Can you meet the needs of the next generation of attendees?

Last month, the number of Gen Z workers in the U.S. workforce exceeded that of baby boomers for the first time. Ken Holsinger, senior vice president of strategy and research at Freeman, said that while the gap is small — there are 300,000 more Gen Z workers than baby boomers in the 127 million full-time workforce — the trend is growing Accelerate quickly. convene. By 2030, three-quarters of attendees will be classified as Millennials and Generation Z, he said.

“The big story we’ve been focusing on is the conversation around the next generation,” he said, which is bringing not only demographic changes to the event landscape, but also dramatic changes in values ​​compared to previous generations. To answer questions about how event organizers are adapting, the global events company this week released the Freeman 2024 Organizer Trends Report, which compares the current preferences of event attendees and exhibitors with those of event organizers. Viewpoints are compared.

For the report, Freeman surveyed 453 event organizers on a range of topics, including how they rank challenges and priorities, as well as how they view audiences and specific elements of meetings. Freeman then compared event organizers’ responses with the company’s data to understand what event attendees and exhibitors wanted and valued most at the event, revealing differences between the two in multiple areas. Significant difference. The report said many organizers “have outdated definitions of attendee and exhibitor value.”

Part of the disconnect, Holsinger said, is that the industry has been planning events for baby boomers for the past 30 to 40 years. “We know we need to reach all the generations at the conference, but we need to recognize that as the baby boomers are rapidly retiring and the (smaller) Generation X (generation) are starting to retire, we need to think differently ” For example, Baby Boomers ranked “experiences over possessions” and “environmental/social responsibility” as low-priority values; Gen Z rates them very highly, the report said.

Ken Holsinger

Freeman found a pattern in their data that held true across different methods, he said. When analyzing the responses of event organizers, a subset emerged: a group of event organizers who think and operate differently than their peers. This group – which makes up just over a quarter (27%) of all respondents – “really runs the gamut from corporate event planners to healthcare, traditional trade shows, meetings and conferences – covering business events the full scope of it,” Holsinger said. “Overall, throughout the report, they think, act and respond to challenges differently”.

Here are some of the key practices by which the organization was named an “innovator” in the report:

Innovators events continue to evolve. When asked to what extent their organizations evolve from one event to another, 35% of event organizers said their events follow an established pattern or that their organization resists change. In contrast, innovators reported that they made changes with each campaign cycle in response to changing audience and market needs. “I think it’s very critical,” Holsinger said. Like other respondents, innovators are feeling the pressure, including pressure to deliver more value amid rising costs, but “somehow innovators are weathering the storm and say they are moving forward.”

Innovators feel more empowered to make change. Nearly half (47% of planners) said they were “not at all” or “only somewhat” empowered to make changes to grow their event, with 23% saying they felt “very” empowered to do so. 30% of respondents said they felt “extremely” capable of improving their activities, with the majority (58%) being innovators.

Innovators are more likely to change their form of education. There is a large disconnect between planners’ views on learning and participants’ expectations (see figure below). Attendees want collaborative learning experiences such as hands-on interactions, demonstrations, and informal meetings with subject matter experts, but 65% of organizers see traditional classroom courses as the best learning experience. The report said that despite the time and location of the lecture, “attendees told us that was not the case for the in-person event.”

Innovators focus more on the attendee experience than the number of attendees. Nearly half (46%) of event organizers list increasing attendee numbers/attendee revenue as their top goal, followed by improving attendee experience (42%). Innovators reverse the order, with 40% choosing to focus on attendee experience as their top goal, followed by increasing attendee numbers/attendee revenue (38%).

Innovators are more likely to view private activities as a threat. The report notes that more exhibitors are considering (43%) or already planning (19%) their own events, but only 21% of traditional planners consider private events to be risky, compared with 38% of innovators. %. “We think this is a noteworthy insight given how well (innovators) align with their event ecosystems,” the report states.

Who do innovators pay attention to? no in their activities. Innovators don’t just talk to the same people who attended the event, “they go out and ask: Who didn’t attend, and how do we reach them?” Holsinger said. Innovators are more than twice as likely as traditional event organizers to say they want to focus attention on people who have never attended their events, he said. “If we stick to the same post-campaign survey efforts and NPS methodologies, we’re just going to end up with the same audience.” Ultimately, he adds, “As we see Generation X and baby boomers leave the workforce, if traditional “Without planners changing their mindset to net new (players), we will quickly see many events over the next five years that will really struggle to stay relevant.”

Barbara Palmer Associate Editor held.