Common Challenges for Event Planners

Burnout isn’t personal. It’s operational. You don’t burn out from working hard. You burn out from: Working without clarity, Leading without boundaries, Fixing problems you could have prevented. After 35 years in this industry, here’s what I’ve learned: Burnout isn’t personal failure. It’s often a planning failure. Or a leadership gap. Or a systems issue. Most event teams don’t realise they’ve built a burnout machine. So here are 13 of the most common traps I see in high-pressure environments, and exactly how to sidestep them. 1. Skipping pre-visualisation ↳ Run early simulations. ↳ Spot issues before they escalate. 2. Ambiguous hierarchies ↳ Clarify who decides what, and when. ↳ Decision chaos creates stress. 3. Reactive event-day problem solving ↳ Table-top it like it's live. ↳ Simulate calmly before you scramble under pressure. 4. Unspoken expectations ↳ If it’s not documented, it will be misinterpreted. ↳ Clarity protects trust. 5. Hero’ culture ↳ Celebrate systems, not saviours. ↳ Planning beats panic every time. 6. Overcomplicating toolsets ↳ Too many platforms? ↳ Streamline it. Simpler systems, sharper focus. 7. Unrealistic timelines ↳ Buffer your schedules. ↳ Rushing isn’t resilience, it’s risk. 8. Ignoring warning signs ↳ Build in check-ins. ↳ Listen when the system starts whispering, not shouting. 9. Never saying “good enough” ↳ Perfectionism drains teams. ↳ Define what “done” looks like. 10. No backup for key roles ↳ One-person dependencies are dangerous. ↳ Deputise early. 11. Vague risk ownership ↳ If everyone owns it, no one owns it. ↳ Assign risks specifically. 12. Comms overload in the final 72 ↳ Silence the noise. ↳ Use one agreed-upon system and stick to the essentials. 13. No post-event debrief ↳ If you don’t reflect, you repeat. ↳ Learn while the lessons are fresh. Burnout isn’t just a wellness issue. It’s a design flaw. Fix the design, and you protect the people. Including you. 🔔 Follow Iain Morrison for smarter ways to lead without burning out. ♻️ Repost to help someone designing a show that’s breaking their team.

We’ve helped over 3,000,000 attendees check in to events. Here’s what we learned. 1. Coach the check-in staff on how to greet attendees. That’s far more important than how to use the tech. 2. A 2-5 minute line is a good thing. Attendees chat. It warms up the ‘networking juice’. 3. Create a 'service desk' AND put it off to the side. Get people with issues out of line. 4. Let attendees make basic edits from the Kiosk - it will reduce service desk requests by 90%. 5. Make sure your platform supports offline check-in if the internet does go down. 6. If you have a big reg area, have little flags that check-in staff can raise if they need a printer tech to come over and restock. 7. Pre-printing the stock significantly increases print speed onsite. 8. The biggest attendee experience improvements came from events that consolidated registration and badge printing into a single platform. E.g. Accelevents 9. Look for what could go wrong. Story - we were running check-in for an event with 40 kiosks. The power strips were daisy-chained together. One of the check-in staff had a busy foot that unplugged the extension cord TWICE and took out half the printers. 10. Design your badges and do your test prints at least 30 days in advance but still order at least 100 badges for test prints on site. 11. Test crazy-long names, companies, and job titles on your badges. Your badge software should automatically adjust the font size to prevent text wrap. 12. Different roles require different colored shirts. Much easier to find help and route attendees. E.g. Service desk, printer tech, decision maker. 13. Have a plan for walk-ins. 14. Make sure everyone knows who can make executive decisions AND how to find that person. 15. Have a backup for 👆. Reminder: On event day, you can’t do everything. Empower your team to make decisions. There isn’t time to ‘find you’. And finally- Have fun. Attendees pick up on your energy. What did I miss? #events #eventmanagement #eventmarketing

“I planned my wedding, so I can plan our trade show.” No, you (probably) can’t. Let’s be real. Running a 5,000-person conference with global execs isn’t about being “good at organizing parties.” (Hint: This is misguided and insulting...don't say this.) It’s like saying you can manage a tech stack because you use Instagram. Corporate event planning means managing last-minute speaker dropouts, fixing booth lighting at midnight, and turning vague launch ideas into brand-defining experiences with five stakeholders and zero alignment. Being “detail-oriented” doesn’t cut it. This job takes: Negotiation skills that save six figures Logistics foresight that borders on psychic Political savvy to juggle execs, vendors, and egos Calm under pressure that most couldn’t handle The best in the business didn’t “pivot.” They earned their place. Through long nights, chaos, and crises & delivered excellence every time. So if you’re serious about this path: start small, learn from the pros, and respect the discipline. To the career event leads: I see you. You make the impossible look effortless. Your skill set isn’t “transferable.” It’s hard-won. And that’s what makes you irreplaceable.

I’ve been watching something unfold in our industry and it’s not pretty. Companies are cutting seasoned event leaders and replacing them with junior planners who cost less. They’re pulling big events in house and handing them to people who have energy but not the depth to pull off a national conference, a high stakes gala, or a massive trade show. It’s happening everywhere and it’s not about talent. It’s about budgets and the belief that “anyone can plan an event.” We all know that’s wrong. Some of this is the economy. Some of it is leaders aging out of corporate culture where youth is seen as innovation. Some of it is execs who think a slick Canva deck equals strategy. The result is sloppy production, missed details, and a slow erosion of standards that took decades to build. If this is hitting you, hear me. Your skills are not obsolete. They’re rare. You know how to think three moves ahead, manage risk, lead teams, and create experiences that don’t fall apart when things go sideways. Companies will feel the pain of losing that. If you’ve ever thought about working for yourself, this is your window. → Start your own gig. → Consult. → Offer strategy. Package what you know and sell it back to the very organizations cutting staff. Build a small, mighty business that lets you choose your clients and your fees. The demand is coming back around. Not ready to go solo? Double down on your network. → Call former vendors, venues, and clients. → Update your LinkedIn with measurable wins. → Target industries like pharma, finance, and tech that value seasoned planners. → Skip job boards and connect directly with decision makers. Don’t shrink back. Show the market what you’ve done and the leadership you bring. What moves are you making to stay ahead? #ageism #eventindustry #eventplanning #eventprofs #businesscoach

For the last couple of weeks, I've been harping on event strategy conversations that obsess over what happens during the event and then how it continues after the event. Community? Sales Momentum? Marketing Hand-off? Content Engagement? Those questions matter when teams are experimenting and following the needs of the business and the desires of the attendees. But after chatting with a few Ichi folks leading event teams right now, they're telling me that most senior event leaders aren’t in a position to really affect those things. They’re not trying to keep everything alive post-event, they’re trying to decide what deserves to live at all with budget cuts and resource constraints. When scaling, events have to become a portfolio, not a list of programs. Every decision has a tradeoff: – Which shows actually map to the ICP this year – Where a sponsorship is still worth executing on – When a smaller booth is a choice, not a result of cutting budget – Which regions get consistency and which get autonomy – What gets agency support and what stays in-house None of that is about creativity, it’s about judgment & discernment, and sometimes making hard decisions. Global Heads of Events are managing finite budget, political capital, internal expectations, and real execution risk, often across multiple regions at once. The real challenge isn’t making events more engaging, it's deciding where to apply resources and where to pull back. That’s also why the most important conversations must happen before the creative brief: – Is this the right experience for the audience we actually need? – What campaign message is this event carrying for the business? – What does “success” mean beyond attendance numbers and happy people? I'm pushing for participation because it's what the attendees want, but there's a mismatch in what the internal executives want for the business and the reality of the head of events role. Attendees may be in their era of engagement, but event leadership is in their era of get sh!t done... quicker, cheaper, and with fewer people to execute it. It's true that not everything should scale. Not every event should repeat. Not every opportunity should be accepted. But those aren't choices that every event leader has the freedom to make. Departments are being combined. Teams are being thinned out. And now all the events are in one big pile and just have to get done. So the job isn’t to make everything better, it’s to get everything done. When you don’t get to choose the events, you still get to choose: – where judgment shows up – where effort is focused – where participation actually matters for attendees – and where “good enough” is the right call That’s what modern event leadership looks like right now. Disciplined decisions inside real constraints. That’s the conversation worth having next.

One Event. Three Audiences. Three Different Journeys. One of the most common mistakes in event planning? Designing a single experience and expecting it to work for everyone in the room. But great events aren’t one-dimensional. They’re multi-layered experiences — built for three distinct audiences: 1. The Host Organization (CEOs, Comms Directors, Internal Teams) This group funds the vision and puts their brand on the line. They’re focused on: ↪Brand positioning ↪Strategic visibility ↪High-impact partnerships ↪Narrative control Success looks like: media coverage, reputation lift, and long-tail industry impact. 📊 Example: Internal teams using post-event surveys and stakeholder interviews are 2.7x more likely to report higher ROI and audience satisfaction. It’s not just about what happened on stage — it’s about how well it served the brand's strategic goals. 2. Sponsors & Exhibitors They’re not passive supporters — they’re investors looking for a return. They care about: ↪High-value foot traffic ↪Lead generation ↪Brand activation ↪Measurable visibility Success looks like: new business, expanded reach, and reason to renew. 📈 Example: Coca‑Cola invested €20M to sponsor the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay — with mobile villages, branded concerts, and 15M+ touchpoints. They weren’t just showing up. They were calculating brand lift, audience reach, and conversion potential. 3. Attendees They are the heart of the room — and they come for a personal experience. They want to: ↪Learn ↪Connect ↪Be inspired ↪Feel part of something bigger Success looks like: new relationships, valuable insights, and a sense of meaning. 💬 Example: Top-tier event planners use detailed post-event surveys to measure NPS, content relevance, and emotional resonance — because that’s what drives return attendance and word-of-mouth. ✅ The mistake? Trying to give all three audiences the same experience. ✅ The opportunity? Designing tailored, parallel journeys — each aligned to what those groups value most — under one cohesive brand story. If you're only designing for attendees, you're missing two-thirds of the strategy. If you're only focused on logistics, you're missing the why that makes it all matter. I work with CEOs and comms leads to turn events into growth engines — aligning stakeholders, sponsors, and story around a clear vision of success. If you have an event on the horizon, let’s talk about how to map your stakeholders, define the right KPIs, and build an experience that actually moves the needle. This is how events stop being forgettable — and start being unstoppable.

"The event isn't the hard part." That's been the theme of every conversation I've had in the last two weeks. Here are 3 of the pain points I'm hearing (+ how AI can help): 1. Attendee attraction takes 10x longer than event planning "I can conceptualize a coffee festival in 3 days. Getting people there? That's months of work." AI Tip: Ask AI, "I'm hosting X event. Ask me 10 questions to help me verbalize and nail down my target persona and build an outreach strategy to attract Y number of attendees". Use the framework you create to hold yourself accountable for daily emails or messages. 2. Post-event analysis takes forever One coordinator mentioned spending hours analyzing feedback (and no way to analyze qualitative data at scale). "By the time we have insights, we're moving on to the next event." 💡 AI Tip: Drop 500 written survey responses into Claude. Get instant sentiment analysis showing which sessions bombed, which speakers crushed it, and exactly what attendees want next time. 5 minutes vs 5 hours. 3. Manual workflows are eating event professionals souls One senior producer's agency still does manual data entry across multiple platforms. Their colleague "doesn't even use formulas - they do manual entry." Hours spent on tasks that should take minutes. AI Tip: Start with one repetitive task. Is invoice processing taking 30 minutes? AI can extract vendor names, dates, and categorize expenses in 2 minutes. Pick your most painful manual task and automate it first. By the way, everything I've mentioned above can be done today for $20/month with any AI tool you pick (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, you name it). If there's another pain point I missed that needs to be shared, please leave it below!

Are supply chain delays disrupting your events? Tariffs are making it even harder to keep shows on track. Staging, signage, AV…..everything is taking longer and costing more. The planners getting ahead of this aren’t waiting for problems, they’re redesigning how they build events. Here’s what’s working: 1. LOCK IN EARLY Planners are securing vendors sooner and sourcing local to reduce dependency on unpredictable timelines. 2. SHIFT CRITICAL PIECES ONLINE By moving the highest-value elements to virtual, planners protect the experience from delays and reduce risk. 3. ADD AI FOR REAL-TIME ADAPTATION AI helps adjust agendas, personalize sessions, and keep engagement strong even when plans change. THE TAKEAWAY: In unpredictable conditions, hybrid and virtual aren’t fallback options. They’re how planners bend without breaking. 👉 Pls watch the video for a quick breakdown of how teams are adapting.

In 2023, I went to 15 B2B events, events with 200 people all the way to 100,000 which is chaos…. I’m no expert BUT as an attendee and someone who talks to A LOT of attendees and event marketers There’s some things that stick out as to what makes a great and an "ehhh it's okay, I'd go if it was free" type of event. 1️⃣ Registration - Nothing worse than a clunky website with 27 fields to fill out (Yea I’ve counted) that times out so I have to do it over again. This happened multiple times when registering for a few of them. Not fun 2️⃣ A smooth registration page, that doesn’t look like minesweeper, that’s works and makes me want to spend money on the ticket, makes all the difference. 3️⃣ Ticketing - I’m all registered, just got off a flight, get to the event andddd now I have to wait in a long line to get a badge and into the event. Not fun, some of the biggest events had the smallest lines simply bc of the process they had, those are the best. 4️⃣ The event app: This could technically be 4 different pointsI love that events have these butttt let’s be honest, some are better than others. Some of them feel like those over advertised free apps where ads just pop up on everything and you can’t find the X. That’s no good. The best attendee apps made it easy for 1:1 networking and have a dynamic event floor plan (I get lost easy 🥹) They also make it easy to sign up for sessions and connect with others at the event. Finally, my biggest pet peeve is the apps that don’t adjust time zones. I’m from NY so when I go to California or Texas and the event app stays in est, I’m a mess and it messes up my whole day. 5️⃣ Lunches - Boxed lunches always stink, I’m sorry but they do. A good buffet or food truck with options are the best ones I’ve seen so far. That said, I’m also terrible at networking and usually end up hiding in the corner with my food or latching on to the one person I know. So lunches aren’t my favorite 😅 6️⃣ Speaking - I attended most, but also spoke at a some too. The ones that have a proper process, tasks layed out for you with due dates for the speaker are much much better. 7️⃣ Sponsor management - The same goes with managing sponsors. Having a proper process for your exhibitors makes it a lot a lot smoother. The email back and forth, just doesn’t cut it. Now, I've never put together a big event nor would I ever want to but as an attendee there’s some events that could use help from Zuddl. I recently learned about them and started seeing a trend on which event experiences were great (Used Zuddl) and those that didn’t (Did not use Zuddl). It was very clear.... That said, B2B event season is back! And B2Bmx is next week! Who’s going?! Would love to say hi 👋 #b2bmarketing #b2bevents

After organizing 30+ events in market research, CX, startups, and LinkedIn, here are my random observations: - You can find a venue that provides space for free (a selling point can be guests buying their drinks) - Send clear instructions beforehand about the event (directions to the venue, presenters, time-slots) - It's better to have a smaller community of repeat guests rather than one-off big events - If you are hosting a free event, on average, 60% of people who signed up will show up - Ensure that the music is not too loud in the venue so guests can speak to each other - Have a good selection of drinks and don't force guests to drink - As the main organizer, you should greet people at the entrance - As a host, talk with everyone and connect guests to each other - Have signs at the venue to direct guests to the exact location - Drinks and light food are not expensive but can mean a lot - Aim for a good balance of useful content and networking - If possible, hire someone to take photos and record - Creating events is the next phase in networking - Have name and company tags for the guests - The location of the venue is super important - You can be a good host even if you stammer - A decent number of guests will arrive late - Have a nearby pub/bar for after-drinks - Give special attention to the speakers - In person is always better than online - Keep the selling part to a minimum - Don't get drunk (too much) - Don't complicate things 🚶🏼