Millennials will make up 50% of the labour force by 2020. They bring completely different values and expectations. Millennials are a generation that means fundamental change. The experience is more important to them than a brand. They have grown up with amazon and Facebook and expect everything to be so easy, fast and entertaining. Does the exhibition industry need to work towards putting more of them in key positions?

PRESENTATION ON DIGITAL DISRUPTION AT THE UFI GLOBAL CONGRESS IN JOHANNESBURG

At the UFI Global Congress in November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gunnar Heinrich (CEO adventics & Scan2Lead) gave a presentation on "Digital Disruption" together with his colleagues from the Digital Innovation Committee Stephan Forseilles (easyfairs) and Matthias Tesi Baur (MBB-Media). Various controversial and thought-provoking topics were presented to the audience, stimulating a lively debate on the pros and cons of each topic.

THE AUDIENCE VIEW ON THIS TOPIC

Many participants agreed that 50% millennials should be placed in key positions - the fresh ideas of millennials combined with the experience of the older generation could provide a powerful tool in strategy development. In addition, millennials would have a better understanding of the digital world and therefore better represent the workforce.

Some even took the idea a step further and said that diversity in general is an important topic and should also be supported more in terms of gender, nationality and social background.

The participants who disagreed stated that people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s already lead a fairly digital lifestyle and are therefore in no way inferior to millennials in this respect. The knowledge and life experience that older generations bring to the world of work should not be underestimated.

STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE UFI DIGITAL INNOVATION COMMITTEE

This article is based on Matthias (Tesi) Baur's post "Should 50% of millennials be in key positions in the exhibition industry?" in the UFI Digital Innovation group on LinkedIn. Stay in touch and up to date with digital innovations in the exhibition industry.

Join our LinkedIn group ("UFI Digital Innovation Group" or http://www.ufidigital.com) or follow us on Twitter (@UFIDigital). Join your fellow experts in the event industry, become part of the community and shape the future of events together.

Join us at the next Digital Innovation Group Focus Meeting: Once a year, we invite CIOs, marketing managers, IT specialists and anyone interested in the digital transformation of our event industry to a Focus Meeting. In addition to interesting talks and presentations, the three finalists for the UFI Digital Innovation Award also present their solutions at the Focus Meeting. Take part and vote for the winner.

Munich, 16. July 2018, © adventics GmbH