Dear Media:  Event Professionals Deserve Better

Now that I’ve gotten off my soapbox about Astroworld and risk management, I thought I would offer a rant on how others perceive the events industry.  This has been a constant source of aggravation in my adult life, and I know I’m not the only one.  Early in my career when I told people I was an event planner, I would get one of two responses: “what is that”; or, “that must be fun”.  I thought when I got my PhD it would change, and it did a little.  Now I get “you can get a degree in that”. 

I’ve thought a lot about why people either don’t know about the industry or don’t understand it.  There are several reasons, but I think they can be boiled down to two primary reasons.  The first is that people who are familiar with events being a career it’s because they have known someone who has been involved in planning events.  This is usually through their job, where someone is responsible for planning events.  So, they know it is a job, but have no understanding of what goes into it.  I believe that is due to the fact that when they arrive at an event, they see the end result only.  They don’t see the months/years of work that goes into it.  Event professionals are experts at making things look flawless, even when things go wrong.

The second reason is the way the events industry are portrayed in the media. The Netflix documentary Trainwreck. The Astroworld Tragedy, is the latest in a long history of the events industry being portrayed negatively.   When I say “media” I don’t just mean documentaries, but also news outlets and popular media (sitcoms).  Most news outlets today focus on sensational stories, the phrase “if it bleeds, it leads” is well earned.  This means that news stories focus on things like Astroworld, Woodstock 99, the Las Vegas shootings, and many more.  It is common when something bad at an event for media within the industry to reach out for my comments.  It is extremely uncommon for other news outlets to do the same.  The interview that I did with NewsNation Prime was the first time this happened.  When I watch coverage of these types of stories, I never see an event professional as someone that was included.  This leads to incorrect conclusions.  For example, there was a shooting at a Garlic Festival in California shortly after the Route 91 shooting in Las Vegas.  A man cut through a chain link fence to enter at the back of the festival and opened fire.  On-duty police, who were at the event, responded within a minute and ended the violence within 2 minutes.  This was horrific, but is it reasonable to plan for someone to cut through a fence?  I can confidently say it is not reasonable; which was my response to the question “what did organizers do wrong?”.  If someone is determined to do evil, they will find a way.  It is clear to me organizers had a strong plan in place based on the response time; this is a good thing.  This is not an isolated incident, when you look at any reporting of tragedies at events, there are a lot of judgments based on having the whole story.

If the media isn’t portraying the events industry negatively, they are making fun of it.  Think about shows like Friends, or The Big Bang Theory, there are numerous references to being a “party planner”.  It is always in a dismissive way, suggesting that it is a joke, not a real job.  The movie The Wedding Planner put events on the map; I had so many students state that movie as the reason they wanted to be in events.  You have heard the sayings “any publicity is good publicity”, and “there’s no such thing as bad press”.  I wholeheartedly disagree with these statements because if the portrayal is wrong, which is the case, it’s even harder to correct people.

I understand many people, including myself, “fell” into the industry.  That doesn’t mean we haven’t spent our careers learning our craft.  Anyone who is an event professional has spent hours in education through associations or courses, conversations with each other, and learning from their mistakes through deep evaluation.  Even when an event is successful these professionals will strive to find ways to be better.  I wish the media would focus on this side of the industry.