This summer Meeting Professionals International’s World Educational Congress was held here in Minneapolis, where we got to showcase our city to the industry. At a reception for emerging leaders hosted by the Global Emerging Leaders Community, I used the VoiceHive app to ask all the attendees one simple question: In one word, what does an emerging leader need to succeed in this industry? The responses from both emerging leaders and senior industry professions were combined into a word cloud. The more times a word was entered, the larger it became. The word cloud was displayed live all night and the responses were fun to watch.
One thing I found while talking about the question with people was that the responses were very similar whether I was talking to an emerging leader or to a senior professional. That tells me that engaged emerging leaders know what skill set it takes to make it in this industry. That is a good sign for both emerging leaders and the industry; those coming up the ranks will be prepared for what awaits them.
I was also struck with the positive nature of everyone’s response, compared to the more negative messaging we hear about young people trying to enter the workforce as a whole. I could comment more, but in this case I think the word cloud should stand for itself.
Julie Ann Schmidt, CMP, CMM, is the founder of the Global Emerging Leaders Community (GEL). GEL is a one-stop shop for all things in the industry geared towards emerging leaders. The organization is a portal that gives emerging leaders with zero to seven years in the industry help to embark on their career path.