Project final conference and official Biz-e-bee launch in Belgium

'SG4Adults' project final conference and official launch of the serious game Biz-e-bee took place on the 3rd of June 2016, in Antwerp, Belgium. Over 30 stakeholders, representatives of adult learning networks and organisations, academics, teachers, policy makers and gamers from 6 different European countries, gathered at the charming, maze like premises of AP Hogeschool Antwerpen - Campus Meistraat. The event was hosted by project leader CVO Antwerpen, one of the largest Adult Education Center in the Flemish region of Belgium, which organizes more than 950 modular daytime and evening courses per year.

Biz-e-bee is an educational board game that stimulates entrepreneurial skills of adult learners. The game is the result of the European project 'Serious Games for Entrepreneurship Skills of Adult Learners' (SG4Adults), a cooperation of organisations from Belgium, Greece, The Netherlands, Macedonia, Spain and Switzerland. This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.

The project team was happy to have been able to make a contribution to the modern game market and present players with a new gaming scenario, the Biz-e-bee, during the event. The programme started off with a game, naturally, which was an introduction to the interactive lecture on state-of-the-art learning by serious games, led by Ms. An Yskout (De Aanstokerij).

After the stimulating session, a presentation of the European project 'Serious Games for Entrepreneurship Skills of Adult Learners' was held by project manager Ms. Liesbeth Goosens. Ms. Goosens talked about the accomplishments within the project and its main deliverable, the Biz-e-bee game. She also drew the attention to the game being designed in a way that the subject can be adjusted according to the content of a specific course, making Biz-e-bee applicable in multiple courses in adult education, in addition to entrepreneurship courses.

The guests were even more enthusiastic about the second part of the conference, which featured an interactive presentation of Biz-e-bee and since it was the Week of the Bee, participants were surprised with a twist, questions that test their knowledge of bees, too. Mr. Glenn Vermeiren from CVO Antwerpen and project team representative, had the role of game master, explained the game rules. There were three groups of players, and multiple game masters from the project team members. After announcing the winners, the project team was able to connect with the participants and share feedback during the reflection session. Constructive comments and ideas for the further application of the game were discussed. The event was summed up successfully with an informal lunch where more networking took place.

Biz-e-bee's official release offline and online is expected by the end of the summer, 2016.