The generations celebrate together during Hope for Henry Foundation’s 20th anniversary gala, A Night to Remember. Courtesy of Stratus Firm

As the presence of Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers continues to overlap at meetings and events of all types, meeting and event planners are scratching their heads to determine the best way to include the four groups, while appealing to their unique differences.

Generational Divide: Baby Boomers to Today

To keep a diverse set of generations engaged throughout events, planners must balance content and networking opportunities. At the same time, it’s important to understand each generation’s specific needs and experiences, finding creative ways to bridge gaps.

“For meetings in particular, I believe they are successful when teams learn something new and leave feeling invigorated,” Tina Husemoller, vice president of meetings and incentives at Fox World Travel, says. “Generationally, people don’t learn differently, but rather all people learn differently, i.e., visually, participatory, audio, etc., so it’s important to present content in diverse ways to appeal to all learning styles. That being said, generational diversity is very important when choosing session speakers and panelists to represent different perspectives within the organization.”

Husemoller explains it is important to present the content in diverse ways. This goes back to her serving as not just a planner but as a consultant — understanding who is attending, the event goals  and creative solutions for engagement.

“When orchestrating events with multigenerational audiences, companies should fill the planning committee with a diverse group of employees and welcome open and honest conversations regarding the wants and needs of the team members,” Husemoller says. “Not only do we consider generational differences, but also consider diversity, equity and inclusion, dietary needs, and physical limitations, to make your gathering unique for your team.”

Recently, Husemoller had a client that returned from an incentive trip to the Caribbean, and in their post-con meeting, they discussed how the winners were significantly younger with more in their mid-20s and early 30s.

“On this trip, both the experienced veterans and young guests of the organization agreed that they had simply wanted the chance to bond – be it during activities, meals, outings or just leisurely hanging out,” Husemuller says. “When planning trips for generationally diverse teams, you don’t have to overthink it.”

Roger Whyte, founder and principal of Washington D.C.-based company, Stratus Firm, has been producing events throughout the country for over a decade. He has experience planning meetings and events for attendees of all ages.

Multigenerational audiences present unique challenges for event planners.

“One of the biggest challenges in producing an event for multiple generations is understanding the needs and wants of each generation,” Whyte says.

If not properly addressed, a stark generational divide at an event can make audiences feel excluded. For example, many large meetings and events use apps to provide information or entertain guests.

However, as Whyte explains, older generations may struggle using these technologies, resulting in feelings of frustration.

Gap Strategies: Virtual Introductions

Dan Manian, CEO of Donut, helped create a Slack app that fosters collaboration anywhere. Team members join a channel and the Donut app does the rest, breaking the ice by automatically introducing teammates who might not know each other.

Gen Zers (born 1995-2012), for instance, joined the workforce at the peak of the pandemic lockdown. By starting their careers remotely, they missed out on the heyday of water-cooler and coffee chats.

“Now, they look toward meetings and events to help forge organic connections with their colleagues,” Manian says.

Older Millennials (born 1980-1994) and Gen Xers (born 1965-1979) may be used to a more traditional in-person dynamic, with presentations and collaborative group work. Even so, as Manian points out, the time spent working remotely has made the workforce accustomed to 30-minute Zoom meetings as their primary means of meeting and workplace interaction.

With these experiences in mind, Manian says planners must find ways to effectively deliver content, while creating space for employees to organically connect. To do this, it can be helpful to group each activity into one of three buckets:

• Larger, objective-based meetings: These include all-company strategy meetings, fireside chats or keynotes.
• Coworking in person: Small team sessions, working side-by-side on projects like launches and brainstorms.
• Non-work time to connect: Social events, group activities and intentional downtime that allow coworkers to share experiences.

“Full-team, in-person meetings can be energy-sucking – and it can be difficult for people to keep engaged without a clear rallying point,” Manian says. “Instead, full-team sessions should be dynamic and interactive, designed to help strengthen connections.” Examples include discussing new diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, brainstorming solutions that affect everyone, or working together on yearly goals. You never want your employees to ask: Why am I here?

Breaking the attendees into smaller groups based on project or department allows even more time to foster connections between coworkers who frequently work together, but might not know each other well.

“This is a great way to help Gen Z make the connections they crave, and a connected team is excited to work together toward your organization’s common goals,” Manian says.

Above all, Manian says the best way to make sure an event resonates with attendees of all generations is to involve them in the planning process. Asking for ideas and input will naturally help employees stay energized during offsites.

At Donut, they created a retreat planning committee for the company’s 2022 offsite and opened participation to all team members. “This helped distribute the lift and allowed us to source input from team members who might not have had a voice in the process otherwise,” Manian says. Donut also frequently hosts offsites for its own team. Donut’s Intros tools are used to randomly group attendees – whether that be a designated time for one-on-one coffee chats, forming mid-meeting breakout groups or matching up mentors.

“These pairings encourage attendees to break out of their comfort zone and chat with coworkers beyond their usual department or age range,” says Manian.

Each year, Emburse, a company that serves more than 18,000 brands globally, puts on regional events designed specifically for customers so they can learn new skills, gain insights and network with peers.

“Our customer base is very diverse and spans all generations, so this stays top of mind as we plan out the content and activities for each event,” Christina Gruen, meeting planner and Emburse senior director of brand marketing, says. She recommends three ways event planners can “conquer the generational divide.”

• Make sure there’s something for everyone, no matter where they are in their career. Young professionals will want to focus on picking up new skills and building their network, while industry vets will be more interested in fine-tuning their craft.
• Have a diverse lineup of speakers who will resonate with a diverse audience. For example, Emburse looks for diversity in the speaker, content and audience that each session is intended to reach.
• Offer networking opportunities that are designed to bring people together. At Emburse, they have attendees who travel across the U.S. and Europe to attend events, so the company’s goal is to encourage attendees to have fun, meet new faces and maybe even trade an industry secret or two.

Digital Thinking: Hashtags, Photo Ops, Games

“To capture the younger generation and those who are active in the digital world, you’ll, of course, want to set up a hashtag, fun photo opportunities, as well as audience participation games,” Gruen says. “A few days before the event, we’ll start promoting the hashtag on social media. We’ll continue this during and after the event alongside engaging photos. We like to also set up an interactive or eye-catching photo opportunity for attendees, so they can take pictures and post them online using the hashtag and tagging us.”

In addition, Whyte says it’s vital that meeting planners should consider each generation’s perspective.

“Also consider multiple alternatives,” he says. “Consider offering both physical and electronic copies of maps for attendees at a meeting or event. Small things like this can help everyone feel as though they are being catered to. However, your overall goal should be to bring together people of different generations and help them connect with one another.”

Gap Bridges: Pop Playlists, Wow Speakers, VIPs

Stratus Firm officials often looks for ways to appeal to both younger and older generations. For example, they have produced fundraising events that allow for donors to give either by raising a paddle or submitting donations electronically.

“This allows attendees to donate through channels they feel comfortable with and often leads to nonprofit organizations raising more funds,” Whyte says.

A common mistake Whyte sees meeting planners  make is to focus on one generation. For instance, they may try to appeal too heavily to older audiences and miss out on innovative opportunities. Another mistake is to treat generations as though they oppose or contrast one another.

“Rather than focusing on what makes generations different, event planners should focus on bringing out the similarities amongst them,” Whyte says. “This could be through playlists that feature popular music, speakers that appeal to everyone or appearances from VIPs that excite all generations.”

Meetings and events have evolved over the years, thanks in part to the pandemic and people working from home. As Husemoller points out, we currently find that, regardless of generation, people crave time with others in their industry and their company. Fox Meetings & Incentives attendees are increasingly making the conscious choice to spend more time together as a team, blend generations and provide opportunities.

“Incentive trips and meetings offer an ideal platform,” Husemoller says. “I believe the overall landscape of meetings and incentives will continue to evolve. Customers have missed in-person meetings and incentive trips. There continues to be a high demand for these, and knowing that, the attendees themselves may be different, but the goal remains the same, delivering the most meaningful event.”

In the future, Whyte believes older generations will embrace technology more as it becomes a common part of daily life. This will likely bridge a gap between the generations and bring together audiences.

“Event audiences will also continue to expect more from the events they attend,” Whyte says. “Meeting planners will need to think of unique ways to engage audiences of all generations in order to keep attendees coming back.” C&IT