Meeting Planners Sound Off on Their Biggest Challenges

Meeting planning has come a long way since the days of booking a room at the Hilton and putting out some coffee. Today's professionals have to navigate the sometimes-tricky waters between their clients or bosses, and their vendors. Issues ranging from industry standards and multigenerational demands to market forces and even government regulation can all stand between a planner and a successful event. Skift asked a few industry leaders about their biggest challenges, and what they are doing to combat them. Clients Who Don't Know What They Want or How to Get It Aaron Kaufman is president and founder of Fifth Element Group, a Canadian-based events design firm, and what's he's finding to be the biggest challenge today is locating clients who know the difference between a professional meeting planner and a casual one. "The challenge is not on the job side, it's on the industry side," he said. "It's more an issue that we have industry-wise in terms of educating clients. The client is looking for services, but they're not necessarily educated on what to look for [in a meeting planner]. Our industry lacks a lot of regulation, so it's an easy process for any meeting planning company or any individual to say, 'We are full service and we do everything.' "There's nobody regulating and no industry watchdog. Essentially, what happens, is you find, more often than not, our industry gets hurt because people are not qualified to do the job, and then clients don't trust people who are professionals. It's a big vicious circle. The client says this person says they do everything, and they are less expensive, and as it goes with almost every industry, that less expensive person who claims to be able to do everything can't actually, and then clients don't trust professionals. It's lowering the bar for what we do, and that makes our job much harder." Kaufman added, "Even when you are dealing with good clients and you want to call around for quotes, less and less people want to indulge you, especially properties i