October 2005
Trade Shows 2010: Attracting tomorrow's attendees today
America is on the cusp of a generational shift not seen since the Boomers. Gen Y — which represents 78 million people and is four times the size of Gen X — has already entered the professional workforce, and they’re starting to attend and exhibit at shows. Do you have a plan to reach this influential group?
By Heather Kirkwood



Take a look at the next teenager or college student you see — your son or daughter, neighbor or cousin — equipped with their iPod, surfing the Internet and texting friends on their mobile phone as if this were the way people had communicated since the beginning of time.

What you see before you is the next generation of show attendee. How will they impact shows? Which characteristics, behaviors, and experiences will they leave behind with their adolescence, and which ones are such a part of their personal fabric that they’ll be carried into adulthood and influence the way business gets done? 

America is on the cusp of a generational shift not seen since the Boomers. Born between 1979 and 1994, Gen Y is as young as 11 and as old as 26.

Many national brands and shows survived missing the mark with Gen X. Trendy as they might be, Gen X only includes about 17 million. Those brands with strong Boomer ties could make it without adapting to the needs of Gen X. But the coming generational wave numbers 78 million — four times the size of Gen X and rivaling the 72 million Boomers in their potential impact. 

By 2010, most brands and shows will be at least impacted by this demographic, and in a decade most won’t be able to thrive without them.

Already, the tip of this wave is settling into their first professional jobs. They’re learning your industry.  They’re deciding whether to join an industry association. They’re asking their bosses for professional education and career development opportunities. Right now, they’re a blank slate with relatively few loyalties. Do they know your show? Do they understand its value proposition? Does your organization have a plan to reach this influential group?

If you’re like most show organizers, the answer is no. “Most marketers don’t get this generation,” says Paul Lewis, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for MindComet, a customer relationship marketing company. Lewis, author of the soon-to-be released book Y: Outside the Polls and Inside the Minds of Millennials, has worked with companies ranging from AT&T to Walt Disney Co. to help them understand how to form relationships with customers. “The average marketer has no idea how this generation thinks about themselves.” 
 
Who is Gen Y?
Technologically savvy and used to an on-demand world, Gen Y can be fickle, demanding and self interested. But, growing up amid the threat of terrorism and corporate downsizing, they can also be driven by duty, independence and stability.

Gen Y spent early childhood when Reagan was president and IBM had introduced the first desktop computer. They grew up amid the birth and growth of the World Wide Web, Pentium processors, online chat rooms, the end of the Cold War and the birth of the War on Terrorism. They might not even remember the fall of the big three networks and are more accustomed to cable and satellite TV and its myriad choices.

To them, life is about choices — and technology has provided an ever-increasing variety of them along with a vast array of options to connect with those who share the same preferences.

Gen Y is used to and expects cultural diversity. One in three isn’t Caucasian, and one in four is living, or grew up in, a single-parent household. Three out of four have working moms, according to OnPoint Marketing, a market research firm that studies Gen Y.

Gen Y also places less importance on the material trappings of success, but that doesn’t mean they’re not career-minded. In fact, research thus far shows this group to be extremely dedicated to achievement and success, a trait that could prove useful to show organizers in the future when shaping show offerings and marketing messages.

A recent study by Yankelovich Partners, a company that specializes in generational marketing, found that 75 percent of Gen Y say they know what they want out of life and have a five-year plan to achieve their goals. “This generation is very pragmatic,” says Ann Clurman, Senior Partner with Yankelovich Partners. “They want answers to the questions that will help them get ahead, and they won’t waste time with media they don’t find helpful.” 

How will Gen Y impact shows?
Gen Y is likely to have an evolutionary effect on shows, rather than a revolutionary one. Industry watchers, as well as outside marketers and demographers, predict that the greatest impact this younger generation will have on events is content organization and timing, as well as event marketing.

The good news: None of the experts interviewed expect the next generation to find attending shows arcane or irrelevant. The trick won’t be getting this generation to attend a show — it will be getting them to attend YOUR show.

The younger generation is just as likely to join associations as their parents, according a recent study by the Smith Bucklin supported William E. Smith Institute for Association Research. The institute studied Gen X and discovered that they joined for different reasons and had different expectations. To attract their attention and meet their needs, associations will have to learn more about their unique needs.

“The same is likely going to be true of Gen Y, even if no one really understands yet what those expectations and needs will be,” says Cindy Kuhn, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Smith Bucklin Corp. “Even though this group will be small in the next few years, we can start testing now because we know this demographic will only keep growing as a percentage of overall attendees.”

What are their unique needs? It will likely have something to do with furthering their five-year plans, fueling their entrepreneurial ambition and helping them develop their careers. This may require some planners to make a leap of logic — both in marketing and in planning — to constantly answer the question: How will this help further my attendees’ careers?

Shows will also need to create more relevancy for the next generation, and one way to do it is to help them “join the industry community.” Sure, research shows they’re joiners, but not in the same way as their parents.

“They’re technology joiners,” says Francis Friedman, President of New York-based Time & Place Strategies Inc., referring to the plethora of online professional interest groups. “But many don’t have the skill to work a room and network the way we did.”

Friedman points to the growing number of companies offering socializing and etiquette classes to promising young executives. “They don’t know how to do small talk,” he says. “They can often be afraid to make the first move.” Friedman suggests shows could enhance the networking experience for younger attendees by offering them ongoing mentor opportunities.  
 
Creating user-friendly shows
Gen Y is the first all-digital generation. As “integrated media” is the buzz among b-to-b publishers, show organizers will need to consider how to become more “integrated” with other media in tangible ways — not just as a sales effort or a neat way to organize a business portfolio. For this on-demand generation, events are part of a brand. A show that’s perceived as a once-a-year phenomenon risks losing its relevancy.  Next year might as well be the next decade to consumers used to obtaining whatever information they need — from driving directions to movie reviews — in an instant. If they have to wait a year for something, it can’t be that important.

“When that relationship expands from 4 days a year to 365 days a year, your value and what you can charge to become part of your ‘community’ goes up again,” Lewis says. “In addition, by maintaining relationships throughout the year and by taking advantage of word-of-mouth and viral marketing that comes from having a year-round active community, your advertising costs to get attendees and exhibitors for next year's show actually goes down.”

This is a generation that’s constantly on. They take access to the Web for granted. Most often, it’s the first place they go to find information. They expect speed, and they expect to find what they’re looking for on the first try. Most marketing experts agree that a show’s online presence, while important today, will become even more so. Shows that don’t provide easy-to-use, detailed Web sites or aren’t responsive to e-mail and online requests will probably find themselves in trouble.

“At the show, this generation expects all the digital toys,” says Lewis. “Electronic check-in, wi-fi areas, beaming contact information to PDAs. Can’t make a session? Can they pick up a podcast or e-book from it? Is that available in the wi-fi area?”
Show organizers will also likely have to relinquish some of their control on site as well, speculates Clurman. This is a generation that’s savvy at doing their research. They won’t likely make time to attend an event unless they have an agenda before they arrive, and it may not be the organizer’s agenda, she says.

“We’re talking about people who grew up multi-tasking. They’re used to doing what they need to do, when they need to do it,” she explains. “I try to picture these young adults that we study at the shows I’ve been to, and I can’t imagine them responding well to going where they’re told, when they’re told to go there.”

Clurman says show organizers might have to build more flexible programs — offering popular sessions more than once, or extending exhibit hours. “They expect to have options. They’re worried about their time, not yours,” she says.

Marketing to Gen Y
Demographers and show industry insiders agree that one of the most profound impacts the coming mass of youth will have on shows is to change the way shows are marketed. It’s a trend that’s already taking hold as media companies begin to take what they’ve learned from consumer magazines and consumer events and apply it to the b-to-b world.

The next crop of attendee is the most media saturated in history. They’ve been flashed, spammed, and pitched to in every facet of their lives since they can remember — and they’re not impressed with slick campaigns populated by irrelevant celebrities.

Instead, advertising executives with experience in this younger market agree that marketing to this group must pass the authenticity test. Humor, irony and raw truth message campaigns have fared better with this generation thus far. 

Another factor that makes this generation a greater challenge to pin down is its diversity. Not only are they culturally diverse — but thanks to every sort of niche media, niche outlet and niche interest — this crowd is used to messages that target them specifically.

Kuhn suggests experimenting with different technologies, such as agendas that can be personalized and downloaded, different e-mail marketing messages and techniques or even different conference offerings. “The technology is out there to track responses and break them out by age,” Kuhn says. “You could learn a lot about this demographic early. That means the ability to spot trends early, stay relevant and be proactive instead of reactive.”

It’ll be important to carefully test marketing messages, says Clurman, because this generation will be harder to market to than any before it. “You’ve got to watch the hype meter. You’ve got to be increasingly creative and original because this generation has seen so many marketing messages, they easily tune them out.”

Clurman says show marketers will also need to learn to make their promotions an experience — either entertaining or informative. “Gen Y is so used to being sold. They’re used to sifting through tons of information every day. They have to decide to allow you to market to them,” she says. “Marketing has to be a worthwhile experience. It has to answer the question — what am I getting out of the time reading this? Am I being entertained? Is it funny? Am I being informed? Did I learn something useful by taking the time to read that marketing message?”

For shows, that could mean entertaining and clever marketing, or it could mean planting the show’s message amid information attendees would find critical to doing their jobs, such as industry research or e-mail newsletters with lots of how-to tips.

Finally, show organizers will likely have to increase the diversity of media they use to get their message out. Asking attendees how they heard about the show will become an increasingly important research question. For this generation, media outlets aren’t always owned by big companies. They can be informal, grassroots outlets that can come and go rapidly. Organizers will need to train their “ears” to identify where the buzz is created and how to capitalize on it.