SHOULD 50% OF MILLENNIALS BE IN KEY POSITIONS IN THE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY?
By 2020, millennials will make 50% of the workforce. They have completely different values and expectations. Millennials are a game-changing generation. The experience is more important to them than the brand. They have grown with amazon and Facebook and expect every experience to be as easy, fast and enjoyable. Has the exhibition industry to aim to have more of them in key positions?
SESSION ABOUT DIGITAL DISRUPTION AT UFI GLOBAL CONGRESS IN JOHANNESBURG
At the last UFI Global Congress in November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gunnar Heinrich (CEO adventics & Scan2Lead) held a session on “Digital Disruption” with his colleagues from the Digital Innovation Committee Stephan Forseilles (easyfairs) and Matthias Tesi Baur (MBB-Media). The panel raised different controversial and thought-provoking topics with the audience, prompting a lively debate over the pros and cons of each issue.
THE AUDIENCE VIEW ON THIS TOPIC
Many delegates agreed that 50% of millenials should be in key positions – Fresh ideas from millennials combined with expertise from the older generation could be a powerful tool in strategy creation. In addition, millennials would have a greater understanding of the digital world and therefore be a more accurate representation of the workforce.
Some even took this idea a step further and said that diversity in general is an important issue and should be promoted more strongly across areas such as gender, nationality and background.
Those delegates who disagreed said that people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s live a pretty digital lifestyle anyway and do not lag behind the millennials in this respect. The experience and life skills brought to the working world by the older generation should not be underestimated.
KEEP 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. Keep in touch and stay updated on digital innovations in the exhibition industry.
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Munich, 16 July 2018, © adventics GmbH
