So Saykay.

musings from a geeky travel tech gal living life in a constant state of beta.

While I've always wanted a unicorn bathed in fairy dust, I'd give it up for a ticket to PhocusWright.

The three years I have spent in the corporate world following the completion of my MBA program have been full of learning, to say the least.

Most notable has been learning to adapt to change on the fly, in any and every scenario.

I'm actually quite grateful for this now expected state of "anything can happen at any moment" mindset. It keeps me on my toes and challenges me to continue seeking out opportunities to learn & grow in my career.

Knowledge has always been my rock. And as an employee, I have to be given a chance to grow in that area to feel as though I'm reaching my full potential. And that growth occurs for me in leaps and bounds whenever I'm given the chance to attend industry events.

In the closet of travel industry events, The PhocusWright Conference is your best pair of Christian Louboutin pumps.

In my industry, there is one event that stands as the mecca of all each year... where the biggest players in our industry come to pow-wow, schmooze, and revel in each other's near-celebrity status - The PhocusWright Conference.

Last year, I struck gold. By being in the right place at the right time when a colleague had to back out last-minute, I was the only one around able pick up and go at a moment's notice.

Of course, it just happened to be two weeks before my wedding. Didn't matter. No friggin' way I would turn down that once-in-a-late-twenties career opportunity.

It was a smart move.

The keys... or at least a 3-day pass... to the travel kingdom.

I met some incredible leaders and executives, as well hundreds of startups with some of the most talented minds in travel. I listened in awe to keynote speakers whose voices reverberated throughout the room in tones intending to put the fear of God in you... to shake you into action, into innovation, into GO DO SOMETHING.

I came back with over twenty pages of notes and ideas, many of which I'm still pulling from today. To me, actionable ideas are priceless.

And even more valuable are the new industry friends I first met at that event, many of whom I am today actively doing business with in ways never before explored by either party.

This was real, measurable value... more so than many weeks of work produce.

But I knew the inevitable truth that it might be ten years before I ever had the opportunity to experience it again.

Are unicorns bathed in fairy dust included with my registration?

The problem is price. PhocusWright likely wants to keep it as the elite of the elite for a reason... to maintain the level of demand that posts exactly like this one represent, and price is the simplest way to do that. And the quality of the event reflects the price to be sure - it's big time as far as travel conferences go.

How much? Try $3,000.

No, that's not a typo. And that's about as cheap as it gets. 

I believe it's worth it, but does the company funding it agree is the question.

After airfare, hotel, etc, we're talking $5,000. If I wanted to be laughed at, I would ask for approval for that purchase without so much as blinking... but a history of conservative budgeting would incline me to not waste my breath.

It's not like I haven't already been sent to other conferences and training events this year - I have. They are just much, much less expensive.

To me, this is when an industry with decades of history and tradition can be somewhat depressing instead of inspirational like I've seen it be.

It's one of those roadblocks you encounter that prevents progress for young leaders personally and professionally, and is many times why so many leave our industry for good.

As an industry, we're perpetuating the prohibition of fresh thoughts and innovative ideas penetrating the top ranks of industry executives or circulating with trade press... all because of price.

I'm not saying that by adding a few youngsters, this will completely change. The rules are the same. What I am saying is that it will help.

Gen Y is different from the wise leaders who have come before us in many ways, in some good ways and some bad. 

All we've ever known is collaboration and teamwork. It's one of the things we do best and we look to proactively create opportunities for innovation through partnerships with our networks, both personal and professional. For us, the two blend as nearly one.

Yet, ironically these events to which our companies aren't able to afford to send us are exactly where that kind of collaboration can most easily take place - face to face.

Wouldn't ya know it... I forgot my mock turtleneck & sport coat.

RL Pictures, Images and Photos

Last year, as I stood in a room full of 50+ men, seeing rarely a female pass by and definitely never a female within five years of my age, I realized I better relish my three rare days in the "travel industry elite" sun. Out of over 20 innovators who presented at the annual "Travel Innovators Summit" on the main stage, only one was a female... and she was running some dude's Power Point presentation.

It was like watching an episode of Mad Men, except the women weren't disrespected... they simply weren't present to begin with. I was shocked, but later told that's "just how the travel industry is."

I can accept that I've got two things working against me - my age and my sex. My hard work has gotten me where I am today, but I've got a long way to go.

And I'm fighting a losing battle as our industry tolerates under-developing young leaders, which many times forces women to explore opportunities in industries where, for the most part, women are in much greater number in top leadership positions.

At 28, in a mid-level management position just like mine, I need to see living proof that what I strive to become is possible... that it has been done successfully by a woman before me.

There was no greater recent loss to our industry in this regard than Michelle Peluso, former CEO to the home of the beloved Roaming Gnome.

And if top young performers don't have role models to look up to in their own organization like Michelle, events like PhocusWright are when they can meet the living and breathing examples in our industry of what is possible... the future meets the soon-to-be history.

It all comes down to the $crilla.

The price tag of an event like this prevents companies from ever consider it a feasible expense for young leaders, male or female, which is quite understandable and, in fact, financially responsible. Making it worse is if everyone in higher-ranking positions must be given budget priority.

This type of obstacle hurts young high-potential employees in their development as well as their companies.

It's a cycle supported by prices that treat everyone equally, but ironically that equality ends up excluding most young leaders because of the budget constraints that naturally exist for younger, less tenured employees regardless of their future potential.

Young leaders worth their salt make the experience better for all.

I'm not saying let's send anyone and everyone. Not every member of Gen Y in the travel industry is worthy of or ready for face time with an executive just because of their birthdate.

But some are, most likely including your future VPs & CEOs.

This industry is too complex for emerging leaders to not to be ready at lower level in his or her career, and we should be thrilled if we're lucky enough to have already recruited and hired that talent. The bigger question is do we know it and are we capable of retaining them until they reach their full potential?

One idea for a solution.

30 slots should be reserved each year to be awarded to the Top 30 Under 30 (or 35) young leaders in the travel industry. The media revenue opportunity for the sponsoring organization or publication around the application process, selection of winners and final announcement leading up to the event, as well as post-event coverage, could be built to more than cover costs.The result of this initiative could spark the ideas and connections that will drive the breakthrough solutions for the next generation of travel.

Additionally, this initiative could create a long-term opportunity to promote the development of young leaders in our industry, while establishing an annual recurring media revenue opportunity for the sponsoring publication.

Not only is it valuable for the chosen attendees, but more so for the top executives who, if I was a betting woman, might gladly welcome some fresh insight and challenging rhetoric with the young up and comers and get as far away as possible from the status quo.

What's the worst that could happen?

Until something like this is put into place, the industry suffers, its bench of talent rots, and its future success is limited to only as much growth as what will be desperately fought for and scrappily obtained by those young leaders, many of whom will be jaded at the end of the process.

If you gave them that extra boost of support they need today, how much more could they do for you and your company tomorrow?

One of the few travel companies that I have seen to-date recognizing the next generation of leaders in our industry and giving them a voice is Tnooz.com. I hope Tnooz's breakthrough in this area will inspire other companies to do the same and make our talent pool overall better as a result.

Passion + energy abounds from high-potential employees. Take it & use it before you lose it.

To oversimplify a complex topic, let's go do this thing. :)

The longer we hold young leaders back, the less prepared they will be to one day lead your organization, and thus the longer it will be until you can retire with the peace of mind that you are leaving the company in good hands.

Give your next generation of high-potential leaders in travel a chance to prove if their hands are, in fact, the good ones.

-SKE

 

Why isn't Gen Y motivated by money? Because they (we) don't know any better.

Everywhere you turn online there is a new article covering the topic of how to motivate Gen Y at work, and in almost every one you will find the staple quote touting how "Gen Y isn't motivated by money."

As a proud member of Gen Y who fits most of the demographic stereotype to a T, this is the one big area where I diverge. I just happen to be VERY motivated by money, and this statement always leaves me more than perplexed.

For a generation inundated with gold stars, competitive peers and relentless ambition, this generalization just doesn't add up for me or any of my colleagues who also fall into my same age bracket and pay their own bills. Money is just one of many factors we have grown up to understand signifies the value a company attributes to us as individuals, and I can't even imagine how much harder we would work if ever told that a peer of ours takes home X% more every two weeks than we do. Talk about motivation. But do the dollars themselves actually motivate us?

We have grown up in a world of "fair" while also being raised by doting helicopter parents. While that usually implies that they have spent our entire lives hovering over our every move and purposely influencing decisions made each day, that also means they pulled the purse strings and managed the budget that funded our lives all along the way.

WHERE THE TRAIN RAN OFF THE TRACKS:

Money isn't motivating to us (and to the stereotyping or generalization police out there, I am referring to the average, middle-class Gen Y'er and I'm aware it doesn't apply to everyone) because, quite simply, we've always had it.

It's an afterthought - an assumed thing that doesn't drive our life quality or decisions. It doesn't rank in our top motivators because our boomer parents worked their asses off to provide it for us. They never wanted us to have to go through what their parents, many of whom suffered through the Great Depression, put them through in terms of "Don't you dare turn on the AC unless it's over 90" frugality.

They, in the most "loving" way they know how, want us to have it all - and we do. From trust funds to co-managed bank accounts with mysterious deposits dropping through any time our account balance hovers near zero, our parents have always taken care of it all.

And now, with the oldest of our generation just entering their late twenties, the truth is beginning to rear its ugly little budget-handicapped head.

NUMBERS DON'T LIE

A recent University of Michigan study found that only 27% of 23 to 28 year-olds, the oldest of Gen Y, are able to perform simple interest rate calculations, or grasp concepts like inflation or risk diversification. And a recent retail consulting firm study found that only 28% of Gen Yers purchased less in 2009 than prior years due to the economic downturn. If you don't have stocks in the crapper and you pay no rent by living with your parents, as the Census Bureau reports approximately 50% of all 18 to 24 year-olds did in 2008, then why should your spending habits have to change?

That mindset is scary for America, but scarier for those of us in that demographic who already are 100% financially independent from their parents, and are the first of what promises to be hundreds in our generation realizing that money really IS a motivating factor. By the time we all catch the clue bus, it might be too late.

NEVER WASTE A GOOD CRISIS... OR A JOB-SEEKING GEN Y'ER

As this downturn has continued to promote drastic corporate cost cutting, excusing the silly grins plastered to CFO's faces from massive labor cost savings just as Microsoft's CFO Chris Lidell wore last fall while stating "never waste a good crisis," a day will come when these lower salaries are the norm and will remain that way. Corporations will have been trained by Boomer-funded Gen Y'ers that all we need is a salary - no matter what that salary is - a flexible work environment, online training and some volunteer programs, and we are good to go. We look like, and are, a steal to them - ambitious multi-taskers who will work 24/7 for wages reminiscent of 1992.

Please understand, I'm not saying our entire generation is causing this by allowing their parents to help out every once in awhile. But what I am saying is statistics don't lie. And everything in this life is ends up being ironically cyclical, doesn't it?

We are striving so hard to move up the corporate ladder, to achieve more than our peers and those who came before us quicker and faster than anyone has ever done before, but we need Boomers to finally retire before those slots we so desperately yearn to fill are available. Yet, once those Boomers retire, many of whom are funding the 50% of Gen Y still living at home, the cash cow funding the idealistic, money=low priority mentality will be no more. And all that will be left is new standard, the expectation now set with corporations of our generation's low need for financial reward in our career. Awesome.

If our generation's spending continues at a pace 5X than that of our parents at the same age and $5/day coffee continues to rank as a need equal to electricity and water, we can kiss disposable income for things like travel goodbye.

All I know is I continue to rank money quite high on my list of motivators in my career. Call me greedy, but I call it realistic. I love what I do, but I love more what I'm enabled to do when I'm not at wrk.

YOU'RE VALUABLE. YOU'RE WORTH IT. OWN THAT.

Many Gen Y'ers who have come before me and will continue to come after at my large corporation might make me look like one money-grubbing bee-otch, but I will continue to press on to ensure my compensation remains at a level equal to my performance - no more and no less. I don't feel entitled, but I'm certain I am and should continue to be valued. I'm smart. I inspire new concepts into action. And I'm a thought-leader. Regardless of my age or generational designation, that makes me valuable.

Keeping your perspective in check is important when it comes to compensation and responsibility, and I constantly do that for myself to ensure I don't let my generational tendencies, specifically impatience, get the best of me. What those before you have gone through is an important process to understand, accept and follow 80% of the time while evaluating "what could we, as an organization, do better and do I have that X-factor that makes me uniquely qualified to help us achieve it?"

The 20% exception to the 80/20 rule should be about exactly that - your personal X-factor. I have that. Many of us do - and I would guess an even larger percentage of a group reading blogs like this and active in learning from their social network peers fall into that X-factor-possesing category. But here's the difference - what are you using that X-factor for?

Noble causes are exactly that, and I praise you for it. But nowhere does it say that has to happen in conjunction with your work. Personally, I'm don't spend 60 hours a week fighting the battle for use of fewer styrofoam cups, or for more online training - it continues to be about responsibility and compensation, and the overall betterment of the culture in which we spend most of our awake hours. And for all of those, I will continue to fight.

FILL UP THAT GOLD STAR CHART, BABY.

To be clear for all Gen Yers who are reading this thinking "This is crap - volunteering IS very important to our generation, as is training and learning, you selfish bee-otch," you are right. But why be lazy? Yes, I said it, lazy.

Why let your company give you those things that you yourself could get any number of places outside of work, while work is one of the ONLY places that can give you what you need financially?

Join a volunteer organization, participate in free local training through marketing or web development non-profit groups in your community. If you can get that all at work - fantastic, and I envy you. But for the majority, don't think for a second your organization plans to give you the very, very best of both worlds for the duration of your career. Something must eventually suffer, and probably already is, so chose your priorities wisely. It is completely up to you.

In parallel to my ongoing fight for my personal career priorities, I will continue to thank my parents for cutting me off at a young age and allowing me to make financial missteps on my own. Sooner than later. The lessons learned through those experiences are what have trained me to know and understand why certain parts of my budget are important for me and for my family, and thus why I must continue to persist in tugging on the proverbial pant-leg of those who control my financial future.

Whether as a kindergartener in the late 80's or a mid-level female manager at a large corporation today, the gold stars on my chart better keep on coming. And I intend to make sure they do so. 

-SKE