How To Host a Millennial Friendly Event

If I had a dollar for every time my Gen-X colleague heckled me for my deodorant, I would have been a millionaire by now. It’s no secret that Gen-X and Millennials have their differences; things that we millennials enjoy (Starbucks, Instagram, Snapchat, pop music) are not interesting enough for Gen-X. It is because we both have been raised in a different era, and that’s ok.

The question arises, how to engage both of these generations with different interests together. Presently, there's a large blend of Millennials and Gen Xers coinciding in the plant. That means that both of these generations will be in attendance at the same conferences, meetings, and events. It makes event diary’s a formerly delicate job indeed harder as they try to come up with creative ways to engage and involve both these groups at their events. Let’s discuss five methods that will help you engage millennials in your next event. Wait before discussing the methods. Let’s discuss! What is a millennial? Or Who are millennials? Well, millennials are people who are in their late twenties or early forties. Anyone born between 1981 to 1996 can be called a millennial.

1. Utilize the Millennial’s Obsession with Mobile-Phones

Well, it’s no more a secret that millennials are obsessed with their phones, but instead of criticizing this habit, why not utilize it.

There are a lot of methods that will help you to incorporate mobile phones into your events. The first and very obvious method is to have a dedicated app for your event. Provide promotional offers on those apps, continuously update your app users about the event, and also you can start a subscription-based membership where members will receive benefits for their subscription like; early asses to information about the upcoming events, monthly gifts, etc. Another method is the Smart usage of QR codes. You place your QR codes on some specific locations and can provide the ease of collective information in one place. People can easily scan and get every information related to the ongoing event.

2. Social Media

Just like mobiles, millennials are also fully engaged in their social media. Every time they sit down to have dinner, they make sure that send a snap of their food to all their contacts even before saying their prayers. They spend more time conversing on social media than in their actual life. This obsession can be utilized by the event organizers; Start a page of your event on social media and be very frequent in posting. Start a YouTube channel and hire a few social media experts so that they can help your content rank and help you increase your reach.

You can also try running a few social media competitions. One of the best options is photo competitions, where attendees have to post a selfie while attending your event and use the hashtag of your event. Choose a winner, and send them some goodies, which will encourage more and more attendees to post pictures of your event, which will eventually help more and more people aware of your event.

3. Involvement and Interaction

Just providing information at your event is not enough to make the millennials interested in your event. It is because millennials like to be involved in any activity and have zero interest in just being an audience. They want to be an active participant in the events and have a sense of belonging.

You can involve millennials in your event with various methods. Live polling is just one of them. Ask a question with two or more options as an answer and let the audience vote just to see with which option does the majority gets involved. Also, think of some activities which help the audience to get a chance to interact with each other. Group activities or partner activities can be among those activities. Involve Some breaks should also be part of your events, like lunch and round tables, which will get the audience to sit together and get a chance to increase their networking.

4. Utilize the latest Tech

Millennials are the most tech-oriented generation. They are always get fascinated by new tech and always love to get introduced to the latest equipment. A young millennial may not even remember the time when the internet was not a thing, wifi is the most crucial part of our life, and the monthly data bill of a young millennial will be even more than his groceries. Because of this, new technology can be a crucial part of your event.

VRs can attract a number that you can’t even imagine. People nowadays love to perform activities on VR much more than they enjoy doing those activities in real life (I can’t even imagine life after Metaverse becomes a common thing). Things like holograms, lasers, and drone shows can also be a part of your event.

5. Games

From physical to video games, everything hypes up the millennials. You can also develop some games for your event and attach them to your event app. In the ongoing event, have some fun games activities. You can even involve carnival games in your event and try to involve games that somehow make your audience gets introduced to the actual purpose of your event.

Conclusion

The USA has around 36.5% of its citizens under the age of 45. Hence, millennials have to be a part of your event and can even decide how successful your event goes. The involvement of millennials is crucial for your event but getting them involved and grabbing their attention is not child’s play. Getting them to attend your event is not impossible with the above-mentioned methods. You can bring a lot of them to your event, but remember all the methods are subjective and will work well if you utilize them concerning the theme of your event. Figure out what works best for you and what are methods will make your event unforgettable.

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