Younger people might enjoy outdoor activities and competitive sports for teambuilding. Pictured: The Bradley Company held a sales event that included a hiking excursion at Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada. Courtesy of Erin Elflein

Planning multigenerational meetings and events requires a thoughtful approach to accommodate the diverse preferences, needs and expectations of attendees from different age groups. There is a variety of strategies that all start with understanding the demographics and requirements of attendees, and planners can use surveys, polls and focus groups, among other tools, to inform the planning process.

“I think the key is to know your audience, know your options and think out of the box,” says Tanya Hillier Zuckerman, associate director, meeting management, Bayer US. “Don’t get comfortable with the status quo — everything is changing right now, and you have to stay current.”

“At Bayer, we have the benefit of knowing the crowd, so to speak,” she adds. “I think non-regulated industries have a bigger challenge, especially if they have to draw people to their conference or their competition.”

The meetings and events that Hillier Zuckerman plans for Bayer draw a mix of generations, she says. And that diversity in age groups adds to Bayer’s commitment to DEI when planning events. “We gather all attendees’ needs and requests in registration so that we can evaluate what is important and have them feel included and comfortable while attending,” she says. “Overall, our national meetings include the thought process of what will be a good experience for everyone.”

The first step, according to Hillier Zuckerman, is to review post-event surveys before beginning to plan for the next year. Then, you start researching to see what other companies are doing differently and what other innovations might benefit their meetings. “Then, we present ideas,” she says. “We have to be resourceful with our budgets, but also creative to make new experiences.”

One idea in designing an event or meeting that appeals to multigenerational attendees is to offer flexible scheduling so they can choose sessions and activities that best fit their interests and availability. By offering concurrent sessions and repeating the popular ones, you’ll allow attendees to explore beyond their own demographic.

The basics are also a good place to start. For example, to ensure that the event will be inclusive and accessible to everyone, provide clear signage and design accessible venues to accommodate older attendees and those with disabilities. It’s also important to consider the dietary needs and preferences of different age groups when planning meals and refreshments.

Hillier Zuckerman says that Bayer meetings are structured to include longer breaks, a variety of food options, different types of setups, later start times, shorter sessions and more movement. “There are a few general rules we like to follow that align with most attendees’ needs,” she adds. “For instance, we do not like to begin meetings prior to 9 a.m. Breakout sessions are not typically longer than 45 minutes. If they have to exceed that, we tend to break the meeting in half. We try to design the program around free time and ways for people to relax and engage.”

In addition, it is essential to offer an assortment of content that appeals to different generations, including a mix of presentation styles. It’s also vital to ensure that topics address the interests and concerns of each age group, alongside a variety of session formats to keep all attendees engaged. Options include interactive workshops, hands-on demonstrations and experiential activities, which can appeal to younger attendees, while traditional keynote speeches, panel discussions and lectures may resonate more with older participants.

“One of the strategies we try to incorporate is conference feedback after the [event] is concluded,” says Diane Quaresma, customer relationship manager for Bitfocus. “This way we can hope to gather information and make any changes and/or additions needed to make sure everyone is getting what they need out of our learning session.”

For example, she says they received a lot of feedback asking for beginner and advanced tracks. “We made this change to accommodate for newer customers learning our system, and more advanced material for long-time customers where we could dig deeper into data gathering, reporting and information sharing.”

Multigenerational Challenges

As a 20-year veteran of the global meeting and event industry, Carrie Davenport, CMP-Fellow, CEM, CSEP, and Lead Event Manager for Altria, agrees that the key to creating a successful multigenerational event is to truly care about everyone and listen to their individual needs. “You can do this through assessments, surveys, roundtable discussions or advisory groups,” she says. “But listen when people talk, and realize that events are not necessarily the ‘one size fits all’ of the past.”

Davenport says that, among the C-Suite, she is seeing a mixture of Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials converging. “It is an interesting time seeing ages 40+ in the highest positions and new ideas coming to life. It feels like a bit of a renaissance.”

Her job, she says, is to schedule offerings that can appeal to everyone. “For instance, I held an event dinner a few weeks back and had live music, but also table games of all types from differing time periods that would appeal to everyone. You could play poker, Uno or Catch Phrase, or not engage at all and just enjoy the music. I find that my offerings have to be more diverse to appeal to different styles of engagement,” Davenport says.

Sessions can also be designed to encourage intergenerational collaboration and learning. One goal is offering sessions that help facilitate knowledge sharing and mentorship between different age groups, which can help bridge generational gaps and foster a sense of community.

According to Davenport, it is very challenging to cater to all age groups, as learning styles, retention and desired outcomes are all very different. “For example, I still feel like Baby Boomers are wanting face-to-face connection and traditional learning styles like keynotes, while Gen Z wants technology and to ‘choose their own adventure,’” she says. “I don’t want to silo people into certain generations, because personality types exist throughout each generation, but I believe priorities are slightly different for each grouping.”

Networking that appeals to different generations is also a factor in planning multigenerational meetings. A variety can include structured events, such as speed networking or roundtable discussions, as well as informal gatherings, like social receptions.

Incorporating wellness activities into the event agenda, such as yoga sessions, meditation breaks or wellness workshops, can appeal to health-conscious attendees across generations, while focusing on sustainability appeals to a cross-sector of generations, particularly Millennials and Gen Z.

Quaresma says Bitfocus is adding a comfort room this year, which will “allow attendees to have a space to recharge, grab a snack, meet with others, return emails or sit and relax for a few minutes,” adding, “We believe this will be appreciated across all generations.”

Other aspects, such as F&B preferences, can be designed to appeal to different generations. “Action stations are our go-to for younger generations, whereas traditional generations tend to prefer a set menu, whether plated or a buffet,” Quaresma says.  Offering a blend of options can help attract different age groups. As for drinks, she notes that mixology and craft cocktails (or mocktails) are all the rage with the younger generations, whereas the older generations tend to enjoy beer and wine.

Planning offsite activities for different age groups can also be a challenge, according to Erin Elflein, a senior corporate event planner who has spent the last 23 years working for the Bradley Company — which is more than 100 years old.

Offering a variety of options is key to working with different generations, she says. In locations where Bradley has held meetings in the past, such as Mexico, younger, more active attendees might have preferred activities such as hiking and then swimming in a natural pool. At the same time, older generations might go for a more low-intensity option, such as taking a guided history walk, shopping or sailing on a catamaran.

Elflein says they have even done events with e-biking and then a bit of hiking. “We’ve done fishing in the ocean, lake fishing or river fishing,” she adds. “I’ve done an Olympic-type relay where they can participate in different levels.” Popular cross-generational options at Bradley events have also included activities such as WhirlyBall, which combines basketball, lacrosse, and hockey and bumper cars.

Cross-Generational Technology

It’s important to incorporate technology in a way that enhances the experience for all attendees with event apps, live streaming and social media to engage more tech-savvy participants, while also providing traditional methods of communication such as email.

Quaresma has adapted the conference app Whova to give attendees an optimal event experience. The app enables attendees to receive announcements, connect with other participants and view maps of the conference property. She says Whova can also be adopted by multiple age groups with features like game playing and surveys.

“I feel there are always challenges when it comes to planning meetings, as everyone learns at a different pace and has different preferences and styles of learning regardless of generations,” Quaresma says. “We try to make sure we have slides and recordings of sessions available [afterward]. We try to incorporate gamification, polls and slides for sessions that accommodate color blindness, and use larger screens and print if possible, so if anyone has limitations, we hope we can make sure our sessions are inclusive for everyone.”

Davenport advises planners to not let their bias count people out when it comes to incorporating technology. “I had a planning group in the past that said: ‘The people of that generation don’t want to use [a specific] technology.’ Yet, when I pushed forward anyway, it turned out they were big adopters of the mobile app and gamification. Underestimation is the antithesis of success,” she says.

The best approach is to implement feedback mechanisms to gather input from attendees before, during and after the event. Use this feedback to continuously improve and adapt your event to better meet the needs of a diverse audience.

“The key to creating a successful multigenerational event is to listen to and incorporate past conference feedback, take into consideration everyone’s learning needs and styles, as well as use technology to make the event as learning-friendly as possible,” says Quaresma. “We continue to learn our attendees needs and preferences and try to integrate them into the conference to make every year even better than the previous year.”  C&IT