Lamudi Brand and Communications Director and experienced public relations officer Ken Lerona urged business students to break the cycle of judging future generations during Spill the Tea: Keeping up with the Millennials forum in the Finster Auditorium last September 29.

“The generation ahead of one generation always says the generation after them are worse than them and it’s a cycle that goes on… They [older generations] don’t understand or they refuse to understand where we are standing right now… Just don’t judge the generation after you,” he said, emphasizing the stereotypes the older generations labeled the millennials such as “lazy, entitled, weaklings, and lost.

He also demonstrated the generation gap between the millennials and baby-boomer generation.

“This generation says ‘okay, I’m going to live my life in the best way I want to be and that’s yolo. And the generation before us do not understand to be in that situation and they hate us for that… We do not know what’s going to happen tomorrow that’s why yolo,” the Iloilo-native said.

Dismissing academic theories in his talk, Lorena shared seven tips for millennials to thrive in the competitive world of business and marketing.

These tips include: speak the market’s language, immerse, do not be a (ro)bot, do not be a marketer, be human, treat the generation market right, and know, feel and understand the needs of the market and be of value for them.

“Do not settle on your ivory tower. Go out and meet people. Go out and experience things. Spend for experience, spend for understanding, spend for quality time. Go out and touch people’s lives. Go out and listen to people. You cannot just be sitting in front of your desk, reading a book and say okay I understand the world because the world does not work that way,” he added.

Spill the Tea: Keeping up with the Millennials aims to broaden the knowledge of students on marketing with the new generation amidst the different trends arising.

“What happens kasi sa sige nila ug keep up sa market nila, dili man gud sila makaabot sa maturity sa age sa life cycle sa ilang product so through this, unta in a way, makahelp me on how to keep up with them,” AdDU Marketing Club (AMARC) President Hellen Grace Estrella II said.

Organized by AMARC, the said forum was participated by students from different schools in Davao City under business-related courses.

“Overwhelming lang kay actually, sa start ani kay nagaworry mi kay wala mi nagexpect na ingani kadaghan ang tao na mag-attend so overwhelming jud kayo siya na we were able to hold an event na this big sa among organization,” she added.