Aileen EllisProject Manager| Aileen Ellis PgMP PMPColorado Springs, Co, United States
Many of us are leaders in our local PMI chapters. Can you share any ideas you use to attract Millennials to your meetings? Are any of the chapters also trying to attract Gen Zers to your meetings? What is working for you? Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Eric LamySenior Project Manager| Keurig Green MountainNewbury, Ma, United States
Hi Aileen,
I'm a Millenial, and I just attended a PMI chapter meeting this week, so I'll try to give an answer that applies broadly to my peers. Much of the Chapter leadership is (often rightly) dominated by those with significantly more experience than the Millenial demographic, so it can be intimidating to participate in Chapter events without some level of safety net or introduction. I think Chapters would do well to implement some level of mentor pairing to involve new or more junior Project Managers in the PMI community alongside a "sponsor" who they can engage with and benefit from in a more personal, direct way.
Beyond this, focusing events around career advancement or professional development would be a great way to involve those who are new to the industry or looking to break into a more senior role. This still leaves open the question of actually finding those younger participants, of course, but in many cases I think there are probably relevant individuals right underfoot in the offices of your more senior Chapter membership. It would behoove you as a Chapter leader, then, to work with your members to recruit younger PMs from within their own workplaces to attend PMI meetings - even with some incentive, if necessary.
Let me just say that I'm extremely grateful that you're even asking this question - there are far too few Millenials (not to even speak of the Gen Z set) involved in the PMI community, and anything we can do to spark their participation will be a boon to the future of our profession. Saving Changes...
Aileen EllisProject Manager| Aileen Ellis PgMP PMPColorado Springs, Co, United States
Eric- thanks for your response. I really like your idea of a "sponsor". I would take the idea even further. I believe a more experienced project manager could mentor someone less experienced who is moving into the field or moving up in the field. I believe in return the less experienced (younger) project manager could mentor the more experienced (older) project manager in many areas also. Two obvious areas where us older project managers may benefit from mentoring:
1. how to interact and engage the younger workforce and younger customers
and
2. how to use technology to make our lives easier.
You mentioned the idea of an "incentive" to get you interested in attending PMI meetings. What might be an incentive that would get you to want to fully engage with PMI at the local chapter level?
Thanks again for responding.
Aileen Saving Changes...
The idea of mentoring and pairing experienced project professionsks with new entrants, is not new and is being adopted and applied by many chapters. I myself have delivered training for mentors at PMI Leadership Meeting back in 2005, and have been mentoring many young professionals from more than one platfotm. I suppose you can have enough guideline and marerial from PMI on this. Saving Changes...
