Taking a Look at Our Gains

By Naomi Tucker, CMP, Account Director of Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, Inc.

This year, the event industry came back with a vengeance. And in knowing that ramping up our industry again would be the great challenge; event professionals have met the need with grit.  From managing limited availability of our venues, to educating our teams and bringing staff back into full swing, our event professionals have managed to continue forward in ensuring integrity of planning events.

Recently I read the book, The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan, which was a fantastic book that gave me lots of insight. The premise behind the book is instead of focusing on the gaps in our lives, we should focus on the gains that we’ve received. This only leads us to get more gains, more celebrations, more wins.

Our industry is still aiming to get to pre-pandemic planning levels, yet it can be said that we aren’t the same industry anymore. We’ve changed. Many people have left, businesses have changed structure, and events are not operated in the same way they operated did before. That reality simply doesn’t exist anymore, and instead of measuring against a reality that doesn’t exist anymore, let’s measure by the gains that we are able to see. 

“The way to measure your progress is backward against where you started, not against your ideal.” Dan Sullivan

We’ve made a potent shift, and some could argue more of a restart. What happened before the pandemic has now shifted into an ideal. And the restart we’ve experienced is where we can reset and start to measure, and ultimately focus on the gains that we’ve had since then. In light of this perspective, there is much more hope in the future, and the gains we will acquire along the way.

To think only a few years ago we were scrambling to keep together whatever threads of the industry that we held dear. Now the view is different. We’re gaining our ground after a pandemic but can also see in the horizon a different set of uncertainties like inflation, war, economy, and endemic challenges as we look into next year. Despite the view, there are a few things that we can focus on to ensure the steadiness of our industry.

Training and education

We knew going into this year that we would have challenges ramping up staff to meet the needs of the industry. And that concern proved accurate as the struggle to staff up our organisations persisted throughout the year. Now, the ever-present opportunity and gain is to continue to deliver consistent training and education to current and new event professionals so that they can move our industry forward.

Budget and finances

Finances are the elephant in the room these days, due to the economic situations that are ever present in the headlines. With personal and professional budgets rapidly adjusting, event professionals now must be very attentive to budgets and finding opportunities to save costs. In the new year, with the uncertainty looming, focusing on budgets will continue to have a big presence and our experience in managing fluctuating cost expectations can prove to be a valuable gain.

Service quality

Ensuring consistency in service quality has always been a characteristic that event professionals hold dear. While staffing may have shifted the perception in this area a bit, the opportunity in the future is to regain the service standard of the industry. With many new event professionals coming into the fold, the standards that we have set are now important as ever, and it would be a gain to ensure newer professionals have this knowledge.

Mental health and wellness

The past few years have shown us that mental health and wellness are extremely important to our well-being. Although we’re in an industry of service, we tend to think of our customers more than ourselves. However, we are important, and should keep our mental health and wellness at the forefront. If there is one thing that we’ve learned from the pandemic, is that this is an area that matters to event professionals. And if we can integrate the gains we’ve learned from this area into our professional world, and in our meetings, we can improve on the balance of wellness that we hold dear.

Although the industry has been through a lot, we have had considerable gains. We should be able to take those gains and have them make our way for a future. Instead of focusing on where we were – in order to move forward and continue to make progress – we need to focus on every gain and not lose sight of any of them.

Whatever the new year brings, we know as an industry we’ll be able to move through it how we always do. Evaluating the situations and responding with the careful, best-laid plans that we can until the next challenge awaits. We have much to gain. Enjoy your new year!

Naomi Tucker, CMP, is an Account Director of Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, Inc., a past President of MPI Wisconsin Chapter, and the Founder of Planners on Purpose. Naomi has more than 25 years of experience planning meetings and events, and loves to write and discuss her learnings in this industry at her website Planners on Purpose, where she empowers event planners to lead a stress-free life on purpose. When she’s not planning or writing about events, Naomi enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and getting lost in a good book.