How To Design the Perfect Event For Millennials
Who are millennials?
Rather than a definition, society has created other terminology to define millennials such as hipsters, avocado toast addicts and ‘snowflake’ culture. This generation was born between the 1980s to mid 1990s or early 2000s and they are taking over the event world.
Here is your quick guide on creating an event every millennial will love!
Find Your Venue
Millennials all stick to the same concept of uniqueness and needing to differ from the rest. No one wants to stick in with the crowd that’s why the styles of this generation include so many personalities; hipsters, bold makeup, personalized accessories, fun patterns, etc. Whatever calls to them they will wear it and what they wear is TRUE AUTHENTICITY.
With that being said, your venue should be unique and encompass your event or should I say be Instagram-worthy! Give them a space with personality and flare that they can connect to and use that atmosphere to connect with your event entirely.
Some venues to try out could be anywhere from museums and abandoned buildings to national parks and botanical gardens. Read about more unique venues you can try for your next event here.
Stick to the Sustainability Trend
Going green, minimizing waste and becoming more sustainable is something this generation really cares about. One of their bigger concerns is making sure they are giving back to their community or a good cause they care about even if that means taking a pay cut.
By adding sustainability to your event, whether it’s elements of the venue, recycled materials and merch, or zero-waste catering. Whatever it is, this could be a contributing factor to your ticket sales and the one decision factor that takes this generation from looking to purchasing.
If you have any sustainable or green eliminate to your event, don’t be shy to share it. Millennials like transparency and if you aren’t truthful, they will find out; you can’t mess with millennials, one the most tech savvy generations around.
If you want to learn more about creating a green event check out our blog on the latest trends and tips to help your next event be more sustainable.
Customize Where You Can
By mass customizing your event, you can create your own, unique brand according to the tastes of your audience and consumers. You can make something distinctly you. Millennials are choosing to support your brand, so they want an event that will be entirely YOU. Nothing reproduced instead everything personalized and marketed to each individual attending.
Here are ideas on how you can customize your event.
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Charging stations
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Ottomans
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Event merchandise and favors
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Unique Lighting
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Branded Furniture
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Light Up Bars
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Branded Wall Partitions and Mirrors
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*** If open bar, customize the drink names to match the theme of the night
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Custom Decals
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Interactive Technology
You can assume having interactive technology would be a big deal for millennials, this is what they grew up with, how they connect, therefore what they expect to be at an event.
In today’s world, it is easy to incorporate technology engagement within your event; it can be as simple as creating an event Hashtag for social media.
Depending on your budget, there are a lot of ways to incorporate fast technology that not only engages with your guests, but can encourage connections between each other and the event.
Here are ways to connect your event:
Touch screen kiosks, bars, menus etc.
Video walls and displays
Charging Tables and WIFI
Interactive Motion Displays
Mirror Photo Booths
Keep it Simple
Keeping it simple goes from your registration all the way to your food menu; everything should be decluttered and simplified for this generation.
Keeping an event simple isn’t as simple as you think. Minimalism sounds easy, but it’s hard to let go of things we may want or feel we need at our event.
The first place you can simplify is your event registration and ticket buying process. Your registration should be straight-forward, no chunky, long forms, and easy to find. A good registration will allow you to incorporate their ticketing systems within your event website so your buyers won’t have to move from page to page to purchase tickets.
Millennials will be purchasing their tickets from a variety of different devices, so make sure your ticketing system is friendly to all devices.
If you are serving food, most of your guests are there for that reason; sorry but it’s true. The look and how the food is presented is half the taste and elegance of the event. Keep the menu simple and presentations clean. Choose key dishes for your guests to choose from, with enough options to accommodates diets, but few to avoid becoming cluttered.
It’s also easy to get carried away with your decorations or forget the theme of the night. Decorations can be elegant and fun, but too many can make the venue space appear smaller and condensed. To keep the feeling of an open space choose each piece of decor wisely and their placements. Make sure all your decorations are consistent with each other and stay true to the theme of the event and your brand.
All of the stats are brought to you by CMO by Adobe, author Giselle Abramovich
