SHOULD 50% OF KEY POSITIONS IN THE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY BE FILLED BY MILLENNIALS?

Millennials will make up 50% of the workforce by 2020. They bring with them very different values and expectations. Millennials are a generation that means fundamental change. They care more about the experience than a brand. They grew up with amazon and Facebook and expect everything to be so easy, fast and fun. Does the trade fair industry need to work towards putting more of them in key positions?

At the UFI Global Congress in November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gunnar Heinrich (CEO adventics & Scan2Lead) gave a presentation on “Digital Disruption” together with his colleagues from the Digital Innovation Committee Stephan Forseilles (easyfairs) and Matthias Tesi Baur (MBB-Media). Various controversial and thought-provoking topics were presented to the audience, stimulating a lively debate on the pros and cons of each topic.

Many participants agreed that 50% millennials should be placed in key positions – the fresh ideas of millenials combined with the experience of the older generation could be powerful tools in strategy development. Moreover, millennials would have a better understanding of the digital world and thus better represent the workforce.

Some even took the idea a step further and said that diversity in general is an important issue and should also be supported more in terms of gender, nationality and social background.

The participants who disagreed stated that people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s already lead quite digital lifestyles and therefore are not inferior to Millennials in this hindsight. The knowledge and life experience that older generations bring to the world of work should not be underestimated.

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. Stay in touch and up to date with digital innovations in the exhibition industry.

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