Boomers

For U.S. Baby Boomers Today, Iceland Has An Authentic Allure Reminiscent of Europe in the 1970s.

Back in 1969 over half-a-million Baby Boomers traveled to Europe, sometimes for extended expeditions through exotic cultures and other times in search of new identities. That was the beginning of a tidal wave of Boomers traveling to Europe that grew throughout the 1970s.

I predict that Boomers, especially Americans, will now travel in accelerating numbers to and through a mystifying land of fire and ice. The next chapter of the generation’s zeitgeist includes Iceland as a leading travel attraction.

Here’s why:  

We are standing on a viewing platform four stories above Oskjuhlid hill, beholding a 360-degree panoramic view of Reykjavik, Iceland. Called The Pearl, this popular attraction consists of a glass dome resting on five mammoth tanks where the city stores natural hot water for heating the tightly woven community of 118,000 residents.

To the southeast I see the sun just reaching apogee perhaps 20 degrees above the horizon even though it is noon on a mid-October day.

Across the bay of Faxaflói to the northwest, I see Snæfellsjökull, a 700,000 year old stratovolcano with a glacier covering its summit. Commanding the tip of Snæfellsnes Peninsula 75 miles directly across this bay, the ancient volcano towers above the landscape, stoic and mildly threatening though it last erupted in 200 AD. This view connects me with Jules Verne who in 1864 employed Iceland’s most famous landmark as the entry passageway to begin his “A Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

Within The Pearl’s massive glass dome and casual café, we have eaten our fill of Iceland’s traditional meat soup, a lamb stew brimming with rutabagas and carrots to add bright flavor and color. Having been fueled by this robust lunch, a small harbor city with a big persona awaits our further exploration throughout the afternoon.

Ahead of us will come adventurous days traveling to geysers, waterfalls, lava flows, glaciers and quaint agricultural communities.

We will tour the Hellisheiði Geothermal Plant situated above an active volcanic ridge in southwest Iceland, which produces 303 megawatts of electricity and 133 megawatts of thermal energy. Eighty percent of Iceland’s energy comes from geothermal sources—a striking example of how non-polluting geothermal energy is being harnessed in a sustainable manner.

On the aforementioned Snæfellsnes Peninsula, we will trek along a hiking trail above black lava beaches connecting Hellnar and Arnarstapi, stopping to linger over a steaming bowl of fish stew at a small cottage tucked in a cove above jagged lava cliffs. The young Iceland woman who prepares our lunch from the day’s catch is typically friendly, fluent in English and most welcoming.

Iceland is a land of powerful contrasts:  between modern and primitive, high-tech and high-touch, natural landscapes and inspired human engineering—between a distinctly idiosyncratic Nordic tongue and the universal language of the hippest rock music today. Iceland is wild spaces softened by gentle, rugged people fiercely proud of their island’s heritage. It is technically a European country geographically isolated from all the hubbub of the mainland to the east.

Now Iceland calls to a generation.

Boomers will go to Iceland because McDonald’s failed there, unable to muster profitable retail support from a country proud of its slow food traditions. Boomers will set out to sample rich espresso coffees where Starbuck’s has yet to gain a foothold.

 

Many will take an odyssey more than a vacation because Iceland asks for introspection and engagement: to consider the toughness of a Scandinavian people who have quietly built a modern nation, unbowed by economic hardships from the Great Recession; and then to touch lava flows of antiquity and smell sulfurous air misting up from bubbling cauldrons of super-heated water.

They will set out because one of their generation’s musical heroes lived and died for peace, and his most cherished value has been enshrined by Yoko Ono on the island of Videy, a short ferry ride from Reykjavik. John Lennon’s wife and spiritual partner annually ignites her artistic tribute—Imagine Peace Tower—piercing the night sky from October 9th (John Lennon’s birth date) to December 8th (the date of his assassination in 1980).

They will visit other chapters of their shared 20th century history when, for example, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit that eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. They will discover the mental battleground where two strategic titans clashed for international domination: the 1972 victory by world chess champion Bobby Fischer over Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War.

Boomers will go there because Iceland lures the adventurous and peripatetic with the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll road trip: a circumnavigation of the island on Highway 1, a lava asphalt byway also known as Ring Road, all 830 miles of it. This adventure through time and geology will tap into their quixotic and youthful feelings about the American west that many first discovered on western television shows and movies from the 1950’s.

Along this circuitous highway they will pass through landscapes similar to Nevada’s dry and barren red-rock expanses; California’s magical central coast, punctuated by Edward Weston’s towering cliffs hanging over Big Sur’s splashing waves; Alaska’s white capped mountains and blue-ice glaciers; and, Yellowstone’s bubbling mud pots and furious spewing geysers.

 

Boomers will be lured to Iceland in some ways similar to how so many once were compelled to visit Europe during the countercultural psychodramas of the 1960s and 70s. They will come in search of adventure, ephemera and meaning and maybe a couple of all-nighters in Reykjavik’s harbor bars that finish late-late happy hours near midnight to launch the main drinking events, sometimes coinciding with the northern lights, the mother of all natural hallucinations.

They will soak their hangovers in The Blue Lagoon, a man-made public bath carved from lava and filled with iridescent, milky-blue waters. Here Icelanders have demonstrated great creativity and technical know-how by generating power geothermally then recapturing that steam as soothing bathwater. In this otherworldly place, Boomers can soak away the stresses of their hectic lives while exploring steam caves, saunas and hot pots, and smearing their age-creased faces with gray silica, a natural product reputed for its skin restorative promises.

Speaking with Líney Inga Arnórsdóttir, the North American marketing manager for Promote Island and Inspired by Iceland, I learned that Iceland’s tourism leaders comprehend the vast visitor potential that will soon arrive from North America. 

She nodded when I shared my observations about the volume of post-50 travelers that I had just encountered during our own guided and unguided adventures. Tourism is the third most valuable industry, exceeded only by fishing and industrial manufacturing. Attracting more travelers won’t be their greatest challenge; accommodating them will be, especially along the Ring Road’s most secluded outposts. High tourist season, from June through August, stretches the limits of a country that has not been included on many “bucket lists”—until now.

Thus, for those Boomers who are also looking into investments that can integrate core values with personal fulfillment, this mysterious land where the aurora borealis dances across the night sky is in need of sustainable and creative accommodations and everything that comes with the growth of a nation’s visitor industry. Opportunities to profit from adventure travel, eco-tourism, heritage tourism and cultural tourism await the entrepreneurs of this generation.

Thanks to the creative work of Líney Arnórsdóttir and her team, here’s another way of perceiving the possibilities of Iceland, post-50:

Inspired by Iceland from MaddMultimedia.com on Vimeo.

All photography in this blog post copyright 2016, Brent Green & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Boomers: Transformation of the Travel Industry and The Future of Tourism

With nearly 10,845 Baby Boomers reaching age 65 daily during 2018, a transformative portrait of retirement travel is emerging.

Boomers view travel as fundamental to their next chapter, a time they anticipate being the most enjoyable and liberating of their lives. They have an annual travel spending power of $120 billion. (Skift) The opportunities for suppliers of travel experiences have never been greater.

According to Age Wave and Merrill Lynch, Boomer retirees will celebrate over 125 billion hours of potential leisure time in 2018. 

Concerning travel, their primary goals include staying healthy (83 percent), intergenerational family connections (53 percent), “peak experiences” (48 percent), and adventure (45 percent). (Age Wave) More than 50 percent of Boomer travelers choose a destination based on its cultural value. (TripAdvisor) They seek educational enrichment with every tour decision.

Recent consumer research has disclosed other salient business facts about the future of Boomer travel:

1. Ninety-nine percent of Boomers will take at least one leisure trip in 2018, with an average of five or more trips expected throughout the year (AARP);
2. “Bucket List” trips are the most significant motivation for international travel (AARP;
3. Fifty-two percent say they would like to visit specific cities or towns;
4. Boomers have an average of eight places they hope to visit;
5. A laid-back and relaxing vacation is the most desired type of trip (AARP);
6. Boomers are slightly more likely to prefer domestic travel (53 percent) to international destinations (47 percent).

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While these statistics help validate a compelling case for targeting Boomers, one significant question remains: “How can travel marketers, tour operators, and destinations take advantage of this unprecedented marketing opportunity through strategic brand development and competitive differentiation?”

As a travel industry veteran with career experience marketing resorts, hotels, and destinations, my keynote speeches present compelling and actionable strategies to propel the travel industry to the next level of business success.

Other questions answered during my presentations include:

1. What are the salient business facts about Boomer travel today that justify a substantial generational marketing focus by tour operators, destination managers, and travel planners?

2. What are some of the most successful strategies and tactics employing generational marketing, and how can these insights be applied specifically to tour and travel offerings?

3. What are the future Boomer trends and opportunities that will continue to transform travel for the next twenty years?

Client reactions to these travel industry presentations:

“I can’t thank you enough for adding the fuel to our marketing planning meeting. Feedback on your presentation and material was very good, both your content and the fact that you did such a good job integrating your material with our products. It truly was a practical connection between customer insights and marketing action.”

— Steve Born, Vice President of Marketing, Globus Family of Brands

“Based on extensive and prolific attendee accolades received for the Educational Travel Consortium, the conference was an unqualified success. Brent Green’s contribution hugely facilitated this success, and helped us raise the bar for another great ETC meeting experience. His wonderful encore performance at ETC … received a 4.68 rating out of a possible 5.0. Our colleagues very much enjoyed his presence. He brought an ‘A Game’ to ETC and is a consummate professional. I have very much enjoyed working with him over these past years. It has been a pleasure and honor.”

— Mara DelliPriscoli, founder of the Educational Travel Consortium

Contact me for more information about these transformative travel industry marketing presentations.

Wildlike, A Majestic Film, Challenges Boomer Males to Become Better Men.

Photo credit: Michael Seto

Life is strange. Every so often
A GOOD MAN WINS.

— Frank Dane, silent era film actor

Rene “Bart” Bartlett is such a man, although he struggles to liberate the good man from a troubled soul. His self-imposed exile into the Alaskan wilderness has him withdrawing from the searing ache of a recent loss. He is vulnerable and stoic. A seasoned backpacker seeking communion and healing from an unspoiled frontier. A loner by choice.

Then Mackenzie, a precocious runaway teenager, intrudes by sneaking from a balcony into his motel room, hiding under his bed then scrambling away as he awakens startled. The famished girl appears again the following morning to partake of the motel’s complimentary breakfast. Once more the resolute stranger rebuffs her. Nevertheless, she doggedly follows the grief-stricken, middle-aged trekker into Denali National Park, uninvited, unwanted, and unprepared.

For a third time, Rene repels the 14-year-old who by then has no safe way back to civilization. So they trek into the rough country together while a majestic mountain tableau draws them closer, demonstrating that an isolating wilderness can also inspire spiritual union between disparate humans of different backgrounds, ages, and cultures.

Photo credit: Michael Seto

Showing uncommon restraint during their backpack, Rene Bartlett allows the tragic back-story of the young interloper to unfold, barely whispers around a campfire. He intuitively experiences the girl’s burdens but does not yet know that she has been mistreated by an uncle living in Juneau, or that Mackenzie had been sent away from her home in Seattle so her mother can enter a drug rehabilitation program.

Not having his own children, Rene nevertheless calls upon some deep reservoir of insight, perhaps ancient DNA of noble masculine character, liberating a protector within. His astuteness about wilderness backpacking broadens to understanding of how he must help Mackenzie escape her uncle’s pursuit.

Photo credit: Michael Seto

Wildlike, a debut film written and directed by Frank Hall Green, is a nuanced, troubling, uplifting, beautifully rendered meditation on manhood and fatherhood. Its themes are timeless yet firmly rooted in here-and-now. A troubled girl being sent away by an incapable mother. A disturbed uncle who crosses the line. An older stranger who finally accepts his responsibilities when challenged to assist an innocent and vulnerable victim grappling with abuse.

Although this movie portrays broader multi-generational themes, older men will discover gentle reminders about the sacred role of elders in the development and nurturing of today’s youngest generations. This includes the millions of fathers and grandfathers who are fifty and older.

Further, about one-fifth of the Baby Boomer generation did not have children, nearly double their parents’ generation. Thus, roughly seven million Boomer men have had minimal experience with the trials and joys of raising children. Yet, Wildlike demonstrates how any good man, childless or not, can contribute empathy, strength, and wisdom to unrelated children besieged with misfortunes and challenges. The movie can inspire even childless males to teach, to listen, and to shoulder some of the difficult burdens of a generation growing up in complicated times.

Brilliantly portrayed by veteran Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek; I, Robot; Flight; and Thirteen Days, portraying JFK), Rene Bartlett craves wilderness separation to help him come to terms with his inconsolable loss. He yearns for aloneness and absolution.

Mackenzie, played by up-and-comer Ella Purnell (Never Let Me Go, Maleficent, and Kick-Ass 2) is at once intrepid and in danger. Unwilling to remain a captive of her uncle in Juneau, where she has been deposited by her struggling mother, Mackenzie decides to find her own way back to Seattle to reconnect with her mother in rehab.

Desperate and on the run, Mackenzie’s persistence leads her to follow the hapless, aging backpacker into the Alaskan wilderness where the two eventually find solace and support within each other’s private suffering. The healing that begins there becomes further embellished by nature’s grandeur: vast glaciers, fragile mountain flowers, soaring mountain peaks, and a curious grizzly bear.

Writer and director Frank Hall Green concludes his poignant story by raising a tender possibility. Rene and Mackenzie have not merely and fleetingly connected in the Alaskan wilderness; their relationship might continue—an unwavering journey toward recovery together.

 

Wildlike ends with a cover of The Parting Glass, a traditional Irish folk song dating back to 1770, as performed by The Wailin’ Jennys. Listen to it now to appreciate the spirit of this quietly majestic movie:

 

“I believe that adventure and the wilderness have the power to reawaken our humanity and, if hand in hand with the right people, can help heal oneself.”

— Frank Hall Green, writer/director/producer

 

Boomers, Millennials and the Uncertain Future of Face-to-Face Meetings

Face-to-Face Interaction: A Generational Perspective

The meetings and conventions industry is at an economic crossroads, and industry leaders know this with some trepidation. A consortium of companies and associations in the industry recently launched a promotional and educational initiative entitled Meetings Mean Business. Three growth impediments have been weighing on these industry leaders: 1) lingering economic malaise left over from the 2008/2009 Great Recession; 2) slashes to government budgets allocated for travel and conferences; and, 3) escalating costs of transportation, especially airlines.

There is another threat to the future viability of the meetings industry, and it is generational. Much has been written and speculated about the Millennial Generation, which is typically defined as US citizens born between 1980 and 1995. In 2014, they range in age from nineteen to thirty-four. The oldest of this cohort are quickly becoming principal decision makers governing the volume and nature of corporate and association meetings. 

Why is the generational angle important to consider at this potentially perilous time for the meetings industry? 

Karl Mannheim, a founding father of the field of sociology, stimulated robust academic conversations and generational research over the last few decades. In a definitive and pivotal essay entitled “On the Problem of Generations,” Mannheim considered the impact of generational experiences on groups across social class and geography. 

According to Mannheim, a generation is a group bound together by the historical context in which individuals were born and then matured—thus a group representing “a common location in the historical dimension of the social process.” This conception recognizes that while human history can be traced through game-changing technological advancements, history is also about an evolving social contract that determines how individual members participate in their social environment. Technologies change the human experience, but the human experience also changes the meaning of technologies. 

Thus, a generation implies membership in a unique group, bound by common history, which eventually develops similar values, a sense of shared history, and collective ways of interpreting experiences as the group progresses through the life course. Mannheim believed that the influence of one’s generation could be as powerful as the impact of social class. A generation’s mindset about face-to-face meetings could be as powerful a behavioral determinate as interactive online technologies that enable distance communications without travel.

Intergenerational Glue

 

 

The first factor that determines unique qualities of a generation is “intergenerational continuity.” We learn bedrock values as children of older generations. Many values we take for granted come from generations that long ago became ancestral. Their cherished values have been handed to us through lessons shared within stories, reenactments, books, films, oral narratives, and historical education. 

Mannheim called these appropriated memories, meaning that we appropriate life experiences from older generations as stories and adopt and adapt the lessons and values inherent in these memories. This is particularly true for historical lessons that come to us as children forming early impressions of our place in the larger context. 

Early in our teen years, biology intersects with sociology. As sexual maturation becomes a significant factor in our lives, our brains also develop cognitive and emotional processing capabilities to begin acquiring memories: we start interpreting what’s happening in our lives from introspection and then providing our own definitions of meaning. But social psychology also becomes a noteworthy factor in our interpretation of these newly acquired memories. 

As teenagers we experience the same weighty national and international events as do our parents, but because of biological maturation arriving at the same time as an irresistible peer-group focus, we experience fresh contact. By this Mannheim means that generational consciousness develops, influencing changes in the content of our experiences, leading to “mental and spiritual adjustment.” Fresh contact means fresh interpretation of experience, modified by our susceptibilities to peer influences. Teenagers become motivated and often manipulated by their primary reference groups. Friends become more important than parents and families. 

Mannheim further concluded that acquired memories are far more powerful than appropriated memories, which further explains why generations sometimes have great difficulty understanding significant life issues in the same way. This phenomenon can also help explain why one generation may upend established industries, such as those dedicated to face-to-face meetings at a time rife with online meeting options, a corresponding era of budgetary austerity that may or may not be permanent.

As we mature into young adults, we transition from reliance on appropriated memories (and the values inherent in those memories) to acquired memories, developing meaning based on personal experiences within the social structure. Our generational affiliation can actually change our emotional reflections about our experiences, leading to “collective strivings.” Collective evaluations of major events—whether technological, cultural, or political—can lead to formation of similar or typical attitudes and values. 

An insight taught by Mannheim of importance to the meetings industry is an understanding that “collective mentalities” can become the basis of “continuing practice” or shared action in the future. Research in the field of social psychology validates that “older people invariably hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young.” 

Three Generational Effects

 

One way to describe this phenomenon of generational identification is the concept of cohort effect, which Mannheim wrote about as “the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation.” He also referred to the notion of zeitgeist, the idea that a generation has a collectively shared sense of its formative historical period. 

But the cohort effect is but one of three dimensions that will have influence on the future of the meetings industry. The other two dimensions are called the period effect and the age effect.

The period effect refers to the changing and evolving environmental events occurring around a generation throughout its life course, particularly after coming of age as adults. A period effect, for example, is the recent introduction of Google Hangouts: incredibly robust online technologies that when married with webcams and laptop computers can bring people together from every corner of the globe for real-time video interaction. When the period effect collides with a generation fully ensconced in online interactions and virtual communications, things can change. Face-to-face meetings can become less salient and significant. 

The age effect is based on the idea that the “seasons of life” influence how we interpret and act on the major events in our lives. Human psychological development does not end at adolescence; rather, we continue to develop as we age.

Instead of focusing energy on “becoming someone,” a major developmental challenge of teenagers and young adults, older adults focus more of their psychic energies on “being someone.” Older adults are much more likely to achieve a state of self-actualization during a time of life when they become focused on creating legacies for children and younger generations, a time when they desire to nurture children and grandchildren, propelling their cherished values forward into the future, In other words, “intergenerational continuity” becomes a driving motivation. With aging also comes more concern with genuine and forthright interpersonal communications, the kind of interactions that uniquely come with face-to-face gatherings. 

Since generations adopt dominant ways of thinking that tend to remain consistent across the lifespan, then it must be of concern to the meetings industry how any given generation perceives the products and services the industry offers. While no two individuals within a generation are identical — and attributing common values to an entire generation can be fraught with risks of overgeneralization — it’s nevertheless useful to consider the collective mentalities typical of a generation when assessing future market opportunities and risks. 

Millennials grew up with digital technologies, and they came of age during the advent of cell phone communications, first by voice and then by text messaging. They also mastered virtual interpersonal communications and relationship building through MySpace, Facebook, and myriad other social networking, Internet-based communities. This generation is wired and online, all the time, and thus their most popular way of communicating through adolescence and young adulthood has been virtual. 

These skills serve them well in the twenty-first century, but unlike older generations that came of age before the digital revolution changed everything, Millennials have accumulated less positive experiences with face-to-face communications through meetings and conventions. This makes the industry more vulnerable to obsolescence. Why bother with the costs and hassles of travel when training objectives can be met online through Google Hangouts, Video Skype, and webinars?

Then Along Came Steve

 

The late Steve Jobs was a member of the Boomer generation (the generation born from 1946 through 1964), and his credentials as an industry change-agent are well established. As biographer Walter Isaacson, former TIMEmagazine editor and CNN past-president, observed, “Steve Jobs transformed seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing.” That’s quite an accomplishment for an enlightenment seeking college dropout and peripatetic hippie.

One way that Jobs shepherded Apple Computer into becoming one of the most valuable and admired companies in the world was through the process of deep human interaction — at meetings, where face-to-face communications led to new insights and refined strategic focus. 

After rescuing the company from near bankruptcy in 1997, Jobs took his “top 100” people on an annual retreat. Using a simple white board for audiovisual support, the barefoot Jobs solicited ideas from his team about which products should get their undivided attention. After winnowing down all the input into a list of ten possible products, rank ordered from most promising to least, he then crossed off the bottom seven to leave a list of three. Those three product ideas became the company’s top priorities. 

Take one beautiful retreat location, add a simple white board under the command of a barefoot technology guru, and stimulate group brainstorming among America’s most admired technology innovators. The outcome propelled Apple into the pantheon of the world’s greatest companies in just about a decade. 

Steve Jobs was also an advocate of the power of meetings to mobilize international media enthusiasm for Apple’s new-product launches. Presenting in blue jeans and his signature black mock turtleneck sweaters, Jobs’ flashy multimedia presentations inspired attendees of all ages to get behind new products. An invitation to an Apple new-product launch became a transformative experience for many. Few would turn down such an invitation.

Jobs also taught his younger protégées why meetings matter. The Apple corporate culture today is imbued with artful meeting spaces that facilitate face-to-face interactions, thus inspiring spontaneous discoveries and serendipitous associations between people who might not otherwise connect co-creatively. Through his example, Jobs mentored his Millennial staff, teaching them that meetings do indeed matter when they are optimally designed as amalgams of education and entertainment, problem solving and theater, motivation and meaning. 

Millennial Matters

 

Which “collective mentalities” characterize the Millennial Generation? This young adult cohort is still actively forming its enduring adult values, but a large body of research points to some overarching tendencies. Members of this generation tend to be optimistic, self-confident, and inclusive of different races and cultures. They grew up surrounded by more diversity than any previous American generation. They have proven to be very effective team players and are equally comfortable participating in geographically dispersed teams through online interactions. And, clearly, this generation is at ease with rapid change. They adapt faster than older generations to new technologies. 

Recent research has further disclosed that one of the driving motivations for many members of this generation is to engage in the wider world, to feel their lives have purpose, value and impact, a connection to something bigger than the self. They aspire to live their lives defined by meaning. 

This may also point to the attractiveness of such an irascible and mesmerizing leader as Steve Jobs, because Apple’s cofounder was a meaning machine. His coherent vision for design and technology was driven by an unflinching goal to give customers The Power to Be Your Best, as codified in an early marketing theme for the young computer company. 

Even today, several years after Jobs’ untimely death, iPad Air is being promoted on television with sweeping cinematic imagery and graceful narration by Robin Williams, a Baby Boomer celebrity who embodied the essential nature of poetry when he starred in the film Dead Poets Society. In a memorable Apple ad entitled “Your Verse,” Williams poses a provocative thought: “And the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” This ad speaks to purpose and meaning, a driving force for most aspiring adults and especially those who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, the earliest adopters of Apple’s parade of empowering technologies. 

Large and in Charge

The meetings industry will soon fall into Millennials’ sphere of influence and decision making authority. Yet, other studies suggest that their natural and nearly lifelong gravitation toward arms-length interaction through online media may presage choppy waters ahead. They may logically ask: Why should we budget, organize, travel to, and attend meetings when Google Hangouts and Video Skype can bring people together from remote locations more efficiently?

As the Maritz Institute has documented through its analyses, face-to-face meetings present the best context to capture a group’s full attention at a time of change, to inspire an enduring emotional climate, to build human networks and relationships, and to celebrate those unrepeatable moments of organizational celebration and recognition.

 

To this list we can add that face-to-face meetings also address issues of deepest concern to members of the Millennial Generation, answering the most personal existential question, “What about me?” 

Meetings indeed can present the ideal context to bolster one’s economic growth, enhance personal development, foster career advancement, and create genuine lifelong connections. By satisfying aspirational self-interest, conferences can become the number one advantage for traveling, congregating, and meeting. And a recent PCMA Education Foundation study, entitled “What the Millennial Generation Prefers in Their Meetings,” disclosed that the online, all-the-time generation prefers face-to-face communications above all other channels, including email, texting, and websites.

Time for Mentorship

 

When members of older generations reached maturity and progressed through the early stages of their careers, face-to-face meetings were an essential and unrivaled part of business life. Online alternatives did not even exist. Millennials have reached maturity and the early stages of their careers when an explosion of online applications and software solutions encourage long-distance interactions for lesser cost than face-to-face meetings. Millennials have always had alternatives to face-to-face meetings; thus, their sense of commitment to meetings and association memberships is understandably less than older generations. 

It is incumbent on the leaders of travel related associations, CVBs, travel incentive providers, hotels, resorts, and destinations to mentor up-and-coming Millennial industry leaders. The youngest generation in the workforce today can be shown the personal and professional opportunities that can be realized when humans congregate together in an environment that is conducive to inspiring insights, building teams, and solidifying goals. Meetings matter when greater life satisfaction is the payoff.

Older leaders of the meetings industry can do a better job of engaging the power of generational mentorship, teaching their younger colleagues that there never will be a more powerful or compelling substitute for face-to-face communications. Older leaders can facilitate the phenomenon of intergenerational continuity by advocating the bedrock values that have always compelled people involved in business, government, and nonprofits to travel, convene, and meet face-to-face. Senior mentors can find comfort in the knowledge that as Millennials continue to age and mature, they too will reach the summer and fall seasons of life when rich and authentic fact-to-face communications become priorities along the path to self-actualization.

With the world’s most advanced technologies at his beckon call and a highly technologically literate workforce, the late Steve Jobs nevertheless sauntered barefoot toward a white board in the presence of Apple’s best and brightest. Somewhere within a resort retreat conducive to creative thinking and relationship building, Jobs mentored his youthful team of Apple geniuses, helping them envision a future that we now take for granted through iPhones, iPads, and iTunes accounts. 

An extraordinary Boomer visionary also taught the next generation of Apple leaders why sometimes old-fashioned ways of congregating and collaborating are, indeed, the best ways — that meetings mean business. 

 

Related articles

The Motivating Power of Generational Marketing and Baby Boomers

Boomers and Generational Identification: the Psychosocial Triumvirate

The Boomer Century vs The New York Times

Marketing to Baby Boomers Getting Older: Part Three

An article posted by CNBC.com—Bust of the Baby Boomer Economy: ‘Generation Spend’ Tightens Belt—proposes a gloomy economic future due to Boomer aging.

Jessica Rao, the article’s author, argues “because of severe recession and stock market losses, Boomers have less to spend, and further they’re entering a post-career life stage when they will reduce spending anyway.”

While this story may be accurate in aggregate—overall national economic growth may decline from loftier times 15 years ago, due to many factors including global competition—it misses myriad nuances of the Boomer future.

In lockstep with Boomer aging, established industries are about to grow exponentially, and enterprises yet to be conceived will create new wealth. Some interviewed for the article acknowledge that “experience industries” such as travel will see a boost, but this cannot be diminished as an aside. When Boomers focus their wealth on shared goals, such as the need to see the world before they die, billions of dollars will follow. Generation Reinvention will answer unrequited dreams notated on countless bucket lists. Travel and tourism-related expenditures will grow dramatically. Thousands of entrepreneurial businesses will emerge.

For example, the National Geographic Society has developed a series of catered tours called Expeditions. These precisely engineered adventures emphasize learning, and many of the Society’s preeminent experts escort guests on their journeys.

Recreational Equipment Incorporated also showcases appealing travel experiences across the nation and throughout the world. So does Road Scholar, an innovative brand reformulation introduced last year by the former Elder Hostel, primarily to accommodate peripatetic Boomers.

Beyond travel we can expect expansion in other industries aligned with an aging population. The CNBC.com article identifies healthcare for obvious reasons: an aging generation needs more medical care for diseases and disabilities related to aging. But the article doesn’t address explosive developments in “age management” industries.

Age management, more commonly referred to as anti-aging, involves novel technologies such as hormone replacement to fortify aging bodies and slow the effects of aging. This rapidly evolving industry includes modern fitness facilities, personal trainers, nutritional supplements, nutricosmetics, preventative genomics, cable TV programming about wellness, medical spas, alternative medicine practitioners, natural foods merchandisers, and functional foods.

Most in this generation share a wish technically known as “compression of morbidity.” They want more than just life expansion; they hope to stay healthy and active until the end and then quickly pass away. A keystone Boomer value, left over from the seventies’ human potential movement, is self-empowerment, and a burgeoning age-management industry squarely addresses this value.

Just as the Salk vaccine diminished and then all-but eradicated polio when Boomers were children, emerging genetic and nanorobotics technologies promise extraordinary new methods to compress morbidity in aging. Most pharmaceutical companies already embrace this opportunity. That’s why they have more than 400 drugs under development to tackle aging, with Viagra being a noteworthy and welcome early innovation.

Intel, the legendary computer chip manufacturer, is among a growing list of companies developing products to help people stay in their homes and avoid assisted care facilities or nursing homes. Intel has recently formed a strategic alliance with GE; these two technology and innovation giants are now also focusing on age adapative technologies through an initiative called Care Innovations.

Not only do aging-in-place technologies have important implications for quality-of-life, they can reduce national healthcare costs. Forrester Research has projected that in-home medical monitoring, just one facet of this burgeoning industry, could reach $34 billion by 2015 as the leading edge of the generation approaches age 70.

I argue that Boomers will spend their wealth in every industry the CNBC article gives a cloudy forecast.

Boomers might not buy as many second homes as once thought, but they’ll downsize and right size. Many will buy cutting-edge retirement homes in active-aging neighborhoods yet to be conceived. They’ll embrace new urban lifestyles in big cities. They’ll be early adopters of communities wired for the future and nostalgically reminiscent of the past. They’ll refurnish their lives while reducing clutter—another emerging industry.

They might reduce spending on luxury products, but Boomers have always found ways to justify luxuries that match their stage-of-life passions. A luxury necklace is more than a fashion statement when a grandmother buys it as a future heirloom for her granddaughter.

They might stop buying Mercedes automobiles, as speculated in the article, but an enterprising car manufacturer will develop the ideal vehicle to fulfill Boomer driving aspirations in later life. The Volkswagen Beetle became a metaphor for their road-tripping youth, and the Chrysler minivan became the soccer-mom brand when they were raising families. An imaginative “third-age” vehicle, designed to compensate for sensory deficits with cool technologies and universal design, will punctuate their automotive driving future.

Those who warn of Boomer economic catastrophes often look at the future through the rearview mirror. I propose that the Boomer future is robust with opportunities.
Not only is Generation Reinvention changing aging, reshaping their post-career years to be expansive, engaged, and vital, this generation is setting the stage for younger generations to one day receive greater economic and social opportunities in their aging.

Will some businesses lose money because Boomers are aging? Yes. Will some businesses make fortunes because Boomers are aging? Count on it.

Strategic Implications

The future is always fraught with uncertainties, but it’s not reaching too far to conclude that trillions of dollars will be made and spent in the next few decades by a generation that has shaped the consumer economy for the last 40 years. Boomers are going to transform traditional industries focused on mature consumers. They will influence innovation of entirely new industries, whether bricks and mortar or online.

Their imprint on commercial enterprises and nonprofit organizations will endure beyond them. Younger generations will come to accept as normative many new, robust, and egalitarian conceptions of aging as Boomers transform everything in their paths, from housing, health care, and home-based services, to tourism, transportation, and traditions associated with aging. The significant uncertainties in this economic forecast reside in three questions:

• What are you going to do about it?
• How will you be part of this transformation?
• Will you profit from the forthcoming revolutions in consumerism and the sociology of aging?

The above essay is an edited excerpt from Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future. This 279-page book explores a growing body of research, arguments, insights, and speculation over how Boomers are impacting aging and commerce. Implications from my book are monetary and personal, local and international, intergenerational and multicultural. To learn why these conclusions are significant for your work and future, you can get a copy from online book retailers, including Amazon. Thank you for following my blog and, of course, your interest in Generation Reinvention.

Boomer Reinvention Propels Economic Development Opportunities for Cities and States

News media have been contemplating implications of the oldest Baby Boomers turning 65 this year. This is a symbolic passage but nevertheless thought worthy. Around 10,000 will reach the milestone daily for the next nineteen years. Never has the nation dealt with population aging of this magnitude.

As critics see it, Boomer aging represents a dark cloud, a generational storm gathering over the social safety net. Detractors employ disquieting language such as “predicament,” “sinking ship,” and “unsustainable.” In Boomer vernacular, you might just call it a bummer.

But the facts speak to a different vision of the future. This generation is proffering unprecedented growth prospects for states and cities that envision and embrace economic development potential.

Since the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, Colorado’s delegates to the decennial forum have been meeting to create a strategic plan and organizational framework for aging called Silverprint Colorado. Their current goals are specific, but their vision is farsighted:  to help Colorado become the leading state in the nation to embrace opportunities of an aging population.

Other states are addressing the Boomer aging opportunity by organizing initiatives similar to Silverprint, with civic and business leaders forging creative public and private partnerships to “ride the age wave.” Virginia’s Older Dominion Partnership is noteworthy for its momentum.

I was keynote speaker recently for the The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, and over 200 business executives and civic leaders crowded into this half-day workshop, eager to understand possibilities. Sarasota is actively retooling its brand and amenities to better accommodate the Boomer age wave, thereby strengthening its position as one of the nation’s most desirable retirement locations. A majority of attendees are also involved either directly or indirectly in nonprofits.

And the timing couldn’t be better. A generation of social and business innovators has matured, reaching a life-stage typically dedicated to creating legacies. According to a recent study by Convio and Edge Research, Boomers on average give $901 to 5.2 charities annually.

 

Now, consider a macroeconomic perspective. People over age 50 represent 30 percent of the population nationwide, but they own 65 percent of the aggregate net worth of all U.S. households. Boomers earn $2.6 trillion annually to spend on goods and services, far exceeding any other generational cohort. They control $28 trillion of the nation’s assets and will inherit around $10.8 trillion from their parents.

Boomers are ushering in a “golden age” for tourism, community college education, healthcare, biotechnology, retirement housing, pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurialism, aging-in-place technologies, luxury products, philanthropy, civic engagement, financial services, grand parenting, retailing, traditional media, and online businesses. Every one of these high-growth business sectors creates jobs, careers and tax revenues to help all generations prosper. Boomer spending is already producing many new jobs for young people, as anyone working for hotels and resorts can confirm.

Lindsey Ueberroth, President of Preferred Hotel Group, summed it up with her recent comments to the International Luxury Travel Market: “Preferred Hotel Group believes that the travel industry is on the verge of a true golden age. The opportunities to serve the Boomers are vast. We are going to seek out the Boomers. We are going to serve them well and often. And, we are going to share in the growth and prosperity that they will generate. This is a turning point.”

When you investigate business prospects in other sectors, you’ll hear the same refrains: Boomers are the future. They are buying retirement homes, running organic foods businesses, returning to college, and starting up new companies at the rate of 10,000 per month, 16% faster than any other generational group. They are serving as newly elected governors for states across the nation, such as Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, and John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

Contrary to naysayers, this generation is reinventing aging, from business and nonprofit innovation to public policy leadership. This generation presents a menu of extraordinary business and civic opportunities for those who understand the implications and embrace a reasoned and realistic vision of the future.

Brent served as a Colorado at-large delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, sits on the Silverprint Colorado steering committee, and is author of Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future.

Engaging and Teaching Boomers Well: AARP Presents Orlando@50+

Who’s the leader of the club
That’s made for you and me?

Boomers sometimes become nostalgic when they hear the Mickey Mouse Club March, written by Jimmie Dodd, heart and soul of the renowned original TV show from the 1950s.

The leader of today's largest Boomer club is AARP, marching ahead of 25,000 Boomers and older adults who have decided to take a road trip to Orlando, September 30 through October 2. The celebration is called Orlando@50+.

 

This interesting use of the @sign is AARP’s way of branding. So they have conceived Life@50+ and Orlando@50+. I’m Brent@50+, but I’m not yet an AARP brand.

The second line of Mickey’s song points to three days of AARP-conceived demonstrations, diversions and drama, destined to make club members feel more fulfilled about Life@57 or Life@102.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Eleven musical letters are why, in fact, Orlando today is a lot more than a fruit stand surrounded by Florida swamp. Walt Disney World Resort transformed the area in 1971 beyond wildest imagination. Most AARP conference activities occur at the Orange County Convention Center, but the evening field trip will be at Universal Orlando, which is not Disney owned and operated, which won’t be a problem except perhaps for Disney executives. But Disney World assuredly can expect @50+ spillovers.

Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho,there!

Similar upbeat interjections will be repeated four-septillion times as 25,000 conference attendees encounter each other at exhibits, concerts, entertainment venues, speeches, and special lecture sessions.

You're as welcome as can be!

You’re welcome, with a couple of qualifiers: 1) if you can type your name and @50+ without hesitation; and, 2) if you’re a member of AARP, which costs the equivalent of three Mocha Lattes.

So, other than having AARP membership in common, what could make this three-day happening rich with psychic connections among so many strangers?

The joy of Life@50+ includes the road behind: the knowledge and insights Boomers’ journeys have taught. This generation shares history, and that makes Boomers more than an age cohort or merely far-flung members of a 50+ club.

This generation shared shining moments of John Kennedy’s Camelot. Screamed at The Beatles during their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Witnessed Neil Armstrong etch boot prints on the dusty moon surface. Wondered at the improbability of Woodstock. And considered The Berlin Wall crumbling under percussion from freedom’s ring.

Shared history is context. That’s what thousands bring to Orlando@50+. That makes attendees more than merely members, but also a tribe with its roots in time.

And the past is often prologue. AARP-qualifed generations have new opportunities to focus experiences and insights toward improving the future of aging. Of purpose. Of legacies. Of due diligence for future generations.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

More explorers and seekers are traveling to Orlando@50+ than all the Mouseketeers ever awarded mouse ear hats. This is the AARP convention, and Annette Funicello, the most popular member of the Mickey Mouse Club, is being replaced by contemporary celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg; Larry King; his brother, B.B. King; Judy Collins; and Richie Havens.

Crosby, Stills and Nash, three melodious @classic rockers, headline music entertainment. Their lyrics for Teach Your Children propose a quixotic idea that those who travel should seek authentic moments of true spirit.

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye

Today, the past is more than just a good-bye to those who have traveled together for six and more decades. Orlando@50+ is another chance to learn and teach, to feed dreams in a place where young and old become as one. The way Walt intended it.

"Generation Reinvention" and Business: Opportunities for Baby Boomers

Unprecedented societal aging engenders new opportunities for business creation and career reinvention. Boomers busy reinventing themselves, and younger entrepreneurs interested in profiting from this “silver tsunami,” can take advantage of numerous opportunities to develop creative new businesses, products and services.

Entirely new industries will be in demand by an aging generation that changes societal and cultural expectations around every life stage it passes through, including life past 50, 60, 70 and 80. Boomers will also transform traditional industries serving aging consumers with their unique imprints and styles. The following ideas have been organized around ten major themes of Boomer aging, based on recent consumer research studies and sociological insights into this generation’s emerging motivations.

Education

• Community colleges – traditional public educational institution specializing in retraining of those leaving their primary occupations to become prepared for work in other fields such as healthcare, information technologies, graphic design, financial planning, and teaching.
• Lifelong learning – online and offline short-term workshops and seminars to provide skills-based training, such as computer skills, business accounting, foreign languages, cooking, internet marketing, and digital photography.
• Retirement/financial planning – online webinars and live seminars designed to help Boomers become more sophisticated in managing their retirement assets, planning estates, finding reverse mortgages, buying longevity insurance, and planning long-term care.

Engagement

• Lifestyle pursuits – consumer products, services and social networks to help Boomers pursue their recreational passions, whether sports, artistic endeavors, or cultural experiences. 
• Adventure vacations – travel to exotic, off-the-beaten path destinations, including immersion into local culture and history, often with subject-area experts as tour guides.
• Political engagement – political action committees and issues-oriented communities conceived to promote favorable public policies, while influencing and electing political leaders.

Contributions

• NGA and nonprofit participation – community boards, nonprofit boards, grassroots organizing committees, and foundations dedicated to improving quality of life and social/economic equality.
• Civic engagement – events and initiatives conceived to provide assistance and support to disadvantaged groups such as inner city kids, seniors belonging to minority groups, victims of myriad disease conditions, and the homeless.
• Voluntourism – travel planning for those interested in turning vacations into meaningful engagement experiences, for example to help less fortunate and disaster victims in all parts of the world.

LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability)

• Natural /organic products – consumer packaged goods products developed from natural ingredients and sustainable sources, such as prepackaged nutritional foods, clothing made from organic cloths, and produce grown using organic and sustainable farming methods.
• Energy efficient everything – building materials using recycled materials, homes designed to use solar and alternative energy sources, energy consulting services to help consumers reduce use of energy from fossil fuels. 
• Eco-tourism – organizing, planning and conducting travel experiences that minimize impact on the environment and support third-world destinations by using alternative energy and low-impact visitations.

Vitality

• Fitness training – strength, aerobic and flexibility training using new methods to accommodate aging fitness devotees; equipment designed to protect older exercisers from injuries while improving muscle tone, resilience, and stamina.
• Brain training – computer and experientially based training to help older learners maintain cognitive health and mitigate cognitive decline due to aging; nutritional supplements and diets designed to support brain health.
• Nutritional supplements – myriad consumer products in the form of vitamins, minerals, drinks, meals, and herbal remedies developed and marketed to support nutritional needs and mitigate impact of diseases associated with aging.

Dating

• Cosmeceuticals – integration of nutritional ingredients with cosmetic formulations to improve skin health, mitigate obvious signs of aging and address specific signs of aging such as gray hair, wrinkles, age spots, and sagging skin.
• Anti-aging hormones – synthetic formulations of hormones that can supplement endocrine chemicals that decline due to aging; some of these hormone formulations can be prepared from natural sources and thus bypass scrutiny and oversight by governmental authorities.
• Mature dating websites – online gathering places for divorced, widowed, and never-married single Boomers to help lonely hearts find companions and future spouses.

Self-care

• Compression of morbidity – all therapeutic and self-care methodologies and products to help aging Boomers maintain vitality throughout their remaining years, live longer lives, and then to pass away from final illnesses of short duration.
• Medical spas – rejuvenation spas that blend traditional medical care such as weight reduction and smoking cessation with benefits of classic spa pampering, to include relaxation, refocusing, and reconnecting with core values.
• Preventative/diagnostic medicine – medical methods and inventions designed to help aging consumers prevent chronic diseases, diagnose these diseases at an early stage, and identify hidden precursors to serious, life-threatening illnesses; biomarker diagnostics used at home with nutrient and fitness recommendations.

Legacies

• Heirloom gifts – luxury gifts that can be purchased and then handed down to children and grandchildren as heirlooms, including jewelry, watches, collectable currencies, fine art, and valuable antiques.
• Endowments/ foundations – small family foundations and endowments that can be managed by retiring Boomers who have the resources and inclinations to share their good fortune with those needing help and support.
• Multi-generational vacations – retreats designed to appeal to multiple generations, including grandparents, parents and children; vacation experiences segmented by gender such as grandfathers, fathers and grandsons.

Business creation

• Franchises – proven franchises that Boomers can purchase and manage to generate income after retirement from primary occupations; highest value franchises will be those that don’t demand enormous weekly time commitments yet generate good cash flow. 
• Web-based businesses – online stores offering myriad specialty products including arts and crafts, hobby support resources, valuable information services, celebrity fan sites, etc. 
• Business brokering – for every Boomer trying to sell a business, there are other Boomers interested in buying the business, so putting buyers and sellers together offers lucrative potential, both online and through traditional direct sales channels.

Spirituality

• Spiritual retreats /training – as Boomers age, they will inevitably develop in their motivations to explore spiritual and religious modalities, thus investing more in spiritual products such as books, DVD’s, and live or online educational experiences.
• Hospice/end-of-Life – with over 4 million projected to die each year by the middle of the century, Boomers will be seeking creative and alternative ways to pass away, thus creating new pathways for end-of-life care such as theme-oriented dying experiences.
• High-tech funeral businesses – inventing new technologies that provide avenues for the dying to permanently capture and record their values, histories and wishes for future generations, including gravesite videos and Internet-based tribute websites.

Excerpted from Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future. Coming Fall 2010! Send us an email message to receive notification when Brent's newest book becomes available.