I spend months at a time traveling the world. I have backpacked Europe, Northern and Southern Africa, across Asia on a trek from Beijing to Cairo, and most recently around South America’s Southern Cone up to Peru.

As a result of my travels, I get speaking engagements on my wanderings, and such venues have included area high schools.

In what has become an annual event at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, I lecture the World History students about the real story behind places they have spent the last year studying.

A publications or Web content manager who wants to capture the attention of youthful audiences might be interested in what I’ve learned. First, if you’re a baby boomer, don’t assume that teens are as well traveled as you were in the days when everyone backpacked across Europe on $5 a day. Post-9/11 fears, combined with staggering college debt, mean that many teens and twentysomethings have never experienced the world outside America’s friendly confines.

Your organization may have a golden opportunity to reach this youthful audience by bringing the world to them. Here’s how:

• Give them role models. Teenagers want to have a tangible context for abstract knowledge. I provide that just by being there. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “My life is my message.”
• Connect the abstract to the concrete. Besides the anecdotes from my travels and misadventures, I give them a perspective on historical events that they may have learned about but never truly understood.
• Show them the money. I always provide a handout of “what the world costs,” and they are shocked at what a dollar or two can buy abroad.
• Make it personal. Invariably the students ask me to suggest how they can do what I do. I give them tips and tricks for getting abroad, and how to stay abroad longer and maximize their time and experience. For instance, I say, look into exchange programs sponsored by civic groups, study-abroad fellowships and scholarships, and ways of finding work that will support long-term travel habits. But be prepared to sacrifice a few luxuries that we associate with the American standard of living.

To read about my misadventures along my travels, visit my personal blog.

Posted in Audience research and strategic planning, Framing content in print and on the Web