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Visit Montgomery shares Millennial meeting tips

Millennials—people born between roughly 1982 and 2004—are tough for demographers and marketers to pin down. They’re widely thought to have different traits from the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who preceded them, but which ones and how?

They’re generally considered to be more optimistic and idealistic than Generation X, more tech/mobile-device-savvy than Xers or Boomers—perhaps leading to even shorter attention spans than these elders—and less inclined to join institutions or have the same job all their lives, while thriving in a world where the borders between work and play keep blurring.

Half of America’s 80 million Millennials are estimated to have already joined the workforce, making them a potent demographic for planners wishing to capture and keep their attention.

Strategies for courting and keeping Millennials’ attention vary depending on whether you’re a city, a hotelier or a planner, says Visit Montgomery’s Karin Aaron (herself a member of Generation X), who provided a few strategies.

Change the Physical Space
“I think the best thing these urban districts are doing to cater to Millennials is provide options for dining, shopping and impromptu gatherings,” Aaron says. “Veterans Park in Bethesda and the Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring are prime examples of open areas that are perfect for a late-night stroll or as a space in which to catch up with friends.”

Harness Social Media
Hotel chains are also using mobile connections and social media to connect planners and attendees more quickly to problem-solvers, according to Aaron.

“Since Marriott is headquartered in Montgomery County, they have really taken their tech here to a different level,” she says. “I like the way they’ve taken the stuffiness out of meetings. They have in-house social media where you always have a direct connection to the sales manager and beverage manager. They’ve made it a bit more simple.”

Work With the Audience
Not every solution for courting Millennials means new public spaces or new technology, Aaron says. Planners should make an old-fashioned extra effort to identify a meeting group’s demographics and ensure attendees—Millennial and otherwise—have appropriate options for before and after the meeting.

“A lot of our hotels have gotten savvy about digging into the type of client they’re working with, and that makes it easier for younger clients to feel more comfortable,” she says.

And because these are downtown hubs they have a lot of restaurants, bars and entertainment, so Millennials can feel closer to home in a way.

“We worked with a group in their 30s and 40s and arranged a pub crawl for them,” Aaron says. “The hotel worked with us to check with a lot of local bars and restaurants in Rockville, and so attendees had a range of things to do outside the hotel to decompress. That makes it not their ordinary everyday meeting and that gets them more excited and engaged.”

At a minimum, make sure local hotels are well-informed about local options, Aaron adds.

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About the author
Paul D. Kretkowski