She came to town last week and spoke at Directions 2006. I didn’t attend, but from what I gather, she was the keynote speaker at an annual business conference where all the bigwigs in Reno Sparks gather to learn what’s up for business in the coming year. Her message seems to have become a local obsession because almost every day the local media prints an article about it.
What the heck did she say? I’m guessing it went something like this: Hey, people, Gen X is an important, emerging economic force. Make sure your region caters to this segment if you want to live… I mean, thrive.
Amen, sister.
Apparently, we Gen X’ers are waaaaay different than the Boomers who came before us. See, we’re all about quality of life. Live first, work second. Corporations are not to be trusted (they layoff, downsize and fire all the time… where’s the security? Oh yeah, there is none) so we seek our own paths. Social Security? A joke. We’ll have to provide for ourselves. Are we cynical? Not really, just pragmatic. Realistic.
Now that the Baby Boomers are getting older and thinking about retirement, I guess Northern Nevada is looking toward the next generation of workers to provide staffing, growth and economic leadership. I suppose Rebecca’s message was pretty much a wake up call to that effect.
(Either that or maybe all those young twenty-something reporters working at the Reno Gazette finally encountered someone in the biz world they can actually relate to. Hmmm, maybe it really is our turn to shine.)
