The following are a few of the questions asked at the panel I served on a few weeks back. My answers were relatively short due to a limit of about 30 seconds, or a few sentences, for each answer. By all means, these answers are my personal opinion and would love to invite further discussion and your insights via comments or email.

Is Email dead? Honestly, I think email will never die. Most of my friends spend more time checking email than they do sleep. Email is an extremely powerful tool socially and business wise when used efficiently and effectively.

There is a lot of evidence that Gen-Ys are a lot more into collaboration than previous generations. Any thoughts on that? Without a doubt. Gen Y like to feel connected to an organization or company and we place special emphasis on establishing relationships along with personal and career development. Collaboration can satisfy those needs. Also as a generation, we tend to be more open to diversity, not just gender or race, but intellectually too, than previous generations. From group projects in school to youth sports leagues fostering teamwork and team playing….all leads to collaboration. With collaboration, you get infinite amount of intelligence and accumulated experience…which is huge.

PK mentioned that Baby Boomers dislike feedback, but Gen-Ys want it instantaneously. If you have a Baby Boomer boss, do we have a problem? (SIDE NOTE: PK’s presentation showed that Baby Boomers tend to think negatively of feedback, like bad news, and are more accustomed to annual reviews.)

A possible conflict that does not have to be a big problem at all. Smart companies and offices will start now to train managers to give constant feedback. Like I said earlier, Gen Y as a generation tend to focus a lot of energy on personal and career development. We like our work to be meaningful. We also like to be connected to each other, in forms such as collaboration. We are big on improvement, and we see constant feedback and constructive criticism to help us improve. Feedback = consistent improvement. If we feel disconnected and receive small feedback, you can expect us to seek more meaningful work elsewhere.

In your opinion, what are some of the positive qualities of the Baby Boomer generation? Baby Boomers are very dedicated to building a stellar career and to provide a comfortable life for their family. My father was very willing and driven to building his company, and ultimately became successful. Their work ethic and drive I think is their strongest quality.

And some of their negative qualities? I would say lack of balance. For me personally, my parents divorced while I was in high school. My father was very dedicated to his business, their strongest quality, but rarely had time for family and personal. It’s realistic to say that half of my friend’s parents are divorced too. I saw my parents and those of my friends too dedicated to the office, and not to family. You see this in a trend of Gen Y now, in how we rather find work more meaningful to us and a sense of balance of life and work. Lack of balance is a negative quality of Baby Boomers.

If you were to imagine yourself working in a perfect environment, how would you interact with your peers? Your boss? Gen Y is big on communication and staying connected. We also love the idea of flexibility, and taking advantage of tools now available via Web 2.0 to connect and communicate anywhere, not necessarily the office from 9-5. Since we are big on collaboration, I would like to be able to trust and communicate effectively via email, social networks, etc with peers and my boss. No need for useless meetings and the typical 9-5 office hours.

We like to balance work and life, so we would enjoy the freedom to work at home or away from the office as much as possible. I also see a shift of being paid for task, not time, or hourly wages. I can see us more as free agents. ….

The last question led into more of a discussion into the mindset that I would like to be paid per task, not time. Also the idea of instead of employees, people will work as free agents. I further discussed that I personally believe people will be hired to work, collaborate, and complete projects through communication not necessarily taking place in the office. Be paid for task, not time. Be flexible with working arrangements and communication from peer to peer and peer to boss. I will eventually discuss more of this later in future posts.

Overall, it was a blast to participate in the panel. I could have spent hours discussing possible answers to some of the questions above, so it was hard to only jump to one answer in 30 seconds or only a couple minutes. The response and feedback from the audience was extremely positive and enthusiastic, and basically really fun! Please, please, please feel free to discuss your point of views and answers with me. I’m always looking to hear others thought and inputs. Questions or answers, please let me know!

According to the article, “Task, not Time: Profile of a Gen Y job”, by Tamara J. Erickson, the Gen Y workers are challenging the traditional 40-hour workweek or eight hour day and rather be compensated for what they produce, not the time they put in.

Many Generation Y workers find themselves with the ability and preference of completing tasks faster and with more flexibility. With supreme technological proficiency skills compared to older workers, we as a generation would much rather achieve the work as efficient as possible, without any unnecessary hours spent in the office. With the ideal to work “asynchronously” – anytime, anywhere, Gen Y workers, along with many other factors involved, are changing and shifting away from the traditional 9-5 Monday through Friday workweek, and companies are taking notice.

There is proof of this trend being beneficial to companies, such as IBM and Best Buy. The article states that 40% of IBM have no official office, and Best Buy has reported better relationships with family and friends, more company loyalty, and more focus and energy from choosing their own hours to work as opposed to the traditional 9-5. Summing this up, Gen Y workers are finding new ways to be efficient and are ultimately pushing the idea of “Task, not Time”.

As a generation Y kid myself, am more drawn to using efficient tools to accomplish tasks, as opposed to having to come in and not leave til a certain time, not being as productive as I could. After reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, I was officially programmed to pursue the freedom and flexibility to accomplish task as effiecient as possible. Now, besides working 2 shifts at a gym that allows me to read or do homework (free membership too), my other part time job is marketing and public relations for a restaurant, where I accomplish tasks from home and record my hours based on the honor system. I work Fridays usually 10am to 3pm, where I actually come in, but I am constant pushing for more efficient ways of working, like communication more through email as opposed to phone.

With this trend in mind, do you support this new shift of production in the workplace, or would you feel more comfortable in a traditional 9-5 work setting? If you support this trend, I highly recommend to study the 4-Hour Workweek, Parkinson’s Laws, and the 80/20 Principle, and practice utilizing these tools to be productive and efficient, not busy.

Read an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review courtesy of my college. Focusing on trends on the business horizon, international travel is expected to double, from 800 million international visits in 2008 to 1.6 billion visits in the year 2020. Looking at the economics of this trend, there can be only so many people that can visit museums or enjoy a beach. The demand for traveling to popular destinations will create a scarcity of place, according to the article.

The article gives 3 probable market responses: First, as demand will skyrocket past supply, tourism relate costs will rise dramatically, from hotel rooms in world cities to even taxis and airplane availability. There will soon be scalpers not just for sporting events and concerts, but soon for airline tickets and passes to museums or parks. Government will also control demand by putting taxes on travel to destinations. One example is the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, as more and more people coming to visit, the trend is impacting the ecosystem, which is leading to talks of raising parks entrance fee or restricting visitors, which leads to second…. Wait lists.

Expect to be on wait list for months, even years, before you can travel to popular destinations. With these wait lists forming, leading to number three, you can expect the creation of new destinations, more like replications of the wait listed places. For example, China is currently developing islands like Macao to rival Hawaii. You see it here in America, with casinos popping up in major cities, or the Indian casinos here in California, drawing business away from Las Vegas.

As scarcity of popular travel destinations around the world grows, there will be tons of opportunity to profit from the ever growing demand. I found this particular trend very interesting, and I am going to try and discover trends similar to world travel in the future. For instance, like the summer Olympics in Beijing this summer, I am going to look at investment opportunities in South Africa for preparation of World Cup 2010, perhaps the biggest sporting event in the world.

Any opportunities that you recognize or can think of with this trend in mind?