In the first week of April and in cooperation with the AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology), we welcomed 120 scientists from 23 nations for the 11th International Conference on Persuasive Technology. This year’s topic Contextual Persuasion: Supporting Life Situations and Challenges by Persuasive Design was all about the use of persuasive technologies in the context of individual life situations and the related challenges.
In order to foster changes in individuals’ behavior, persuasive technologies analyze user behavior with, e.g., sensors – like in smart phones or watches – or methods from the world of games to achieve changes with customized nudges. Therefore, the main target of persuasive technologies is to support individuals to reach their goals in various domains such as healthcare, sustainability, education, or marketing.
The four-day conference was full of scientific highlights, including a tutorial by the renowned author and user-interface and information-visualization designer and computer graphics artist Aaron Marcus, as well as doctoral thesis presentations by 12 international students of the Doctoral Consortium. For the first time in PT-history, a one-day Persuasive Game Jam took place where participants developed innovative teamwork approaches, concepts, and prototypes and then presented the outcomes to the scientific audience. Seven workshops gave the researchers the opportunity to discuss various topics such as Persuasive Designs for Learning, Persuasion in Transport Applications, and more.
The two-days of the main conference at the Edmundsburg were full of remarkable contributions from the present international scientific community containing thirty paper presentations and fruitful discussions. The keynote speeches from Dr. Mark Aloia, the Global Lead for Behavior Change at Philips HealthTech and an Associate Professor of Medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, CO, and Prof. Cees Midden, the Persuasive Technology Livetime Achievement Award winner and retired professor of Human-Technology Interaction at Eindhoven University of Technology, made this event the place to be in the area of Persuasive Technology research.
The social events, including the reception hosted by Salzburg´s Mayor Dr. Heinz Schaden in Schloss Mirabell, the conference dinner at the Festung Hohensalzburg, and the accompanied walk through the historical downtown of Salzburg rounded off the multifaceted program of Persuasive Technology 2016.
We proudly look back to four successful, exciting, informative, and entertaining days of conference. A big thank you goes out to all our guests for their contributions! We are looking forward to meeting again at next years´ Persuasive Technology Conference at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
Please find further information here.
