The meetings industry today is under noticeable strain as the number of professionals seeking roles rises rapidly while senior leadership positions remain scarce. Many mid-level and junior event planners are actively job hunting, but there are far fewer openings at the top.
Barbara Scofidio, Editor at Skift Meetings, is an industry-leading editor with over 30 years of experience in travel, meetings, and incentives. A founding member of SITE’s Women IN Leadership committee, she has spearheaded numerous face-to-face events and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Barbara is passionate about advancing green meetings, CSR, and raising awareness of human trafficking within the meetings and travel industry. She serves on the Advisory Board of The Above and Beyond Foundation, which awards life-changing grants to front-line hotel employees.
One key pressure point is that organizations are struggling to retain and reward leaders. Experienced professionals are staying fixed in roles longer than before, perhaps due to a lack of upward mobility, tighter budgets, or cautious hiring policies. That limits opportunities for emerging talent to move into leadership and exacerbates gaps in strategic leadership capacity within event teams.
At the same time, event work continues to demand high intensity: long hours, hybrid or on-site obligations, and unpredictable workloads. When senior positions are limited, much of the burden shifts downstream to less experienced staff, increasing burnout risks. Associations and event companies may also face difficulty in recruiting for those leadership roles, because candidates perceive them as unstable or under-compensated relative to expectations.
For associations, the implications are material. Without a healthy pipeline of leadership, associations may struggle in strategy, innovation, and executing high-quality global events. It becomes harder to delegate strategically, maintain institutional memory, or build robust governance. Addressing this strain means creating clearer leadership paths, ensuring the roles are attractive (in pay, scope, growth), and being purposeful in succession planning.
In short: the job market’s strain comes not just from demand, but from mismatch—too many event professionals chasing fewer leadership positions, along with high workload and unclear advancement. Associations that step in to fix those gaps can sharpen their competitive edge and retain talent.
