Professor Game Podcast

Juan Pablo Guzmán Fernández is co-founder of Infinite Thread Games, a company dedicated to the design and development of original and innovative video games. With over four years of experience in the sector, Juan has worked both as a producer and programmer. Additionally, Juan Pablo has been a high school teacher for over ten years, teaching subjects including physics, mathematics, and computer science. Developing frequent gamification projects, he enjoys sharing his knowledge and motivating his students to learn and create their own projects.

Mister & Mischief (a.k.a. Jeff and Andy Crocker) are a husband-and-wife creative team based in Los Angeles. Together, they create live experiences designed to delight audiences and turn strangers into pals. Best known for their absurdist puzzle-play Escape from Godot and their interactive pirate radio documentary 40 Watts From Nowhere, Andy and Jeff bring their brand of fun-forward storytelling to genres of all kinds. Their award-winning immersive work has been produced for the La Jolla Playhouse's Without Walls Festival, Indiecade, Denver Film Festival, Noah's Ark at the Skirball Cultural Center, and the Warehouse Theatre. Outside of Mister & Mischief, Jeff and Andy work independently in themed entertainment, developing experiences for clients including Universal Studios, Cedar Fair, The Bezark Company, The Hettema Group, Thinkwell and Walt Disney Imagineering. Mixing games, theater, and comedy into playful, participatory events, Andy and Jeff are passionate about increasing the visibility of experiential design and audience-empowering art wherever they go.

Adam builds order out of chaos. Serving as a High Performance and Agile Coach and having built a career in fast-paced, margin-tight environments from working in the advertising, public accounting, and internal audit industries; I understand the scientific decode behind ultimate human performance and using it to train up individuals and organizations. By decoding ultimate human performance and understanding what is going on in the brain and in the body when humans are performing at their best, we have the ability to open up a new space for human potential. This unique career history coupled with demonstrating a strong risk, control, agile, high performance, and scientific mindset provides me with the resourcing in building high performing teams. I encourage this boldness and mindset in coaching teams, championing their strengths and galvanizing them to challenge the status quo, unlocking innovation and high engagement. Personally, I believe there's always a way. Relentless in my quest for excellence, I lead with courage and tenacity, often achieving the seemingly impossible at pace.

I'm beyond excited to share that my TEDx Talk, How Gaming Can Unlock Your Better Self, is now live on the TEDx YouTube channel! You can find it in the show notes or directly at professorgame.com/tedx2023 I'd love to know your thoughts!

Jason Friedman, a former theater enthusiast who is now a serial entrepreneur and coach, is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners grow and scale their businesses. With a flair for dramatics and a master of storytelling, Jason has founded and exited five successful companies. As CEO of CXFormula, he's now teaching businesses how to captivate their audiences using his proprietary Kinetic Customer Formula·. He's also at the helm of Spotlight Brand Services, guiding e-commerce brands to success on Amazon and beyond. Join us as we dive into the insights of a leader whose strategies have earned him accolades like Ernst and Young·s Entrepreneur of the Year, and propelled multiple companies to the top of the Inc. 5000 list.

As the Chief Learning Officer at StoryIQ, Diedre combines her love of data and strategic thinking with creating engaging learning experiences. With close to 20 years of teaching and facilitating experience, Diedre brings enthusiasm and a unique ability to make complex concepts accessible and relatable to all. Diedre's expertise allows her to call upon a deep knowledge of communicating data and data-driven strategy to senior leaders and key stakeholders across industries and verticals.

Moe Ash is a learning architect dedicated to the notion of designing learning experiences. He holds a BSC degree in Human Resources Management and a minor in Economics from Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, a Master's degree in International Development from the American University in Cairo. A CIPD-HR associate (level 5), Certified Instructional Designer HRCI, Certified Competency Matrix Developer, Certified Assessment Center Analyst from Middle Earth HR, and a diploma in Community Psychology from the American University in Cairo. A brand ambassador to the Genially authoring tool. Moe is currently looking into acquiring his degree in business psychology aiming to blend gamification and performance management in a tight cohesive mold. Moe is the founder of The Catalyst, an instructional design consultancy focused on the sole purpose of creating impeccable learning experiences.

Dr. Timo Lainema is the developer of RealGame, a unique real-time operated business simulation game for learning business and supply chain management, and many other business topics. Timo is an adjunct professor of educational sciences and game-based learning in Finnish universities, and an experienced trainer in executive education. His present research of game-based teaching and learning focuses on conceptual change and correcting students· false perceptions through simulation gaming. In addition, he has studied the management of time in simulation games, immersion and flow, business process understanding, and decision-making and leadership in game-based learning. Presently, Timo works as the CEO of RealGame Business Simulations, a company providing active learning solutions for higher education and company training internationally.

Javier is Co-founder of Azahar Juegos and Free to Play, companies that focus on the design and research around the use of playful paradigms in serious contexts. He has 11 years of experience working on gamification projects and has collaborated on educational projects with institutions in Colombia such as Universidad de los Andes, Sergio Arboleda, Rosario, Uniminuto, and with companies such as Bancolombia, Compensar, Grupo Bolivar, among others. He is the designer of the BEM Framework for systemic and meaningful gamification and the recipient of two awards from Tech Magazine / Gamicon 2019 for gamification projects in virtual learning.

Meet Chris, founder of Gaming@Work. His company integrates Game Derived Skills·· and Game-based Learning for a dynamic workplace. With a background in International Hospitality and experience as a Partner Manager at Dell Technologies, specializing in Cloud and Gaming-as-a-Service, Chris brings expertise in various graphics/gaming workloads. He provides a unique tech perspective on employee growth. Chris aims to help organizations achieve digital transformation goals, keeping employees skilled and motivated without investing in expensive software. Regularly sharing insights on gaming culture, esports, and tech trends, connect with Chris to explore the future at GamingAt.Work and his blog, TeamLocktree.com