In today’s business-events landscape, four generations share the same spaces — as attendees, clients, suppliers, and colleagues. Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z now influence design, and experience events together, bringing with them profoundly different expectations, communication styles, and values.
Yet this diversity is not a burden to manage; it is an extraordinary opportunity to design richer human experiences. The true art of modern event design lies not in eliminating generational gaps, but in bridging them — turning meetings into platforms where perspectives converge rather than collide.
A Behavioural Lens on Motivation
At Maritz, behavioral science has long been a cornerstone of understanding why people engage, learn, and feel belonging. When applied to event design, these insights help decode what each generation values most. Boomers often seek recognition for contribution and loyalty; they are inspired by structure and purpose. Gen X prioritises autonomy, efficiency, and relevance — a generation that dislikes wasted time. Millennials crave authenticity and purpose; they respond to experiences that reflect social and environmental consciousness. Gen Z, digital natives with high emotional awareness, expect inclusion, customisation, and flexibility — but also a genuine human connection that balances technology with warmth.
Designing events with this diversity in mind means moving beyond demographics and into psychographics — understanding why people behave the way they do. Behavioural design is not about generational labels, but about aligning motivation with context.
From Segmentation to Integration
Generational coexistence challenges event planners to stop designing “for” groups and start designing with them. The modern event should no longer be a series of lectures but a set of experiences that encourage collaboration across age, culture, and ideology.
Formats such as inter-generational roundtables, reverse mentorship sessions, or cross-cohort innovation labs exemplify this spirit. Instead of separating young professionals from senior leaders, these sessions place them in dialogue — a living metaphor for how our industry connects worlds. When a Gen Z professional explains the ethics of AI to a Boomer CEO, or when a Gen X planner learns from a Millennial about mental-health design, the meeting becomes a social bridge, not just a professional exchange.
“Leadership today requires empathy as strategy. The best leaders do not impose their generational worldview; they orchestrate it into harmony.”
The Design Implications
Behavioural insights translate directly into design choices.
- Autonomy: Offer flexible schedules, opt-in learning formats, and choice-driven networking so that participants from different generations can personalise their journey.
- Connection: Replace one-way presentations with dialogues, micro-sessions, or shared creative tasks that foster interaction.
- Recognition: Celebrate contribution in ways that matter to each generation — public acknowledgment for some, personalised feedback for others.
- Purpose: Integrate sustainability, social impact, and wellbeing into the event’s core narrative, not as add- ons but as authentic expressions of shared
These are not mere preferences; they are psychological triggers that determine satisfaction, memory, and post- event loyalty. A well-designed environment — with comfortable pacing, sensory balance, and intentional spaces for reflection — allows different generations to engage at their own rhythm while contributing to a collective experience.
Inside the Industry: A Mirror of Our Times
The generational dynamic doesn’t only exist among attendees; it lives within our own teams. In agencies, venues, and DMOs, inter-generational collaboration shapes how we plan, negotiate, and innovate. The event professional of the future will need less hierarchy and more translation — the ability to interpret the emotional and motivational language of each generation.
Leadership today requires empathy as strategy. The best leaders do not impose their generational worldview; they orchestrate it into harmony. They understand that a Gen Z designer’s call for flexibility and a Boomer executive’s desire for structure are not contradictions but complementary strengths when aligned around purpose.
Meetings as Generational Bridges
At their best, business events have always been more than transactions; they are transformational encounters. They bring together cultures, ideologies, and — increasingly — generations that might never otherwise meet. In an age polarised by information bubbles and digital isolation, our industry has the privilege of creating one of the last remaining physical spaces where dialogue is possible.
Designing with generational intelligence is therefore not only a question of effectiveness — it is a matter of relevance and responsibility. Each meeting becomes a rehearsal for the inclusive world we wish to build: one that values both experience and innovation, wisdom and curiosity, legacy and experimentation.
The next decade will belong to those who can connect across differences — who see diversity of age as an advantage rather than a barrier. Business events, when thoughtfully designed, remind us that learning is lifelong, that innovation needs memory, and that human connection transcends the year we were born.
Eduardo Chaillo is a natural connector of meeting and tourism professionals globally. Currently President of his own consultancy company: Global Meetings & Tourism Specialists, he is now also Global General Manager for Maritz Latin America.