Motivational Factors of Generation Z for Attending the Conferences: Business or Pleasure – why not Bleasure?

Abstract

Student conferences are a significant segment of student life, providing additional education and professional development. They contribute to the increasingly necessary networking, dissemination of ideas, knowledge, skills and competencies. An important consideration in organizing student conferences to attract participants is to explore participants’ motivations for attending conferences. As student conferences are becoming increasingly important, this paper explores Generation Z’s motives for attending student conferences. The aim of this paper is to investigate or determine Generation Z’s motives for attending student conferences. To this end, the following hypotheses indicate that destination and conference program represent significant motivational factors for Generation Z to attend student conferences. The research was conducted with Generation Z students in Croatia and surrounding countries, with a sample of 206 respondents. The research results confirm this, as Generation Z emphasizes the program and content of the conference as the most important motives for attending conferences (although the student conference program differs from the program of scientific and professional conferences), as well as the attractiveness of the destination. The specificity of this generation lies in the fact that they are technologically literate and strive for new experiences, for something they cannot find on YouTube. The contribution of this paper is that it helps conference organizers to adapt to Generation Z, as it offers them some new insights into Generation Z’s motivating factors for attending conferences.