CompTIA to dabble in gamification

Trade body looking to boost member engagement under new UK channel boss Estelle Johannes

CompTIA's new UK channel community director is looking to "snackable information" and "gamification" to boost member engagement at the trade body.

Talking to CRN, Estelle Johannes (pictured) said her priority is to bolster collaboration among CompTIA's UK members, which number more than 2,000.

"I'm very privileged to come into a very strong community that is already established. The challenge is to make sure we harness that energy to drive the community forward," she said.

A key tactic will be to focus less on stuffy old white papers and more on driving members to the website and face-to-face events via "snackable" information in the form of infographics or e-books, Johannes said.

In future, members will be encouraged not only to consume CompTIA's information but to contribute something back through gamification, a practice that sees typical elements of game playing, such as point scoring, applied to other spheres of life. Members will soon be able to accumulate points in line with their activity engagement on CompTIA's website, Johannes explained.

Now two weeks into her job, Johannes succeeds much of the role filled by predecessor Vaughan Shayler, who has left for pastures new.

Membership expansion into central and northern Europe is also on the cards, Johannes said.

"Europe is the next natural progression," she confirmed.

CompTIA's aim is to "better the industry", Johannes said, with best practice, training and accreditation being key focus areas for the US-based trade association.

"The most prominent benefit [for potential members] is the ROI – for a small amount of money the benefits you get are phenomenal," she said.

Women in IT and the skills gap are among Johannes' key interests. The rapid move to cloud means the overall personnel shortage is probably as pronounced as it ever has been, she added.

"Coming into such a strong community in the UK means it is a very exciting time," Johannes said. "This is the fun part, where I can look at how we can really experiment with how we can attract more members and engage more with them."