Professional coaching among event planners, a rising trend

In the corporate events industry, professional coaching has become a growing trend. Staff shortages in many companies have left organizers with an increased workload. More and more are turning to specialized coaches to help them cope with work overload, enhance their professional development and prevent burnout syndrome.

In an article published by Skift, Vimari Román, CEO of Be Productive Coaching, notes that this trend is rooted in the pandemic. After more than 20 years working in event planning and hotels, Román started his coaching business in 2012. As he explains, understaffing in many companies has left planners with much larger workloads, and coaching has become a tool for managing stress and setting professional boundaries.

Román's sessions address topics such as professional transition, boundary setting and prevention of burnout, or professional burnout syndrome. Most of its clients are corporate: 90 percent individuals and 10 percent organizations looking to improve the training and well-being of their employees.

Alanna Carron, founder of Iconic Event Experiences, worked with Román for a year and a half to make the leap from a corporate position to her own company. While organizing catering or audio-visual technology is part of my day-to-day, running my own company was not. Working with a coach helped me manage negative influences and reinforce positive ones,” she says.

For her part, Juliet Tripp, known as The Events Coach, sees a growing demand from founders and in-house leaders looking to scale up their businesses without sacrificing healthor personal life. “Coaching provides a strategic lift: those in leadership positions know that their greatest lever of impact is not just another event on the agenda, but their ability to lead with clarity, authority and long-term vision”.

Professional Associations

Even industry associations are recognizing the relevance of coaching. Meeting Professionals International (MPI)offers group coaching programs, one-on-one sessions at its conferences and coach listings on its professional development portal. Tim Luepke, director of MPI Academy, stresses that these initiatives focus on skills that are often overlooked in traditional or corporate training.

Rachelle Stone, founder of R. Stone Consulting and a former event production and destination management professional, along with Román, launched Coaches for Conferences, a service specifically geared toward event planners. Stone emphasizes that choosing a coach is a very personal decision: "It is not essential that the coach knows your work in depth, but it is important that there is chemistry. Every relationship begins with what we call a ‘chemistry call’”.