Recyclebank to Join Panel on Gaming for Good at the SXSW Interactive Festival

Mar 8, 2012 2:00 PM ET
Campaign: Events

(3BL Media ) Austin TX - SXSW - March 8, 2012 - Recyclebank®, the company that rewards people for taking everyday green actions with discounts and deals from local and national businesses, today announced Chief Revenue Officer Samantha Skey will  join a panel on gaming for a better tomorrow at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.  The panel, entitled “Can Gaming Make the World Better?”, brings together leading social entrepreneurs and gaming experts from Google Inc., dosomething.org, Keas and Gamification Co. to discuss how gaming mechanics can make a positive impact on society. The panel falls on the heels of former Vice President Al Gore’s endorsement of gaming as a powerful tool in the fight against climate change at the launch of his Climate Reality Project.

Specifically, Skey will address Recyclebank’s application of gaming mechanics to motivate people to change their everyday behavior and reduce their impact on the environment. Applying a model proven in hundreds of local communities through its recycling-for-rewards program, Recyclebank now engages millions of members online to take more everyday green actions offline and help make a measurable impact on the environment. With fellow panelists offering additional insight on the use of gaming to support a variety of causes and even employee wellness, the panel will address how to scale social gaming with the aim of engaging a global audience and affecting societal change en masse. 

“Savvy businesses are realizing that games are more than adolescent playthings but, instead, can be powerful vehicles for change,” said Skey. “At Recyclebank, social gaming is at the core of our incentives-based approach to motivating sustainable action, which we have scaled to a mass audience through digital engagement. With gaming mechanics and incentives, organizations like Recyclebank and those of my fellow panelists can truly make a measurable difference in the world.”

Skey began her digital career in 1994 by starting Interactive Imaginations’ award-winning Riddler, one of the web’s first real-time, multi-player, reward-based gaming sites, Skey works with Recyclebank brand partners such as Unilever®, Coca-Cola® and Ziploc® to create marketing campaigns that engage and inspire consumers around sustainable action. Prior to Recyclebank, she has held various strategic digital development roles at Walt Disney Company, CNET, Alloy Inc. and Passenger Inc.

The details for Skey’s session are as follows:

Who:        Samantha Skey, Chief Revenue Officer, Recyclebank

                Adam Bosworth, CTO & Co-Founder, Keas

                George Weiner, CTO, dosomething.org

                Nadya Direkova, Senior UX Designer, Game Mechanic, Google Inc.

                Moderator: Gabe Zichermann, CEO, Gamification Co.

What:       “Can Gaming Make the World Better?” panel discussion; event hashtags: #sxsw #game4good

Where:     SXSW Interactive Festival, Austin Convention Center, Room 6AB

When:      Sunday, March 11 from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. CST

 

ABOUT RECYCLEBANK

Recyclebank helps create a more sustainable future by rewarding people for taking everyday green actions with discounts and deals from more than 3,000 local and national businesses. Through its online platform and partnerships with municipalities, haulers, small businesses and corporate brands, Recyclebank is empowering individuals to make a collective impact on the environment by increasing household recycling, reducing household energy usage and taking other environmentally-preferred actions. A Certified B Corporation, Recyclebank has been recognized as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme and for Outstanding Excellence in Public/Private Partnerships from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Recyclebank is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit www.Recyclebank.com.                     

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