Uniper
Power Trader was delivered as an online game for 30 people from Operational Excellence Team
The Heuristic Games team have designed and run training games for over 20 years, engaging business, government and academic audiences in unique learning experiences.
Our Games
Transport Planner
25 Years of Transport Planning in One Day
Power Trader
How will your company keep the lights on?
Impact!
Engage key stakeholders in your research
Our Clients
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Power Trader
Power Trader is the unique one-day workshop that puts you in charge of your own energy company…
The Game
- Can you source enough energy to keep your customers’ lights on?
- What will you do to maximise shareholder profit whilst reducing carbon emissions?
- How will you cope with the pressure of changing weather patterns and customer demand?
Who is the game for?
Energy Traders
Utilities
Energy policy makers
Research consortia
Energy Technology Developers
Regulators
Energy consultants
Masters and undergraduate students
Community groups
What are the outcomes?
LEARNING THROUGH DOING: Direct immersion in the complexities of the electricity system, delivering hands-on experience unlike any other training
UNDERSTANDING OF MULTIPLE ENERGY SYSTEM PERSPECTIVES: Explore challenges faced by policy makers, power producers and strategists in designing the future energy system
STRENGTHENED TEAM WORKING: Development of communication, negotiation, decision making and conflict resolution skills
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: This bespoke game has been crafted by our experts to create an unforgettable day of learning and fun!
TRANSPORT PLANNER
Transport Planner is a unique one-day workshop that puts you in the shoes of a transport director...
The Game
- Can you get all of your city’s residents to work in rush hour?
- What solutions will you use to keep commuters happy and maximise your planning success?
- How will you optimise your network and adapt to challenges like air quality and climate change?
Who is the game for?
Transport planners: early/mid/late career
Transport policymakers
Transport research groups
Masters and undergraduate students
Transport technology developers
Transport consultants
Community groups
Anyone with an interest in transport
What are the outcomes?
LEARNING THROUGH DOING: Direct immersion in the complexities of the transport system delivers a hands-on experience unlike any other training
UNDERSTANDING MULTIPLE SCENARIOS: Each team will develop a geographically and historically different city, each taking different decisions and sharing their outcomes, learning from one another
STRENGTHENED TEAM WORKING: Development of communication, negotiation, decision making and conflict resolution skills
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: This bespoke game has been crafted by our experts to create an unforgettable day of learning and fun!
Impact!
Impact! is the unique one-day workshop that empowers you to get your research to those that most need it…
The Game
- Which stakeholders most need your work?
- What will you do to engage them and build relationships?
- How will you prioritise and juggle different demands on your time as your research develops?
Who is the game for?
Early career researchers
PhD students
Research consortia
Associations
Energy technology developers
Energy research consultants
What are the outcomes?
LEARNING THROUGH DOING: Hands on experience of developing an impact-based approach, building understanding of how to turn research outputs into tangible outcomes
KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO ENGAGE MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS: Understand the needs of different actors and how to deliver benefits
STRENGTHENED TEAM WORKING: Development of communication, presentation, decision making and strategic thinking skills
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE: This bespoke game has been crafted by our experts to create an unforgettable day of learning and fun!
Why business Games?
Heuristics have been using business games for many different purposes over the last 20 years.
Our Game are Ideal For
- Training new staff. New and experienced staff can play a business game together, tailored to your market and your organisations interactions to learn how the organisation ticks in a hands-on memorable way.
- Creating a safe environment for learning about new situations. Your organisation may be faced with fresh challenges as its environment changes. A business game is a safe place to make mistakes before they have to be faced for real.
- Providing proving ground for strategy. A game is an ideal tool for strategists and decision-makers to test new strategies or put themselves in their competitors’ shoes, learning to think how they think and understanding their options.
- Developing softer skills. These events are ideal for developing negotiating skills, decision making and conflict resolution. They can be coupled with input from a professional behaviour analyst to help participants learn from their experience.
- Team building event with a purpose. This is an event that can be used for team building, but unlike raft building or paint balling, it will be highly educational for staff as they learn about the market they operate in.
Past Applications of Heuristic Games Include...
- A game for a government department to test changes to regulation before implementation
- A series of games to allow generation, retail and trading staff at a utility appreciate each other’s roles
- A launch event for 150 staff at an energy trading organisation
- An event for an equipment manufacturer to gain understanding by playing in the market of its clients
- A 3-day event for board members and senior management prior to the liberalisation of an energy market
- An event for university research staff to understand the electricity market
- Games within schools to help students appreciate the way electricity is produced and distributed
- A simulation of an auction for certain contracts to understand how competitors might behave
Recent Games
University of Nottingham
Power Trader Online
Edinburgh University
Power Trader was run for students at Edinburgh University.
Birmingham University
Power Trader was run for students at Birmingham University.
University of Nottingham
Transport Planner was run as a one day workshop for the University of Nottingham Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems.
Birmingham University
Transport Planner was used as a one day event for the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education at Birmingham University.
Birmingham University
Power Trader was run as a one day workshop for MSc students at Birmingham University.
Leicester University
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British Geological Survey
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Loughborough University
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Meet the team
Andy Boston
GAME FACILITATOR
Andy Boston provides energy consulting services through Red Vector Ltd. Andy has more than 30 years experience in the energy industry starting with the nationalised CEGB, through privatisation firstly with PowerGen and thence E.ON, and finally with the Energy Research Partnership.
Over the past 20 years Andy has designed and run games for events of up to 150 people attended by students, lecturers, new staff, middle managers, strategists, traders, senior staff and board members. As well as organising business games his skills include modelling energy markets, developing decarbonisation scenarios and understanding issues around the integration of renewables on to the grid.
Mike Colechin
GAME FACILITATOR
Dr Mike Colechin is director of Cultivate Innovation Ltd …working with the organisations and individuals who are delivering innovative, low carbon energy solutions.
Prior to setting up Cultivate, Mike was the Energy Technologies Institute’s Partnership Manager, supporting organisations delivering low carbon energy innovation, informing government policy, and building investor and industry confidence in these new approaches.
Mike is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the transport and energy sectors, with time spent both as a Combustion Engineer and as a member of E.ON’s R&D Management Team.
Clare Sheffield
GAME FACILITATOR
Clare Sheffield provides advice to policy-makers and the transport industry on evidence-based, analytically driven transport strategy & planning. A social sciences graduate with 20 years experience, she has pioneered creative research and modelling techniques in the transport industry, specialising in road pricing, cycling and behaviour change, and air quality. Clare has delivered seminars at universities across the UK and bespoke training sessions to analysts and planners.