Going to the Games For Change Festival is like a family-reunion – full of love and renewal but also exhausting! I haven’t missed one since the first in 2004.
So it was quite an honor to be invited to delivery one of this year’s keynotes. I had a great time charging the room with Sondheim energy. And I got to see old-friends and meet new ones as well (such as the first cousin, once removed of Stephen Sondheim).
You can watch the 20 minute presentation here:
Before algorithms optimized engagement, Stephen Sondheim, the Broadway legend, was designing experiences OFF the stage that earned attention through curiosity, friction, and joy. His work offers a counter-model for today’s attention economy—one grounded in agency, trust, and playful challenge. Long before “playful learning,” “gamification,” or “design thinking” entered our vocabulary, Sondheim was using puzzles, games, and constraints as a serious creative method. In this keynote, Barry Joseph draws on his book Matching Minds with Sondheim to reveal how play functioned as a powerful design practice that shaped collaboration, sharpened thinking, and created shared moments of discovery with his friends. Through stories, live examples, and participatory moments, this talk reframes play as a living system for experimentation, meaning-making, and human connection, offering insights for anyone designing experiences in education, technology, civic life, or beyond.
