The conference destinations and venues of the near future will not be selected by people my age. They will be chosen by meetings planners who are members of Generation Y, people currently in their 20s and early 30s. Their preferences and tastes in destinations and venues will determine where conferences are held in the future; and therefore those who are responsible for promoting their cities and venues will have to achieve an accurate understanding of what Generation Y wants in this market.
To assist them in this task, it is possible to speculate about the future from what we already know about the desires of the youngest generation of meetings planners and delegates, in terms of where conferences are held. My own research in this area shows that, regarding venues first of all, Generation Y has a number of specific expectations:
- Natural light and outdoor areas are attractive to them. Unlike their parents’ generation, they are very unwilling to spend much time in window-less rooms with no indication of whether it is day or night, sunny or raining outside. They are right in this respect – all of the scientific evidence demonstrates that people are more focused and alert when there is natural light in the room. Regarding outdoor areas, these are also popular with Generation Y, as an alternative to working in groups in syndicate rooms, for example. So venues with usable gardens, terraces and balconies should make sure that these are prominent in their marketing material.
- Generation Y cares about the natural environment more than any preceding generation, so planners and delegates will like to see evidence of ‘green’ measures in the venues they use. Energy conservation and recycling, for example, will be regarded as positive aspects of any venue, so these actions, where they exist, ought to feature in venues’ marketing material.
- This is a generation with a high expectation of excitement and stimulation in every aspect of their lives. This means that nondescript, featureless venues of the bland ‘concrete box’ type will struggle to attract business from Generation Y meetings planners in the future. Their preference will be for ‘iconic’ or ‘funky’ buildings – venues with special architectural significance; buildings that lift the spirits of those who enter them; venues that somehow amuse and delight the delegates, by their design, furnishings or outlook, for example.
- ‘Chill-out zones’ are another feature of venues that is high on the wish-list of Generation Y planners and delegates. Younger delegates tell us that they want special places to go to when they opt out of a particular conference session – usually either because the topic doesn’t interest them or because the speaker fails to communicate in an engaging way. A typical ‘chill-out zone’ might include low, comfortable chairs, natural light (of course), a coffee / fruit smoothie machine and (free!) wifi.
In terms of future destinations for conferences, this is very difficult to predict. Who would have guessed even 10 years ago that Belgrade, for example, would become a thriving destination for business events? One thing that is for certain, however, is that the future generation of conference delegates and planners will be more adventurous than previous generations. These are people who are much more widely travelled than their parents were by the time they reached their 20s. For Europeans, for example, many of the continent’s capital cities are already familiar to Generation Y. For that reason, I think that they will be more willing to visit ‘second-tier’ cities for their conferences – towns and cities that are not the capitals of the countries in which they are located, but which offer attractive features – including, most likely, a lively night life! On that subject, I just read that the island of Ibiza has just created its own convention bureau …
Rob Davidson
