LA's Exergaming Evangelists!

12-15-08: No, I'm not talking about the city, LA, I'm talking about the STATE, Louisiana! Had 3 nurse practitioner students from Loyola Univ. in New Orleans, fly out for a day of brainstorming on exergaming research and to tour the Zone.

Imagine, they flew all the way out just to talk in person! They are really gung ho about this, and that is why they have earned the title, "The 3 Louisiana Exergaming Evangelists"!

They presented their powerpoint they gave for a class, and I must say, in just a short time, they have vaulted right up there with the rest of us in their thinking about this field. I look forward to future collaboration and research from these 3 newest Exergaming EvangelistsHere are the first 3 Louisiana Exergaming Evangelists (L-R): Tiffany, Amy (my initial contact), and Melissa. We welcome these 3 nurse practitioners into our exergaming family!

APHA gets into exergaming!

Nov. 30, 2008 - Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday! As I was preparing my powerpoint for the last conference I'm speaking at this year (Medical Fitness Assoc. in TX on Dec. 5), I realized I didn't update my blog from the last conference I attended, the American Public Health Assoc. down in San Diego at the end of October, so here it is!

After 16 years of having my masters and doctorate in public health, this is the FIRST time for me to attend my profession's assoc. conference, mainly because I do more clinical work and attend other conferences that deal with clinical health and promotion and of course, exergaming--like American College of Sports Medicine, Healthy People, Games for Health, etc. APHA tended to be more focused on policies and public health, such as sanitation issues, epidemiology, population-based public health, etc

However, I noticed a trend towards lifestyle-related diseases and interventions, enough so that I finally joined the APHA and since this year's conference was just a couple of hours away, I decided to go and check out how receptive they would be to exergaming.

What I found was that the APHA is ripe for games for health and exergaming! This is a picture of a session put on by the newly formed Special Interest Group (SIG) Health & Technology. Guess what the topic was? Games for Health! So even though it was in one of the surrounding hotels and not at the main convention center, it was well attended. They are very interested in having more games for health, exergaming, etc. sessions next year, so I joined this SIG to stay in touch with them.

At another session, I heard about the new physical activity guidelines that just came out from the DHHS in Oct. This is the first time our federal government has issued official guidelines for physical activity. I'm here with Rear Admiral Penelope Royall, who was key in pushing this through the DHHS for the last couple of years. I introduced her to the idea of exergaming, which she seemed very interested in.
Another speaking on this session's panel was Toni Yancey, MD, from UCLA. She is a very dyanmic speaker, and I thanked her afterwards for mentioning exergaming in her talk! We bump into each other at various obesity conferences here in CA so she knows all about exergaming and XRtainment Zone. ;-)
If you're in one of Dr. Toni's sessions, you don't sit the whole time! She gets the whole room up and moving! Interestingly, a lady I was sitting next to wanted a copy of this shot, and we exchanged contact info. Turns out she is involved with the formation of a new SIG for Physical Acitivty! (Imagine that APHA doesn't have this yet, given the impact exercise can have on public health). We got to talking about games for health and exergaming, and I told her I would definitely be interested in joining the PA SIG as well.
A special thanks to Beth & Games for Health for helping to sponsor my trip there. Since Beth was manning the booth all by herself (they, too, were wanting to test the waters there for games for health), she asked me if I would check out the sessions, network, etc. so I was happy to help out in this capacity.
There were other contacts made, and quite a few sessions on physical activity, obesity, etc. There was even a poster on Second Life and AIDS prevention. Overall, it seems that the APHA community is ripe for games for health and exergaming, so I look forward to seeing us represented there in the conferences to come!

XRTZ & Exergamefitness partner up!

10-13-08: Check out the press release by Exergamefitness on a new partnership between our two companies. We're looking forward to working with Tommy and Ed to spread exergaming to families who need it!

XRTZ officer lands spot on Oprah

10-15-08: Sheila Hodgkin, Development Officer, made it in the news this AM with her selection in an Oprah-sponsored women's leadership contest. You can read all about it in the San Bernardino Sun online article.

It mentioned her work with Andre Agassi, and here are some pictures from our recent trip to his gala for his schools.

Here's Sheila, hard at work with Andre, telling him how his school can benefit from having exergaming in it. Notice the XRTZ business card in his hand...great job, Sheila!

Also got to meet some other celebs there, like Dr. Knowlton here with David Foster....
Sheila and Judy Peterson (wife of COO Joel Peterson) with Nick Cannon and Mariah!
Sheryl Crow was very nice...
I was able to get in one picture with Steffi, one of my fave female tennis players...
Coach K was very friendly, shaking our hands and asking our names. I asked him how it was dealing with all of those NBA-sized egos and he said it wasn't hard at all because, "...they really wanted it (the gold)."
This was for Kim's 3 sons, who love watching Emeril on TV.

Lisa Hansen visits XRTZ!

9-1-08: Lisa Hansen, co-director of the XRKade Research Lab at the Univ. of South Florida, was in town to speak at the Int. Conf. on Physical Activity. This was her first time in the Loma Linda/Redlands area, so she just had to visit the 2 locations of XRTZ! It was great seeing here here on my "home turf", hearing her present, and touring her around.

Trying out the Gamercize

Exergaming Researchers gather in New Mexico

Aug. 21 & 22 - From Maine, we went to New Mexico State Univ., where a group of us our part of a 4-year CYFAR grant that started earlier this year. Headed by Barbara Chamberlin, of NMSU's Gaming Lab (what a cool place!), this was our first in-person get-together as a group. Over the next 2 days, we brainstormed the details of our grant and charted the course for the next 4 years.

Like Maine, it was great to meet everyone in person and deepen relationships that are difficult to do when you're rushing to and fro at conferences.

Thanks to the gang at NMSU for being such great hosts! You guys are the best!

Here we are, hard at work delving into the exergaming research.


Of course, we had to take breaks and play the exergames! Increase blood flow to the brain, of course!


For some of us, it was our first time to NM so we had opps to check it out.

Maine Exergaming Summit

Aug. 14 & 15, 2008 - Ben Sawyer and Beth Bryant, thanks to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, convened the first-ever Exergaming Summit, bringing in exergaming gurus and evangelists from various industries, to discuss the state of exergaming in beautiful Portland, Maine. Results from this summit will be published in a white paper and presentations at the upcoming Games for Health conference in 2009.

While many of us knew each other by name or e-mail, it was nice to actually meet in person and get to really know each other (not the brief meeting we sometimes experience at conferences!).

It was neat to have representatives from various industries related to or interested in exergaming: healthcare, fitness, insurance, academia, business, foundations, and videogames. You can see the various participants and their companies below.

It wasn't all work and no play! We got to enjoy some of the tastes, sights, and sounds that Portland, Maine, has to offer. Sailing, lobster, and beautiful weather was enjoyed by all.

Thanks to Ben and Beth for organizing and putting this on, and for RWJF for helping to fund this so we could all attend. Stay tuned for results from this summit in the near future!

Exergaming gurus hard at work!


What a great bunch of exergaming gurus and evangelists! Though we're all into tech, it was nice to be able to interact in person and get to know each other better. That will just make our tech communication experience better!


Of course we took time to enjoy beautiful Portland, Maine.