How To Make Your Events More Appealing To Gen Y & Gen Z

Attracting younger members (Gen Y and Z, 44% of the population) is the key challenge facing clubs. Relying on outdated practices and an "old boys club" atmosphere guarantees irrelevance. To recruit Millennials (Gen Y), clubs need family-friendly events that respect busy schedules. For Gen Z, eliminating tech friction is vital; they require a mobile-friendly website or a dedicated app. Securing a younger base requires modernising events, fostering an inclusive culture, and ensuring affordability.

Millennials are probably older than you think. This year, the oldest Millennials are turning 46, and the youngest are turning 31. Meanwhile, Gen Z spans from roughly 14 to 30 years old.

What this means is that all of Gen Y (Millennials) and the vast majority of Gen Z are working-age adults with jobs, disposable income, and hobbies.

Combined, Gen Y and Gen Z make up roughly 44% of the population. So, the big question your committee needs to ask is: Is nearly half of your marketing and outreach actually aimed at them? If you are still catering solely to Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation (who collectively make up about 32% of the population) and just hoping the younger crowd will magically show up, you are leaving a massive number of potential members on the table.

It’s worth noting that the exact cutoff years for these generations vary slightly depending on who you ask. Some say the last Millennials were born in 1993; others push it to 1997. This grey area has led to the creation of the very dumb term "Zillennials", a micro-generation sitting awkwardly between Gen Y and Gen Z.

As a... sigh... Zillennial myself, I feel like I am in the perfect position to help you bridge this gap and appeal to both.

So today, let’s talk about exactly what you need to do to make your organisation’s events significantly more appealing to Gen Y and Gen Z.

Key Takeaways: How to Attract Younger Members To Your Events 

• Do clubs need a mobile app to attract Gen Z and Millennials? Absolutely. Gen Y and Gen Z expect to manage their lives entirely from their phones. If your club doesn't have a mobile-friendly website or a dedicated membership app for quick renewals and event tickets, you are creating "tech friction," and they simply won't join.
• What are the best times to host club events for younger members? You need to adapt your timeline. Younger generations are incredibly time-poor due to work and young family commitments. To get them to attend, shift your events to family-friendly weekend hours or weeknight dinners, and always respect strict finish times so they can plan their schedules.
• How can clubs make membership more affordable for young people? By lowering the initial financial barrier. Millennials are the first generation to be poorer than their parents, so expensive hobbies are a tough sell. To get them through the door, lower the hobby's buy-in cost by offering affordable rental equipment, payment plans, or hosting gear-swap days.
• How can we make our club culture more welcoming to new generations? By moving away from intimidating "old boys club" mentalities and heavy drinking events. You need to actively update the culture and give younger members a seat at the committee table early on. If they don't feel heard, respected, and represented, they will simply leave and start their own clubs.

A Quick Guide to Gen Y & Gen Z

Before we get into how to attract them, let’s quickly define who we are actually talking about. A lot of older committees still use Millennial to mean teenager, but as we established, that ship sailed a long time ago.   

• Generation Y: Gen Y is the digital crossover generation; the oldest Millennials were 9 when the World Wide Web was invented. Gen Y remembers the screech of a dial-up modem, the screech when you accidentally called a fax number, and the screech of a VCR chewing up a tape. A lot of technology used to screech in the 90s. Gen Y were in their teens and early twenties when smartphones, MP3 players and social media came out. Meaning that they were all young enough to adopt those technologies without a second thought. Right now, Gen Y are in the thick of it; building careers, raising young kids, and paying off mortgages. They value community, nostalgia, and experiences, but their absolute most precious commodity is time.   
• Generation Z: Gen Z is the first generation of true digital natives. They have grown up with slick, intuitive modern technology and have never really known a world without high-speed internet and social media. Because of this, they adapt quickly and are incredibly skilled at filtering information fast. They aren’t more reliant on technology than any other generation; they have simply come to value and expect extreme efficiency. They expect a seamless user experience, so if an organisation's info isn't easily accessible via the screen in their pocket, they will just move on to one that is. Right now, they are finishing uni, launching their careers, and looking for communities to join.

Another big difference between the generations is that Gen Y knows why the save icon looks the way it does, and Gen Z doesn't. 

Make It Easy: If I Can't Do It On My Phone, I'm Not Doing It

Gen Y and Gen Z grew up with smartphones, and we are incredibly used to having everything we need available instantly in our pockets. Food delivery, Spotify streaming, credit cards, and even our digital driver's licenses are all just a tap away. It is completely normal for us to leave the house with nothing but our keys and a phone, no physical wallets, no purses, and no bulky backpacks, because our entire lives are managed through that one screen.

What this means for your committee is simple; if you cannot easily exist on our phones, you basically do not exist.

Your club or association needs to have a dedicated mobile app or, at the absolute bare minimum, a mobile-responsive website. Otherwise, Gen Y and Gen Z are simply not going to engage with your organisation. If you don’t allow people to join your club, renew their memberships, and pay their dues directly from their phones in a few taps, they won’t join.

The same goes for membership cards. If you are still relying on mailing out flimsy plastic or cardboard membership cards that we have to remember to stuff into a physical wallet or purse, it’s going to be a frustrating experience. We expect our membership cards, event tickets, and even our historic vehicle logbooks to live digitally on our phones. If we can't scan a QR code or flash a digital card at the door of your next event, chances are, you are making it too hard for most of us to participate.

Rethink The Event Timeline

I say this from the very depths of my soul, we are busy and tired. Gen Y is currently deep in the trenches of paying off mortgages, raising kids, and building careers. Meanwhile, Gen Z is juggling university, multiple side hustles, and trying to establish themselves in a wild economy. Because of this, our absolute most precious commodity is time.  

According to a 2025 report, time-related stress currently peaks for people in their 30s and 40s (Gen Y), and remains significantly higher for Gen Z than it is for Gen X or Baby Boomers. It is also crucial to note that women are even more time-poor, doing on average 41% more unpaid work (cooking, cleaning, child-raising, etc.) than men.

If you want to get younger members through your doors, you simply cannot run your organisation on a retiree's schedule. I’ve told this story before, but there is a local club in my area that I want to join. However, all their events are held during work hours on Thursdays. Because of that, I have never been to any of them.

To attract Gen Y and Gen Z, you need to start planning around people who have 9-to-5s, side gigs, and have to get their kids to Saturday morning sports. 

Here is what an accessible event timeline actually looks like for a time-poor generation:

• Shift the schedule: Instead of a Thursday morning, try moving some meetups to a Sunday afternoon or a weeknight evening.
• Respect the clock: Make sure you offer shorter events so busy younger members have time to come to your event and get home in time to have dinner and put the kids to bed. There’s nothing wrong with having big all-day events, but ensure there are also shorter options for your more time-poor members.  
• Make it family-friendly: Making your events something that the whole family can enjoy will greatly increase your chances of getting more people to them. Not every event needs to be family-friendly, but adding some inclusive, kid-welcoming options to your calendar completely removes the 'I couldn't get a babysitter' hurdle. Even something as simple as booking a venue with a playground or setting up a casual kids' corner can be the deciding factor for a stressed-out parent deciding whether to show up.

You don't need to change every single thing your club does, but if you want new blood, you have to create a timeline that actually allows them to show up.

High Vibe, Low Cost Events 

Fun fact: Gen Y and Gen Z aren’t just time-poor; we’re also regular-poor. Millennials are the first generation to earn less and be overall poorer than their parents at the same age. Wages are simply not increasing in line with inflation and the cost of living, and younger demographics are feeling that squeeze significantly more than older generations. What this means for your committee is that the 44% of the population who represent the future of your organisation have far less disposable income to spend on their hobbies.

Because of this, you need to ensure that being a part of your organisation, particularly if you are a hobby-based club, is actually affordable. To be clear, I don’t mean lowering your membership dues. I mean, you need to lower the cost of entry for the hobby itself to get people through the door.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

• Car Clubs: If you run a classic or performance car club, make sure young people with cheaper, entry-level cars know they are just as welcome as those with the rarest classics. 
• Photography Clubs: Make it abundantly clear that new members don't need a $10,000 DSLR setup to join your weekend photo walks. Actively welcome and encourage people who are just shooting on their smartphones and want to learn the basics. 
• Sporting & Outdoor Clubs: Host an annual gear-swap day or run a second-hand equipment register so new members don't have to buy everything brand new just to get started.

It doesn’t matter what sort of club you run; lowering the barrier to entry is a great way to get more people through the door. Whether it’s opening up your events to those with less expensive gear or hiring out club equipment to new members, giving people an affordable way to take part will always result in more sign-ups.

Fixing the Culture: Make Us Feel Like We Belong

Let's say you've done everything right. You've fixed your tech, scheduled a family-friendly Sunday event, and made the hobby affordable. A 28-year-old finally walks through your doors. Now, you have to make sure your club's culture actually makes them want to stay.

Younger generations deeply value community and purpose, but also have higher rates of social anxiety and very different social habits than the generations before us. If your club feels like an exclusive, intimidating "old boys club," chances are you will lose those younger members.

Rethinking Drinking

Believe it or not, Gen Z is literally the most sober generation on record. Alcohol and drug use are significantly less common among younger demographics than ever before.

What this means is that Gen Z and, to a lesser extent, Gen Y, are simply not big drinkers. If you want to get people in their twenties and thirties to your events, it’s a very good idea not to base everything around a bar tab. No one is asking your committee to go completely straight-edge and start drawing big black Xs on the backs of your hands like you're a member of Minor Threat, but meet-ups in pubs and events that are essentially just piss-ups are going to actively turn younger members away.

Speaking as someone who doesn’t drink, hanging out with people who are drinking hard and getting wasted is not very fun, and I will actively avoid events that feel like they are going to heavily feature alcohol. You don't need to ban booze, but try mixing it up with a Sunday morning coffee run, or at the very least, make sure your venue has genuinely good non-alcoholic options so people don't feel excluded.

Cure The "New Kid" Anxiety

Walking into an event where everyone has known each other forever is a deeply intimidating experience. Make sure you have someone who can help new members find their feet, introduce them to a few friendly faces, and generally show them around. Just having a designated greeter at the door will go a long way toward making that first event a lot less terrifying.

Also, make sure images of your events are available on your website and, more importantly, on your social media. Checking out photos and videos of past events to see what sort of people attended and what the general vibe was is exactly how younger generations figure out if they will fit in. If we can look at your Instagram and see people our own age having a genuinely good time, that anxiety is nowhere near as bad, and we are much more likely to show up.

Give Us A Seat At The Table

We don't just want to pay our dues and sit quietly in the corner; we want to feel like our voices matter. 

Some clubs expect younger members to wait their turn before their opinions are heard. Instead, actively invite younger members to help plan a specific event or join a sub-committee. If you give Gen Y and Z a voice and a sense of ownership early on, they will invest their time and energy into your club tenfold.

If you don’t do these things, younger demographics aren’t just going to sit quietly and eventually decide to play by your rules. When I first got into kayaking, I desperately wanted to join a local club. But every club I looked at was either focused on racing kayaks that cost more than my car, held their events during work hours, relied on paper sign-up sheets, or was mostly about men older than my parents getting drunk.

So, I didn’t join a kayaking club. I started my own.

Yes, it’s small and is mostly just a friend's thing, but the point stands. Young people have hobbies and want to be a part of communities. But if you don’t make room for them in yours, they won't just give up on the hobby; they will just go start their own club.

TL;DR: The Short Answer

Gen Y and Gen Z make up 44% of the population, but they are incredibly time-poor and cash-poor. If you want them to join your organisation, you have to meet them where they are. That means ditching paper forms for a mobile app, moving events outside standard 9-to-5 work hours, making the hobby affordable, and shifting the culture. Give them a voice and a sense of community, and they will become the future of your club.

 

The Kids Are Alright

Yes, Gen Y and Gen Z are anxiety-riddled, latte drinking, sober, socially conscious, technology-obsessed, snowflakes, but they make up 44% of the population and that makes those snowflakes an avalanche. 

They are the future of clubs and associations, so it is time to stop waiting for them to magically conform to the way things have always been done and start building a community that actually fits their lives today. Make the tech accessible, lower the barriers to entry, and give them a genuine seat at the table. If you do, you will find that these generations are incredibly loyal, hardworking, and more than ready to take your organisation into the future.

If you want to see the hard data behind how the landscape of club committees is shifting, have a read of the 2026 Australian Volunteer Demographics Report.

Or for even more ways to bridge this generational gap, check out How To Attract Younger Members To Your Club.