Learn From Gen Y
In It Together
By David R. Basler
Doing business faster, more efficiently and from anywhere at any time. That’s today’s business model that has been born out of a generation of young minds who have become change agents in our busy world.
There are those who think this business model is the end of the meeting and event industry as we know it; I am not one of those people. I see it as an opportunity to learn a new way of seeing the world at work and how the next generation of leaders envisions that world connecting.
There really hasn’t ever been a solid definition of the term Gen Y that clearly defines these newcomers who are shaking up the way the world does business. The best (and probably most common) explanations I have heard are that Y comes after X (so that sequentially makes sense) and that the group has always questioned everything. What generation hasn’t? Gen Yers are simply asking different, more time-relevant questions.
For instance, business newcomers in the 1980s asked why can’t we shift our businesses globally? For today’s Gen Yers, the question is not just about thinking globally but about connecting with those people around the globe. Why can’t I send an e-mail to China while on a conference call with my office in New York all from the comforts of my backyard hammock in Denver?
As you will learn from our cover story, members of Gen Y are kicking the slacker, trend-bucker stereotypes they have been labeled with and are showing the world new solutions for the same old problems. They are stepping up and taking a lead role as change agents in life and in business, and I think we can learn a lot from them. Our industry specifically has a very strong student population that is taking a proactive approach to improving the status and success of the industry around the globe. The key for us in the generations before them is to put out the welcome mat and embrace the change, the new ideas and thought processes and teach each other how to continually be evolving and growing as an industry.
Keep reading and enjoy!
David Basler
Editor in Chief, One+