Inspiration Hub

We’re now making workforce history as Millennials have become the dominant demographic in the US, outnumbering Baby Boomers 80 million to 76 million. There is a resulting generational shift in the workforce currently underway, and gathering steam. However, as Baby Boomers delay retirement in increasing numbers, friction is occurring as growing numbers of Millennials enter the workforce and find themselves at odds with their Boomer managers and Gen X counterparts. In some cases, they’re competing for the same positions, bringing a different point of view and different work ethic with them.

Just like any other generation of employees, millennials want to feel intellectually stimulated, inspired, and motivated at work. But with millennials,”it just takes a little bit more,” said Dr. Jesse Calloway, president of Leadership and Motivation Consultants and author of All the Way to the Top: A Practical Guide for Corporate and Business Leadership. 

Generation C (Gen C) is a generation identified by GoogleThink who are creating, connecting, curating their own content, and building community. This is not represented by an age, but by an attitude and mindset; not separated by location, but global. It is the “generation” attending our events who are sharing – with each other in the live environment and with their much wider digital, social audiences. They are spreading what they hear, see, learn and connect to much further and wider than we can on our own. We NEED this generation to help us create FOMO (fear of missing out) which is one of our best available marketing tools year over year, event after event.

Millennials have a bad rap. Portrayed as self-obsessed, technology addicted, and careless, the entire generation has been stereotyped by movies, media, and even festival organizers. But in reality, they’re politically engaged and care about giving back through personal interactions.

It’s amazing to reflect that we started our sustainability journey over 10 years ago. Since then, the world has changed significantly, and aside from an increasingly isolated American President, the world’s governments’ and businesses are united in the need to tackle climate change, environmental degradation and social challenges head on. But what has changed for MCI and what lessons have we learnt in the past decade?

By 2020 millennials will comprise of 50% of the global workforce - that’s a hefty chunk of the population, and certainly the future of the meetings and events industry, so we need to take this demographic seriously. That being said, in many ways I would use the term Millennials to describe a much bigger demographic then one that is purely defined by age.  What I am seeing in our industry is a demographic that is comprised of a new way of thinking, and that demographic isn't always of the age group that is a millennial.  In today’s world, we need to look at who portrays those characteristics, and not just define this by age. 

In this new video, we’re talking about how millennials can help change the event industry moving forward.

Millennials is a strange word people use – often with some derision – to refer to a younger generation of workers. Many falsely believe they’re different from other generations, and that something might be wrong with them. What’s probably driving much of this sense of enigma is that Millennials are less engaged at work than older generations. Much ink has been spilled on the topic of engaging Millennials more.

During the workshop we delivered in Paris earlier this month on millennials as colleagues and members, we realised for some people it is not yet about ‘how best to deal with younger colleagues in the workplace’ but more about ‘why should we care’. We had skipped a step in our thinking. Because we know so many millennial colleagues - so many talented, value-adding, clever millennial colleagues - we had forgotten that some of our participants might not know ‘who the true millennial’ is and why they even matter.

Understanding attendee profiles and how they behave is vital to any organisation. Attracting millennials or different age groups to any type of event plays a key role in its success, but also comes with several challenges. Ways of engaging with millennials for example, are quite different from the ways of getting Generation X or Baby-boomers involved. 

You can't believe everything you hear, especially these four generational myths:

How do you engage four generations of members, particularly when you’re a small-staff association with limited time and resources? We’ve got some tips:

Marketing your events to Millennials can help you unlock over £419,556,233 monthly spending power. We researched what you need to do to reach and engage them.

You may have seen glimpses of it...throw in some baby boomers and millennials in an enclosed space and you're looking at a combustible mix of personal and professional differences and (mis)perceptions.