HOUSTON — As Gen Z becomes a larger part of the workforce, it’s important to think about attracting the next generation to your event.
In “The Pipeline Problem: Fixing Your Event’s Future By Focusing on Young Attendees” at the 2025 Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition, leaders from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), which hosts the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, shared best practices.
Daniel Martin, Managing Director, Development, at ASLA; Michelle Mobley, Manager, Exhibits and Sponsorship, ASLA; and Rich Vallaster III, CEM, QAS, AAiP, Senior Director of Industry Relations and Community Engagement at Personify, discussed ASLA’s successful Emerging Professionals Program.
The panelists explained that event professionals should champion this work because:
- Today’s emerging professionals are tomorrow’s leaders
- Doing this can build loyalty early for lifetime engagement
- Young professionals’ fresh perspectives energize programming
- This helps event staff stay connected to emerging trends and needs
- Associations engaging young professionals thrive while others decline
“They are going to be your brand champions,” Vallaster said. “They’re digital natives, but they crave in-person connection.”
Related. Tackling 2026 Trends with Maritz’ Darren Phalen
Inside ASLA’s Emerging Professionals Program
ASLA’s strategic programming elements include:
- Content focused on career advancement
- A mix of inclusive and exclusive emerging-professionals-only programming
- A dedicated Emerging Professionals Zone for connection
- Structured mentorship opportunities with industry leaders
- Awards and presentation platforms to showcase talent
- Affordability through discounts and volunteer program options
- Targeted activities connecting firm leaders with emerging talent
Sponsorship Support
The panelists also asserted that young-professional initiatives can serve as powerful sponsorship opportunities.
Sponsors can support emerging professional lounges or dedicated networking events, fund scholarships or discounted registration for early career attendees, host skill-building workshops or career-development sessions, create and facilitate matchmaking programs, provide exclusive content, resources or tools for young professionals, or offer “first-timer” welcome experiences with brand visibility.
According to the panel, this is a win-win: Sponsors gain access to future buyers and attendees receive valuable support.
While ASLA sponsors were hesitant at first, they quickly saw how popular young professionals programs were, and more are getting interested.
“All of a sudden, they are listening,” Mobley said. “The conversations are getting easier … Talk to your exhibitors about sponsoring young professionals.”
Successful sponsored programs at ASLA include an Emerging Professionals Zone, an alumni tailgate event, a recognition opportunity and a volunteer initiative which allowed students to attend the show.
How to Attract Younger Attendees
The panelists shared five essential steps when trying to bring in younger attendees:
- Define your audience: specific age range, career stage, conduct needs assessment
- Build a task force: include actual young professionals in planning (not just talking about them)
- Start small: pilot one initiative before scaling — test and learn
- Secure leadership buy-in: present the compelling business case with data
- Allocate resources: dedicate budget, staff time and marketing support
The panelists noted that authenticity matters, because young professionals can spot tokenism instantly.
To ensure your programming is making an impact, here are some metrics the panelists shared to track:
- Emerging professional attendance year-over-year trends
- Participation rates in emerging-professional-specific programming
- Social media activity, app usage and networking participation
- Post-event surveys specific to emerging professional experience
- Are exhibitors seeing value in emerging professional connections?
Metrics to track in the long-term:
- Do emerging professionals renew and stay engaged beyond year one?
- Are emerging professionals joining committees, task forces and boards?
- Are emerging professionals promoting your events to peers?
- Are emerging professionals advancing your mission and strengthening your profession?
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