Wednesday,July 14th, 2010Over the past few months, there have been a number of great pieces written about Gen Y or what others call the Millenniums. This is the generational cohort that most experts place as born between the late 1970’s and 1995. There are a lot of them (80 million), so they are worth paying attention to now that they are entering the workplace in large numbers.
Kathy Macdonald
This group will leave its mark on future conferences as well as the workplace. They are 24/7, high-tech, and some feel, way too entitled. I happened to love them and am very excited by how they will challenge us in the years to come. My concern is that it is easy to get side-tracked in our planning by overly focusing on their needs … or at least guessing at them.
Most large meetings will need to appeal to fairly wide generational span for at least the next decade. Many organizations still have a number of very active Traditionalists (those over 65). Their needs may include reduced mobility, sight/hearing loss, and less familiarity with some forms of technology. Boomers (most are over 50 yet under 65) still dominate the numbers. They present planning challenges in many emerging forms from dietary needs, mixed feelings about change, and uncertainty about moving into their legacy years. Most organizations have unfortunately ignored the needs of Gen X (most are over 30 or into their 40’s) since there are so few of them. As this age group moves into leadership roles, their needs can no longer simply be ignored. It is time to wake up to Gen X … and of course, the newest cohort, the Millenniums.
I encourage my colleagues to make sure they plan events that will appeal to MORE than their own generation or their event will tend to attract only others who look and think a lot like them. Can it be done? Yes. It just takes a bit of effort, but it can be done. Learn more at this year’s e4 café session on “Attracting the EVERY Generation Audience.”
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Kathleen is the founder of The Macdonald Group and frequently works with CXO Marketing helping organizations redesign event-based experiences. Before founding The Macdonald Group in 1991, Kathleen was a principal with Baker & Company, a Dallas-based management consulting company. Prior to Baker & Company, Kathleen was an internal consultant with the Organizational Research and Development Staff of General Motors. Kathleen is a co-founder of the Michigan Leaders Read Series. She is one of a handful of consultants certified in the Experience Economy methodology. |
I am looking forward to learning more about attracting each of the generations. I see some of my clients who are struggling to get the Gen X group involved in their organizations from a membership and leadership standpoint. It won’t be long before the Baby Boomers will be gone. If we don’t learn how to connect with each of the generations, there will be many organizations that will struggle to survive, let alone all the problems that it will create.
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