The numbers don’t lie. The meetings industry— and civilization as we know it—is bracing for a demographic wave the likes of which we’ve never seen.
Hyperbole, perhaps, but the sheer number of Millennials entering the workforce is set to transform the way we do business and the nature in which we meet and convene.
For example, one in three employees, currently, is a Millennial, and by 2025 they will make up three-quarters of the workforce worldwide.
To put it mildly, as meeting planners, you better pay attention to their preferences and patterns, to better serve them as well as the bottom line of the organization you plan for.
To help illustrate how this demographic wave will wash over the industry, our December issue carries the theme “Minding Millennials.”
The logo on the left side of the the print version of this column (above the headshot of some Generation X slacker curiously attired in a suit and tie) is included on all the stories that have a Millennial angle, starting on the Wide Angle pages in the front of the magazine, winding through our feature stories and continuing in the Destination sections in the back.
We have defined “Millennials” as a term that is interchangeable with the tag Generation Y, referring to those with birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
For a quick infographic explaining the impact this generation will have, click here. The editorial team here poured through a variety of demographic statistics and winnowed it down to a handful that really demonstrate how “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” to borrow the lyrics from a certain famous Baby Boomer.
One stat that was left out, unfortunately, was that “100 percent of Millennials like infographics,” which our Content Developer, Departments/Features Kelsey Farabee so dryly pointed out.
So enjoy our first-ever themed issue. We hope you find it as interesting to read as it was for us to research and produce. And also take a gander at our 2015 Meetings Focus Trends Survey supplement, included inside your issue.
