I just got back from SxSW.  One of my favorite panels was the “We want to work with you” Gen Y panel #sxgeny.  For the simple reason that it actually proved to be what the panelists claim they are: collaborative.  While virtually every session at SxSW had a hashtag, the panelists in this session actually used it, viewing the stream in real time and responding, even to criticisms (admittedly from me).  Thirty minutes into the session the floor was opened to questions. And a rich, interactive conversation ensued.

Sure, the group on stage, like many Gen Y’ers I know, was confident, opinionated, and determined to set their own expectations and define their professional roles and relationships. But at the same time they are anxious to learn. They’ll show loyalty to mentors.  And commit time and effort to anyone who’s willing to teach them and help them succeed.  Not that these are generational characteristics, but this group clearly expressed both what they want from an employer and what they’re willing to give.

No doubt there are boomers and Gen Xers who resent Gen Y’s self-proclaimed digital prowess along with their determination to work “with” us rather than for us.  But in many ways this generation is narrowing gaps. At least for me. It’s a blast working with them, mentoring them, learning from them.  This video is a brief recap of TNGG to date and shares some of my enthusiasm.

Oh, thought you’d be interested in this Twitter exchange between me and another boomer, Rick Murray, president of Edelman Digital.  During the session I reminded the room that even boomers hate aspects of their job (during a discussion about whether every aspect of one’s gig should be rewarding).  Rick saw it and answered back.

At times it seems unfair to stereotype an entire generation, so we crave to be individuals. I especially feel that when the negative attributes of our generation come up, people are quick to dismiss a collective Gen Y status. However if you are talking about hiring Gen Y employees because there are tech savvy and eager to grow, then yes, “I am Gen Y, please hire me.” Sometimes I feel that I switch my generation status on and off depending on the company I’m with, always trying to have the best of both worlds. I don’t want a label stuck on my forehead but that same label can empower me in some situations.

I felt this same divide during SXSW interactive and the Gen Y panel. Before I arrived I was proud to label myself a Gen Y or millennial. I wanted to be classified with that group. As the discussion heated up I started to squirm in my seat a little. I started to wonder if I’m better off being Hannah-non-generation-specific rather than Hannah a Gen Y-er. I didn’t like the idea of embracing that status if older generations were going to view it negatively.

In the end we often can help the labels placed on us anyway. We can’t help the year we were born or hide our obvious ages, but I do still struggle with the labels I give myself. I want to be an individual first, but I want to be part of the next great generation as well.

Do you own up to your Gen Y or millennial status all the time, or just when it’s convenient?

Photo Credit: davidgiesberg

I’m studying abroad in Germany and to the locals, March 17^th is just another day.  Donning green and raising a pint to the Irish might be more important this year than ever to my American friends and me.  While we’ve become well integrated into the German culture, the lack of fanfare today is a larger than normal reminder of our distance from home.

On St. Patrick’s Day in America, I’d be putting the finishing touches on dozens of green-frosted sugar cookies for my friends, something that went by the wayside this year.  No matter how many times I ask my flatmates or how often I do the calculations, the metric system still eludes me (not to mention the strength of the dollar doesn’t leave a lot of room for baking supplies in my study abroad budget).

Before I moved to college, my mother would decorate the house weeks in advance and make green shamrock-shaped pancakes for St. Patty’s Day breakfast.  My brother makes a mean corned beef and cabbage for his friends. The green-dyed Chicago River is a point of pride for many of my university classmates hailing from the Chicago land area.  These traditions are the things missed most after months and an ocean of separation.  I’m still of course wearing green, but I didn’t purposely pack anything with this holiday in mind.  Luckily I have one sweater that has sufficed, though it required doing laundry yesterday (this pseudo-holiday must be a big deal if I’m voluntarily heading to the washing machine before the absolute last minute).  One student in my program recently went shopping specifically for her green attire, though she was unsuccessful in her goal of finding a giant green top hat.

Explaining St. Patrick’s Day to non-Americans hasn’t been easy.  My teacher explained this morning that Germans don’t even know who Saint Patrick is, but my classmates and I assured her that’s only a minor technicality that’s never stopped anyone before. Without Google, I’m in the dark about the origins of this day as well.  Eventually it boils down to just another excuse to binge drink, as if American college students in Germany really need one.  We’re headed to the local Irish Pub tonight, though the possibility of no green beer upon our arrival has been tough to swallow.  There are some in our group who contest today being a real holiday, but even they have conceded to “a Guinness or two” at our celebration tonight. Whether it’s real or not, being Irish in Germany will be a small reminder of home and not easily forgotten.

It’s a statistic as overwhelming as ‘over 1 billion sold.’ But make no mistake; our national problem isn’t a lack of awareness that fast food is unhealthy. Instead, we (people and brands) have structured a society where the easiest option is the least healthy and few know how to help themselves eat any differently.

I’ll admit that I’m part of a pampered generation. Parents who could cook never bothered to teach many of us, and many of us were content not to learn; I was shocked at how many people I met in college who didn’t even know how to boil pasta. But worse than our generation being somewhat spoiled is that our nation’s relationship with food has become an abusive one—one where fewer parents cook for their children because they’ve become habituated to a system that provides their food.

And what of public schools? Weren’t they always “preparing us for the real world”—training us to become functioning members of society—yet for all our education, our generation was taught little of dietary nutrition, grocery shopping on a budget, or cooking our own meals. And so we’ve been left to learn from no one, limited to satisfy our hunger with over-processed options, and now obesity can be found in the cafeterias of elementary schools.

I only touch on these failings of parents and public schools so I might raise this question: Would the brands contributing to our nation’s obesity willingly take action to fix it or do these brands hold quarterly profits higher than human lives—requiring the pressures of government legislation, or a shifting market, in order to address the issue? Surprisingly, we’ve already had some volunteers, and they’re major ones.

PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group—they should sound familiar even if you’ve never had a soft drink. Yet these three titans (and main contributors to childhood obesity) have established new “School Beverage Guidelines,” which focused on providing “lower-calorie and higher nutrient beverages in schools, including waters, 100% juices, and portion-controlled sports drinks.” Since this effort began in 2004, shipments of full-calorie carbonated sodas “were 95 percent lower in the first half of the 2009-10 school year than they were…before the guidelines went into effect.”

Call me cynical, most of my generation is anyway, but I can’t help wondering: did these brands truly do this voluntarily or did they volunteer only because of their foresight? In other words, did they see a market already turning more and more against carbonated soft drinks and toward healthier options?

Did they see that people like Jamie Oliver would be rousing health movements? Did they see that someone like Michelle Obama would start active plans against childhood obesity? If they did, this good deed is more appropriately deemed a smart business decision, securing their future dollars through alternative products that act responsively, and, only by coincidence, responsibly to the turning market.

Image: Source

A week ago we weren’t sure if we were even going to make the trip. Even now we only have a few solid plans. The entire idea sprouted out of my sister’s lack of desire to sit around the house again for the entirety of her Spring Break from senior year of college. Knowing that she needed a vacation, but also being the Gen Y overachievers that we are, we decided to take a Kerouac-like trip. We would enjoy the journey itself and leave ourselves as flexible and open as possible to new experiences and new people.

Speak of the devil. A song called “iGeneration” just came on my iPod at random. Good song by the way.

If anything has shaped the way that the “iGeneration” or Gen Y travels, technology has no doubt.

Think about how GPS navigation and cell phones have changed the way you travel from place to place. For our trip we didn’t print out any maps and definitely don’t have any paper maps from 10 years ago with us. We didn’t need to call our friends from our home land-line phone to confirm our arrival time or where they would pick us up. We simply packed our bags, hopped in the car with our gadgets and some snacks, and set the course.

What about how smart phones and laptop (i.e. mobile) computers have changed the way we do business and vacation in other cities. Business and vacation blend together almost all too well. Here I am writing an article in a moving car on my laptop, after all. We didn’t pack guide books, but have LonelyPlanet.com bookmarked on my laptop and my iPhone in case we can’t find wireless internet access.

Even social media has changed the way some really connected Gen Y-ers travel. For this trip we’re crashing on a college friend’s couch (the budget traveler’s alternative to a hostel) and meeting up with another college friend coming in from out of town, too. For the most part nobody we know IRL knows a whole lot about our destination. So we reached out to the Twitter community to find fellow tweeps who live in the area, get suggestions for places to go and things to see, and even plan meetups to bring the internet relationships to real life.

Well this traveler has to sign off now. We made it past DC and it’s my turn at the wheel. Let the adventure begin…

Image: Indy138

I’m not exactly what you would consider a girly girl. I prefer pants to skirts, I don’t fuss over my makeup for hours and my biggest concern isn’t whether or not my underwear matches. Needless to say, I am still a girl. I try to make sure I look decent enough to leave the house, but beyond that, I try not to be too high maintenance.

But I always gravitated towards Barbies as a child. Why?

I used Barbies to escape to episodes of drama – where friends fought over boys, partied and never went to “work” as an actress…. basically an episode of 90210. I’m not quite sure where we got these ideas about how young women lived their lives but let me tell you – we were dead wrong. I’m definitely not living in a mansion with my best friend, I’ll tell you that much.

Today, Barbie is much different than I remember her. She has her very own website dedicated to fun and games, which may be disturbing to some. Instead of having girls bring their Barbies outside to play, they sit on a computer and play something called “Diamond Castle”.… a small upgrade from live-in a mansion with my best friend.

Also, the actual dolls have changed. There are Princess and Fairy Barbies and not to mention the Fashionista Barbies, because knowing how to dress in a leopard print bubble dress is important. However, some things will never change. Barbie will always have a million different careers including both dentist and rockstar. I guess she can do it all.

Barbies have become collector’s items. Granted, I never took good enough care of my dolls to ever make them worthwhile, but there is something about Barbies that are timeless. When my mother was young, Barbies were a commodity. I remember her telling me how excited she was to get her first Barbie doll and how she cherished it. I used to think I was doing my Barbies a favor by giving them haircuts.

Admitting my childhood Barbie addiction is fairly embarrassing to be completely honest. But I wonder why so many other young girls, just like me, are so in love with the Barbie brand. By now, we all know about Barbie’s unrealistic proportions, but for some reason, it still remains the most recognizable girl’s toy today. You just can’t miss one of those familiar smiles in a bright pink Mattel box.

Not that long ago, Barbie reached its 50th birthday. Most brands don’t have that kind of staying power. The “obsession” still lives on and is just as strong as ever. Barbie periodically undergoes changes like when her breasts were enlarged, when she finally dumped Ken in 2004 and when they made Barbies of different ethnicities. There is no denying that the Barbie brand will continue to change and stay in the hearts and minds of young girls everywhere, much often to the disdain of their mothers.

Image source

Boy meets girl. Boy wants girl. Boy gets girl. Girl wants freedom. Boy loses girl. Boy falls apart. Boy quits job. Girl finds herself. Boy still wants girl. Girl finds new boy. Old boy finds new job. And a new girl. Named Autumn.

Get the picture?

Those who enjoy sappy endings may have been frustrated by this movie. Why couldn’t Tom (boy) and Summer (girl) just make it work? They were so damn cute. And happy! What went wrong?

Why did it take a devastating break-up for Tom to pursue a career he loved? And how is it possible that Summer, a girl who didn’t believe in love, could change her mind and marry someone else in a year’s time?

Oh-so-Gen-Y, right? Just another story about a couple of flaky 20-somethings. A couple of hot messes.

Well, that’s one perspective.

I love this movie because it gives an honest portrayal of our generation’s impassioned idealism.  Many of us grow up assuming everything is going to work out the way we planned. We’ll get into college, graduate, land a great job, make enough money and live happily ever after with our one true love.

Now, I’m not saying this can’t happen – but it’s not an easy or frequent reality. As the movie shows, there are road bumps, break-ups, even quarter-life crises. Sometimes, life gives us a swift kick in the ass and we have to deal.

Are we stubborn? Confused? Completely lost at times? Sure. But who wasn’t in their early 20s? And even later on in life for that matter; “quarter-life crisis” was inspired by “mid-life crisis” after all.

What’s important is that when faced with our first big disappointments or failures as young adults, we learn how to move on. In most cases, like Tom’s, it makes us stronger in the end. We can cry, pout, sulk and fight it forever, but as the Rolling Stones hit goes: You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well you just might find, you get what you need.

Because, in reality, Autumn always comes after Summer.

Image: Source

Co-working is a pattern of working that’s recently been gaining popularity with the proliferation of mobile tools such as notebooks and wireless internet. Since employees are now able to work from anywhere, sometimes with as little as a mobile phone, working “from home” (or at the bistro down the street from the office or in your PJs at 1AM) is as popular as ever. Co-working simply occurs when people work alone, together.

At a coffee shop, you may be working on a new business proposal for a new client pitch and the girl next to you may be working on the code for her employer 2,000 miles away. Either way, you’re both getting work done in the same space, but you’re each doing your own thing.

More formalized “co-working spaces” have been popping up in the past few years, all the way from San Francisco and New York City, to Austin (like the one I co-founded) to Paris, Tokyo, Johannesburg and everywhere in between. And it’s not just limited to posh metropolitan cities—even smaller cities and towns now claim co-working spaces.

Once they’re established, co-working communities tend to be about socializing and collaboration. When you finally gain enough trust from your employer or you go out on your own as an independent insert-title-of–knowledge-worker-here, you find that working from your desk at home isn’t as exciting as you thought it would be. Even the most introverted people need some semblance of social interaction outside of their dog and that huge pile of laundry on the bedroom floor; separation of work and home really is important, as it turns out.

My prediction is that co-working and collaboration spaces will continue in growth and popularity around the world. Members of Gen Y want autonomy and independence, but they still want to be around smart people who are being productive. We’ve been conditioned to work this way since college—I can clearly recall group all-nighters where I’d be working on my advertising projects and friends would be hacking away at their organic chemistry homework and English term papers.

It’s important to point out that the shared office space aspect of co-working isn’t what’s important and it definitely isn’t a novel concept. Executive suites have been around for decades, but they seem to lack a certain level of community and socializing—perhaps why Gen Y and their cohorts gravitate toward more informal and casual co-working spaces. Bosses and supervisors of Gen Y employees will be quick to point out the superfluous nature of co-working memberships, citing the expensive downtown offices the company leases, but it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Gen Y craves the cross-pollination, collaboration, socializing and stream of new and interesting people—collectively, a community—that exec suites and cubicles hinder in addition to their fellow employees at the office.

Traditional offices will not go away completely, but they will have to evolve to accommodate for a young, vocal workforce who wants an additional place to work added to the mix.

Chances are there’s already one, if not more coworking spaces in your city—if not someone is probably working on it as you read this. Check out the Co-working Wiki for more information on this trend and to see the massive list of international cities with a space. Most places tend to have a day-rate or a free day pass so you can try it on for size. Plan a day to visit one (they’re great when you’re traveling and need a cool place to work that’s not a corporate coffee shop with no free wi-fi). Working from a co-working space is a great change of pace and you’ll no doubt still get lots of work done and meet some cool people. But leave the stack of laundry at home.

Photo Credit: turoczy

You can’t replace it. You can’t duplicate it. Even in this day and age, where you can feasibly know every important piece of information about someone’s life without ever having spoken to them – or, for that matter, met them – human contact is still important.

People lived for centuries without the constant connection of social media, computers and smartphones. They didn’t live without real-world families and friendships.

We may be a digital generation, but we have analog lives, too.

I, for one, would much rather be at a party with my friends than at home reading tweets and text messages about what a great time they’re having. I would rather be taking the pictures than seeing them later on Facebook. It gets boring staring at a screen – and, if you do it long enough, it gives you a serious headache.

If anything, our analog lives are made more complex by our digital ones. Not only do we need stellar interview and phone skills, but our e-mail and texting has to look professional when the situation requires.

And that doesn’t even scratch the surface. Our Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, MySpace profiles (if they exist anymore), and everything Google-able has to appear spick and span and viewable by potential employers, colleges and parents. That keg stand you did at that frat party freshman year was a lot easier to hide 10 years ago.

Not to mention, your digital world wouldn’t be very exciting if your analog one wasn’t filled with people and activities. Without those first connections…well, you’re kind of just a creeper looking for friends in a chatroom.

When it comes down to it, our digital lives complement our analog ones. And it should never be the other way around.

Digital natives, what’s your take?

Photo Credit: detune

What made the night even more entertaining was the fact that two of my friends constantly tweeted their opinions throughout the night. Not gonna lie, some of the stuff they were saying was pretty funny, for example,

‘They announced that the Twilight kids would be coming up, and my mom goes: “Guess that’s the salute to horror.” BAM!’ via @grace_kendall

‘Feel like I watched an episode of I Love the 80s but really its I Love John Hughes #genius’  via @GTproductions.

At one point, I even acknowledged on my own Twitter how much I enjoyed both of my friends comments. The immediate response from @grace_kendall : Ha, glad you appreciate it! My mom thinks I’m just talking to myself. According to @GTproductions “I loved the tweets, it made the show a global experience, I was tweeting with someone in the UK and in Cali about it, and instantly!”

I didn’t go through the trouble of trolling the Twitter-sphere to see what everyone was saying, and would occasionally glance at the Twitter feed that showed up on the Google page when I needed to look up an actor or a film.

The thing that makes Twitter such a great platform for this kind of sharing is the fact that now, instead of just talking to those that are also watching the show with us (even if that is just our goldfish, Oscar) we have the ability to impart our opinion to the world. Plus, those that want to hear us, like I wanted to hear my friends, are able to do so. And those that want to shut us out, can just ignore us! I just wanted to know what my friends were saying, and Twitter gave me this option. For people like @GTproductions, she even took the opportunity to engage with others from around the world. If I had wanted to follow hashtag topics to see what everyone was saying, I had that alternative as well.

Who knows, Twitter might be the starting ground for the next Roger Ebert.

What was your Twitter Academy Awards experience?

Image via ianmunroe