Generation Z
The next generation of event attendees
Events play an important role in bringing people together. This is even truer for the emerging generations, who spend more time in digital and online communities. Although they are digital in nature, they still crave face-to-face interaction and experiences that facilitate this.
While some of these younger generations are still in school, by 2030, Generation Y and Generation Z will comprise two thirds of the workforce. As the current and future event attendee, they are an important demographic to understand in terms of what they expect from the events they attend.
Looking for immersive experiences
The emerging generations have a different mindset to their older counterparts and are characterised by a new way of seeing reality, influenced greatly by technology and the information age. They are the most mobile and technologically integrated generation ever.
This means they are expecting events to be immersive and offer value to their life. In the years to come we will see a greater integration of the digital and virtual world, so events that have both these elements and use them to create experiences that are interesting, engaging and immersive will be the events these emerging generations choose to attend.
Digital and social
Growing up in a world of technology and social media, the future event attendee will have a perspective that is a global one, as they are likely to be more in tune with what’s going on around the world than in their local neighbourhood. They engage in a visual world, and this is reflected in their web search habits, being more likely to use YouTube over Google.
This doesn’t mean that these generations just want online events. Generation Y and Generation Z are looking for the experiential element of an event as well as an opportunity to forge meaningful connections with others. Rather, it is about ensuring that a community is created that attendees can interact with and engage with online as well as in-person. This is essential to not only engaging event attendees but can also create greater hype and awareness about the event if it is able to be interacted with and shared online.
Sustainably and ethically minded
Increased awareness through documentaries and celebrity endorsements have put sustainability at the forefront of many attendees’ minds. From choosing sustainable venues to being mindful of waste, emphasising online distribution of information rather than printing and using water stations rather than refillable bottles – the next generation of event attendees want to see events being eco-friendly and ethically minded.
Events that embrace sustainability and factor it into their planning have an opportunity to set themselves apart, especially among the emerging generations who are using their consumer power to interact with brands that are sustainably minded.
