriousness at the RSA Conference while enhancing its brand perception and educating clients on its products, Carbon Black Inc. rolled the dice and decided it would use a game to accomplish these objectives. Assisted by Catalyst Exhibits Inc., the Waltham, MA-based cyber-security company didn't just plug in a frivolous trivia contest. Instead, it created "Carbon Combat," a beat-'em-up-style video game it was confident would pluck a nostalgic chord with its target audience of IT security workers who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Carbon Black reasoned the game would give players a fundamental and fun understanding of its offerings and predispose them to learn more while in the booth.

The company set up a quartet of gaming stations, each sporting custom-built arcade-style joysticks, instantly familiar to anyone who might have spent their formative years playing Pac-Man or Space Invaders. Once visitors stepped up to play, staff scanned their badges and qualified them. The four stations were divided into two groups; call them set A and set B. The two players at set A would compete only against each other, as would the contestants at set B. In each set, a player selected one of three "Carbon Black good guys" that personified its products with monikers such as "Carbon Fighter," embodied by a cyberpunk female ninja. Her katana and armor epitomized Carbon Black products' ability to predict and thwart malicious code. The opposing player picked one of a trio of "hacker bad guys" with titles such as "Mallory Ware," the nasty characters representing the kinds of security issues typically faced by companies today.

For a maximum of three rounds and/or three minutes, players digitally duked it out on-screen, twisting the joysticks like fighter pilots and frantically mashing the buttons on the kiosk consoles. Once the contest concluded, the two 60-inch screens used for gameplay served as leaderboards displaying the names of the top-scoring 10 to 12 players, piquing the next round of participants to step up and see if they could best those totals. Whether they won or lost their head-to-head battles, all players received a T-shirt with game characters and the words "Carbon Combat" emblazoned on the front to commemorate the nostalgic experience.

With the now-qualified players both energized and even educated to a degree about the company, staff directed participants to the presentation and demo areas to continue conversations about Carbon Black's products in either group or one-on-one settings. Fully 75 percent of booth visitors who played the game ultimately moved deeper into the exhibit to explore its offerings, proving that while attendees may have won their respective battles, Carbon Black's gamified activity won the war, and the company enjoyed the sales-generating spoils.

OTC Daihen Inc., a maker of robotic and manual welding equipment, was eager to show off its automations, as well as its human-centric manual products, at the Fabtech show. Teaming up with its booth designer, Exhibit Concepts Inc., the company decided to host a show-long contest in which anyone could step into the stand at any time and show off his or her welding skills. Such a game could appeal to much of the audience's natural skill set at Fabtech, which draws more than 30,000 metal-forming, fabricating, finishing, and welding professionals each year.

To assure the in-booth activity received plenty of pre-show coverage, the company took out a two-page ad in The Fabricator magazine and touted the competition via social media and its website. Once Fabtech kicked off at the Georgia World Congress Center, OTC relied on its exhibit's exterior signage – as well as in-booth announcements made every 30 to 60 minutes – to attract attendees. The announcements were done in conjunction with a robot welder's bionic boogie that seized the attention of passersby with the strength of the Terminator.

When contestants entered the booth, staffers handed them pieces of precut metal they would need to weld into a business-card holder as perfectly as humanly possible. While up to two could compete at the same time, they would not be racing against the clock. Instead, they were vying to see who could create the highest-quality weld. To keep these players safe, the company provided helmets with eye protection, flame-resistant jackets, and welding gloves. But in an unexpected twist, some competitors chose to bring their own safety equipment from home, a sign of how much the contest had resonated with them.

Torches in hand, the welders went to work with a flourish, fusing and bonding the metal pieces at either of the two welding tables. Again, with safety a uniquely paramount issue, OTC made sure to use metal stands that included an electrically grounded steel plate and a three-sided flash shield that captured most of the 6,000-degree torches' scorching sparks, while the rest fell atop rubber mats that concealed the otherwise combustible carpet. And because Murphy's Law will never be in danger of repeal, several fire extinguishers were positioned nearby. Even the audience, eagerly crowding around the craftspeople hard at their blistering work, required a safety barrier of sorts, which took the form of handheld visors distributed by booth staffers. These eyeshades prevented corneal flash burn, a kind of sunburn of the eyeballs that can result from the welding torches' supernova-bright light.

When the welders were done, a certified welding inspector judged their efforts for uniformity, thickness, color, cracks, and signs indicating the players' overall mastery of their trade. Each day after the show wound down, OTC announced a winner, who received a custom weld helmet worth $500. Then, at the show's conclusion, one of the daily winners was voted best overall and received the hefty bounty of a $1,000 prize. Word of the contest quickly spread across the show floor by virtue of the unmissable flashes of bonfire-blazing light generated from more than 400 contestants – about 10 percent more than OTC had anticipated – and even larger crowds of attendees who swarmed into the booth to watch the challengers burn metal. As a consequence, both the numerous spectators and contestants who filled the booth were pleasantly exposed to the company's mix of autonomous and manual technology. Instagram filled up with hundreds of attendees' photos showing robots and humans wielding welding technology as well. Fulfilling OTC's wish, the contest turned the exhibit into one of the hottest spots on the Fabtech show floor in more ways than one.

One irreplaceable aspect of trade shows is the associated face-to-face networking that never goes out of style. But at some events, the hope-you-connect-with-someone-interesting model can feel as out of date as a phone booth. That was one of the challenges Teradata Corp. faced at its Teradata Analytics University (TAU) in Las Vegas, an event that brings together customers, partners, renowned experts, and exhibitors in the IT-security industry. Complicating the situation even more, the provider of database and analytics-related products wanted to drive traffic to its 34 expo sponsors and exhibitors, as well as increase the number of attendees using the event app.

Three problems didn't have to mean three separate solutions, however. Teradata and its new event-app designer, MeetingPlay LLC, believed adding a game – specifically a scavenger hunt – to the app could solve all those challenges in one fell swoop. Christening the game TAU Hunt, the company generally aimed the game at escalating its existing app usage from the year before and specifically designed it to motivate attendees to network, visit sponsors and exhibitors, and complete various other actions, for which players would be awarded anywhere from two to 10 points per activity. Once players had achieved a certain threshold of points, they could redeem them for a spin on a digital slot machine and win any of 34 different prizes.

When the show kicked off, users who decided to take part in the TAU Hunt visited booths, mingled, and took up various other tests and questions to amass points. For example, app users earned points for engaging with exhibitors by simply scanning Quick Response (QR) codes in a booth. To avoid useless drive-by scans, Teradata encouraged exhibitors to post their QR codes somewhere inconspicuous, forcing players to step into the exhibit and engage with staffers before finding and scanning a code.

To inspire networking, the game issued scanning and photographing challenges. These included scanning the badges of attendees from countries or companies other than theirs. Further fostering engagement, the game tossed out questions specific to the event itself with queries such as "What do you see on the General Session ceiling?" Additionally, the company dispensed time-sensitive inquiries that had to be completed that day, such as "Which speaker on stage is the author of [book title]?" Again, fulfilling any of these actions earned valuable points.

Once they'd racked up at least 40 points, participants could try their luck at the centrally located Redemption Wall, a large display of four touchscreens set inside a frame. After players scanned their badges at a reader attached to the frame, the screen showed a trio of spinning slot-machine-like wheels followed by an image of the prize they won, such as a Starbucks gift card or an Amazon Echo. The Redemption Wall's high visibility – and its cacophony of slot-machine tones – acted like a magnet for attendees, subtly encouraging them to download the app if they hadn't already and take part in the TAU Hunt themselves.

By the show's end, 92 percent of attendees had used the app, a jump of 13 percent from the previous year and about twice the increase Teradata had hoped for. Even better, according to company data, one-on-one meetings between attendees catapulted 450 percent, and the game generated an upsurge in booth traffic. So while attendees walked away with prizes and enhanced networks, the biggest winner of the TAU Hunt may have been Teradata itself.

Traditional use of gamification on the show floor is often limited to growing traffic and capturing leads. But Aurora Diagnostics, which offers pathology and cancer-diagnostic services, employed it to sidestep the kind of hard-core sales pitch that's often as pleasant as an itchy rash.

The company aimed to instill attendees at last year's American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) annual meeting in San Diego with an appreciation of the services it provides – but again, without having to resort to sometimes-vexing sales patter. To realize this goal, it worked with BrandedArea LLC and Interactive Meeting Technology LLC's SocialPoint engagement platform to appeal to showgoers' competitive instincts with a game that would test their hard-earned knowledge and teach them about the company's services at the same time.

To draw as large a pool of visitors into the booth as possible, sales reps sent current and potential clients a postcard that promoted the game at the upcoming AAD. The postcard was accompanied by a ticket to an in-booth Candy Bar that would sling not stiff drinks but rather alcohol-flavored confections. Drawn by the allure of competing to demonstrate who was the smartest – and also, perhaps, by the scrumptious prospect of grape martini gumballs – hundreds of attendees mobbed the 30-by-50-foot exhibit over the course of the show. Ticket in hand, each attendee generally sped to the Candy Bar and grabbed small bags of faux-boozy bonbons laden with the essences of tequila, scotch, and vodka.

Thus fortified, the guests approached a reception-desk-like counter behind which stood an 80-inch LED screen. On the countertop were six iPads that qualified prospects by asking for their names, companies, and locations. (For residents and medical students, it also inquired what program they were in or what school they attended.) Next, the iPads displayed a "How to Play" screen explaining the rules of the game. Players had just three minutes to answer any of 115 randomly shuffled questions, with the first correct response netting them five points, the second 10, the third 15, and so on, with progressively higher point totals for each accurate reply. Both the types of questions and the correct answers were tied to the kinds of diagnostic services Aurora offers, thus educating players on the company without any bombast or pressure.

These weren't Nerf-ball-soft questions, either. One, for example, asked "The cell of origin in a squamous cell carcinoma is the: a) basal cell, b) endothelial cell, or c) keratinocyte/melanocyte?" Another posed a head scratcher of a story problem: "A 28-year-old woman presents with a brown mole on her face, which she states has been there for 'as long as she can remember.' Based on the image, which of the following is the most likely diagnosis?" The choice of answers ranged from actinic keratosis and benign congenital nevus to lentigines and melanoma. Each day's three top-scoring players received a prize germane to their profession – a DermLite device, whose magnifying lens and LEDs allow doctors to examine patients' skin for cancers and other serious ailments.

Unlike many other gamifying exhibitors, Aurora didn't limit its leaderboard to the 10 or so high-scoring contestants. Instead, it posted the names of 20 at a time, feeling that the more players who received recognition, the more it would motivate others to think they could land a spot in that coveted top tier. Subjective evidence backed up that perception. Staffers reported many players idled in the booth for hours, waiting to see how well others scored before attempting to best those tallies. Hard data supported the subjective claims, too. When Aurora crunched the numbers after the AAD meeting closed, it found the records of iPad logins revealing that several attendees had returned to play multiple times. All told, there were 332 unique players and 609 total games played, roughly 20 percent more than anticipated. Results like that just go to show that a competition can be an exceptionally effective way to get under attendees' skin.

Ideally, auto insurance is as predictable as the sunrise. Pay a set sum of money on a fixed schedule and receive an expected amount of benefits should a vehicular misfortune ever occur. But when it comes to a trade show booth, "predictable" can just as often equate to "boring," resulting in too few visitors. That was the reality Geico Corp. faced when planning its exhibit at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Exposition.

Since most attendees coming to the show were well aware that Geico offers SHRM-member discounts, there was no particular reason for them to visit the booth to find out what they already knew. Moreover, the insurer's previous traffic builders – such as an in-booth claw machine – seemed a little played out to both Geico and SHRM attendees. Additionally, such attractions had little connection with the brand itself. So Geico and its exhibit designer, Impact XM, sought a novel approach for attracting attendees, eventually settling on the allure of an escape room.

The concept definitely had merit, as variations of this gamified group challenge have sprung up around the world. Moreover, unlike Geico's past traffic builders, the escape room would integrate information about the insurer and its parent corporation, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., meaning players would need to learn something about the companies if they hoped to successfully exit the enclosure within the allotted time.

When attendees poured onto the show floor, they couldn't help but notice Geico's booth, which housed a sizable enclosure. Covered in a vinyl graphic printed with bricks, the structure seemed equal parts imposing and paradoxically inviting. A 6-foot-tall graphic of the company's universally recognized spokes-lizard on one side and the words "Geico Escape Room" written in large blue letters on another practically begged to be explored.

A long line of attendees quickly formed, indicating the traffic-building tactic was likely to be a success. Brand ambassadors briefed participants on the rules before letting them enter the escape room in groups of four at a time. Once the locks clicked shut, each group would have 15 minutes to devise a way out – a smart nod to the company's ad slogan for the past 20-plus years: "Fifteen minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance."

The inside of the escape room resembled the Geico gecko's apartment from the company's ad. Though several household items were Geico branded, such as a toaster, a water bottle, and a blanket, the food items placed in the gecko's pantry were all Berkshire Hathaway companies' products, including brands such as Cheerios and Campbell's Soup. Meanwhile, "The Snowball," a biography of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, sat prominently on a nearby shelf. None of these items were random, for all would play a role in escaping the room successfully.

While waiting in line, players had learned from staffers (and from a written summary posted on the room's exterior) how to play the game as well as the story behind it: The hyper-popular mascot had a taxi waiting to shuttle him between cities so he could spread the message of Geico's prime rates and customer service. Unfortunately, the gecko had lost his passport and needed to locate it before he could leave his apartment. To help him do that, attendees had to work together to decipher a series of clues.

The first clue required participants to find a key secreted in the sink. Once located, the key could be used to open a bookcase, wherein players had to match up titles on the book jackets with the corresponding states on posters hung above the cabinet. Those titles, in turn, would reveal the combination to a safe hidden in another nearby cabinet. When they successfully accessed the safe and located the misplaced passport inside, players also uncovered a final clue about the keypad on the exit door. Entering the correct sequence of numbers on the keypad activated a chime that cued a staffer to open the door and award prizes to teams who managed to complete the task before time ran out, including a stuffed gecko, a car-escape tool, and a pocket watch subtly referencing the "15 minutes" ads.

All exiting players could then assemble against a photo wall and hold up printed word bubbles with sayings such as "Oh Dear," one of the gecko's catchphrases. Once staffers snapped their pics, participants could share the images on social media, helping the company achieve off-floor impressions that proved to be the cherry atop a successful traffic-building sundae.

Guests raced to break out of Geico Corp.'s escape room – designed to resemble the famed Geico gecko's apartment – by working together to decipher a series of hidden clues.