Posted by
Barry Siskind
UFI’s Community manager

Margaret Ma is the Managing Director of UBM China. She is one of three panellists the session “Tomorrow’s Customers and Employees”, at this year’s UFI Congress to be held in Seoul from November 14-16. The subject is timely as many of us are struggling to understand where tomorrow’s customers and employees will come from and what we need to do to prepare. I asked Margaret three questions that will give you a preview of what’s in store at this very important session.

Barry:

What are the challenges that business faces as it attempts to remain relevant to the next generation of workers?

Margaret:

There are a number of challenges but the top one in my view is to cater to the need of personalization or personalized experience. Traditionally large events, exhibitions or conferences, tend to adopt a cookie cutter approach to standardize the service offerings. While this approach does help to ensure consistency and quality management, for the next generation of customers and employees, the experience may seem rather generic and boring. While the marketers are moving toward precision marketing with tailored campaigns, the onsite services (content programming, visual presentation, F&B etc.) may not live up to the expectations of Gen Y, especially for those born after 1990. It begs the question “How do we optimize the event services to address the need for personalization while maintaining a high level of efficiency?”

Barry:

What is the impact of culture on future employees and customers?

Margaret:

Our customers are facing the same challenges and, as the demographics of their and our employees change, it is most critical that organisations identify their changing or unmet needs and refresh the way of doing business and/or managing relationships. This requires not only open-minded thinking but good listening and humility.

Barry:

What has the research into changing demographics taught us to date?

Margaret:

It is far better to anticipate the changes than to be forced to accept the changes at the after the fact.

This year UFI’s Congress will be held from November 13th to 16th in Seoul, Korea. If you haven’t registered yet there is still time. See the entire agenda at www.ufi.org.seoul2013