In the last year the hot topic on the digital conference circuit has been Generation X and Generation Y, about how the digital natives will enter the workplace with new skills, new expectations and new demands. Amidst rather gloom laden projections of the 80m baby boomers retiring (between now and 2019) are the challenges in changing work and organization to fit the new expectations of the new generation of employees.

However the statistics lie. For the workplace of 2019 there are more people currently at work today, (ie anyone under the age of 42) than the new workforce of Gen X & Gen Y. The challenge is not just to ask what the new generations will do to our organizations but what our organizations will do to the new organizations?

Our thinking started with a perception of 2 very different worlds – a corporate world, rich in proprietary technology and expert at talking to itself and staffed by mid-term careerists. The second not-for-profit world, intimately connected to its environment, exploiting free and commodity technology and staffed by idealists and volunteers. Historically a very stark contrast! In the past these worlds could afford to keep a professional and operational distance, but now driven by the forces of globalisation, social responsibility agenda and technology the worlds are coming together. Our target was that the worlds could learn together.

The web 2 ‘poster children’ Wikipedia or Facebook represent a tremendous mobilisation and coordination of the volunteer sector, the availability and ubiquity of information technology provides the ‘workplace’ for this resource, interest and passion form the contract of employment and the grand world challenges the invisible hand of coordination. How can these three forces be used in the commercial sector?

Our design intention was to mimic the world we wished to engage – viral and guerilla marketing, technologically savvy and advanced, incentives and recognition of the individual, a worthy cause and a worthwhile objective – the very factors attractive to Gen X and Gen Yers.

During the summer of 2008 we organized an open, international competition for information innovation in the not-for-profit sector. The prize, and the context for the work, was an open evening where the innovators could ‘pitch’ their ideas at a social learning event. In contrast to the traditional ‘top-down’ conference learning from gurus we aimed for a ‘bottom-up’ event learning from the Gen X/Y.

This paper discusses the experiences in organising a Gen X/Y event for corporates, how to attract the right contributors, how to generate the right conversations and how to exploit the technology in your company.

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