Generation Z: Move over Millennials, There’s a New Generation Making Waves

The first fully digital-first generation, Generation Z born after 2000 are known for their passion and global mindset. Leading the climate change walk-outs and organizing massive marches against gun violence, they are also a powerful consumer force who advocate for the brands they love and challenge those they don’t online in ways that are changing consumer behaviour.

Early evidence suggests this generation is more laid-back than millennials, more pragmatic, and start with a more realistic perspective on what’s possible in work, life, and play. They will be the most ethnically and culturally diverse generation in history, the most educated, and the first to live their lives in a much more diverse world.

As Canada’s leading voice and researcher on generational change, David Coletto explores the world of Gen Z through their eyes, sharing data, stories, and advice on how to engage the newest generation at work, in the marketplace, and in life generally.

ABOUT DAVID COLETTO

David Coletto delivers strategic advice and research design expertise to many of Canada’s foremost corporations, advocacy groups, and political leaders. A leader in online research methodologies, public affairs research, corporate and organizational reputation studies, and youth research, Coletto has led projects for top-tier companies such as Nestle, Sysco, Google, Ernst & Young, the RCMP and Hudson’s Bay, among many other sectors that include pharmaceutical, transportation, financial services, educational, natural resource, telecommunications, media, arts and cultural, tourism, and retail.

Having earned a doctorate in 2010, David is an Adjunct Professor teaching courses on polling and public opinion, political marketing, research and public affairs. He is also an instructor at the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management.  He is an outspoken proponent of transparency in the polling industry and is regularly called upon by media and organizations alike to provide expert analyses of public opinion and research methodologies.

Cities are done. Commuting is dead. Delivery is the future. At least two of these are wrong — but why?

COVID-19 will eventually be tamed by a vaccine, but work-from-anywhere is here to stay. That doesn’t mean the end of the commute, but whole new ways of living, working, and playing closer to home — with an impact on parking to match. And that, in turn, means rethinking who and what cities are for — forget downtowns versus suburbs and imagine a life more local, with everything you need at home or only a few minutes’ walk-, cycle-, or ride away. Behind the scenes, technology is turning restaurants and retail inside-out through deliveries, “dark stores” and “cloud kitchens,” promising — or threatening? — main streets, retails, and real estate as we know it.

Meanwhile, self-driving cars may prove to be the horseless carriage of autonomy – rapidly eclipsed by new species of self-propelled scooters, deliverybots, and buildings with a mind of their own. How are these technologies already transforming the way we see, understand, and get around cities? What effects will they have on where we live, work and play — not to mention where we park?

ABOUT GREG LINDSAY

Greg Lindsay is the director of applied research at the Montréal-based think tank NewCities, and director of strategy at its mobility offshoot CoMotion. He is also a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Foresight, Strategy, and Risks Initiative, a senior fellow of MIT’s Future Urban Collectives Lab, and a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management.

He’s been cited as an expert on the future of cities, technology, and mobility by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and the BBC. He’s a partner at FutureMap, a geo-strategic advisory firm based in Singapore, and has advised Intel, Samsung, Starbucks, Audi, Chrysler, Hyundai, Tishman Speyer, British Land, André Balazs Properties, Emaar, and Expo 2020, among many other organizations. He was the inaugural urbanist-in-residence at URBAN-X — BMW MINI’s urban tech accelerator.

Greg is a two-time Jeopardy! champion (and the only human to go undefeated against IBM’s Watson).