What Exactly Is a Meeting Planner?

At last count, there were over 800 job titles for people planning meetings, events, conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and fairs, and incentive trips.

Sometimes, these titles reflect the global nature of their roles (global meeting manager), their involvement in meeting strategy (assistant director of strategic events), or that they also manage corporate travel (VP of travel & meetings).

Even our own industry associations use varying terms for their constituents. PCMA says it connects members “with a powerful network of ‘business events leaders,’” while MPI toggles between ‘planners’ and ‘meeting professionals’ (the term it changed its name to in 1987). Then there’s the umbrella term ‘events,’ which encompasses every type of gathering, from road shows to trade shows to meetings. Add the word ‘special’ before ‘events’ and you have entered an entirely different industry – one focused on golf tournaments and galas.

It’s no wonder why, when you ask the average person on the street (like your next-door neighbor), they might not be exactly sure what a meeting planner does. “I assume they travel a lot to resort destinations,” said Dave Smith, a retired New England prep school English teacher. “I know they attend events, and they look pretty splashy. Strikes me as a sweet way to make a living.” 

Internal Confusion

Even within their own companies, planners share stories about how they are incorrectly perceived by some co-workers (the ones who don’t attend the off-sites they plan), who only know that they travel a lot and to some exciting places.

Planners might sit in various departments within a company—marketing, travel, procurement—but they’re still clumped together as one entity. They receive content from industry organizations and publications that might have nothing to do with their jobs and receive invitations to hosted buyer events when they’re not in charge of site selection. “So much of the email we receive, and the focus at industry events, is all about travel,” said one planner from a large tech company. “But there are many of us who have nothing to do with choosing destinations or hotels.”

An entire class of planners also has nothing directly to do with physically planning meetings, like Kim Bladen, who originally came from the logistics side and just started in her new role as director of strategic sourcing at College Board. She described her responsibilities as “sourcing, site and vendor selection, and contract management activities for national citywide events.” 

Then there are those who approach meetings from the procurement side, focusing on cost efficiency and supplier management. As Amy Harris, global director, client strategy, CWT Meetings & Events, describes it: “Their responsibilities extend well beyond event coordination. They manage both travel and meeting spend, and align these functions with procurement. It’s a much more advanced approach to a role within the meetings landscape.” 

Occasional Planners

Another reason for this identity crisis is that many people who plan meetings in large companies do so only occasionally, like administrative or executive assistants, “From small department gatherings to substantial sales meetings, the responsibilities they carry are enormous,” said Dianne Devitt, a producer, speaker, author and educator. The risk to a company of untrained planners is massive, she said, if they do not understand the contracts they are signing, or have little awareness of duty of care.

On the association side and in certain industries, such as pharma, there’s an entirely different role focused on education development, which sometimes overlaps with planning. “These are typically two separate buckets, depending on the specific event,” said Peter Rosenberger, founding partner at ClusterFest Events and an adjunct professor at the New York University’s Tisch Institute of Global Sport, Graduate Studies and the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. “If you’re working on both, the more that’s at stake. Also, the more stressful it will likely be.”

Students coming to study at NYU often have no idea what meeting planning really entails, he said. “Plenty of students come in thinking, ‘How hard can that be?’ and they are universally stunned by the myriad details around any given event project, from festivals to conferences and everything in between. They’re often overwhelmed.”