Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer, barrister and activist, showcased her expertise by speaking at PCMA Convening Leaders this year, which helped to strengthen and showcase her brand.

Lisette Garrity, vice president of meetings at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), knows a good idea when she hears it. Likewise, she’s learned in a nearly quarter-century of running association conferences when a suggestion is a dud.

When she was younger, Garrity would likely offer a blunt assessment to an ill-fated suggestion — even if it were presented by a member of the board of directors. These days, Garrity might not say anything at all during a high-stakes meeting.

Don’t take the silence as apathy. Rather, Garrity is often biding her time for the right time and place to revisit the problematic notion. She’s learned that the cliche is true: Patience can be a virtue. And employing tact is a smart strategy to ultimately avoid a mistake.

“You really have to just take a step back and be a much better listener,” Garrity says. “Listening doesn’t mean that you’re not providing influence or ultimately getting what you want out of any given situation.”

As stewards of annual conventions and regular meetings, association meeting planners are responsible for a major part of their organization’s lifeblood. Their expertise is invaluable to the success of a program. Planners need not just have a seat at the proverbial (and literal) table, but should be considered an important voice in most, if not all organizational decisions.

Setting the Table

While some event professionals, like Garrity, have an established track record and hold sway within the organization, it can be an uphill battle for many. Younger planners are more likely to be in tune with Generation Z and Millennials, whose preferences are now influential among all sectors and whose long-term commitment is the key to an association’s sustainability.

Yet, due to age or other biases, perceived or not, conference managers and organizers, especially young women, are often easily dismissed by older generations set in their ways.

For their own professional sake, and for the long-term sustainability of an association, planners must find a way for their voice to be heard. Poor attendee experiences at onsite or virtual events reflect poorly on the presenting association. Some discerning members could cut the cord after just one event doesn’t prove worth the financial and emotional investment that joining an organization entails. Other attendees may be more forgiving at first, but don’t have unlimited bank accounts or patience should events feel out of touch with their needs.

Needless to say, the stakes of well-executed conferences are high. According to AMR Management Services, an accredited association management company, 29% of associations’ revenue comes from events.

A drop in attendance or poor experience ratings not only diminishes the next in-person gathering but also can threaten future membership numbers. With fewer members, associations lose relevance and, more tangibly, collect less dues. That, in turn, jeopardizes how many sponsorships and donations associations can accrue.

It can be a vicious cycle — one that can be prevented should decision-makers trust planners.

“The value proposition for an association is always going to come from their unique combination of content, community and commitment,” says KiKi L’Italien, founder of the influential “Association Chat” media platform who is now CEO of Amplified Growth, a leadership and association consultancy. “A lot of people, even in associations, don’t always connect those dots. That’s what makes working within an association and belonging to an association different from a commercial enterprise.”

Having good relations with everyone involved with an event, from venues to suppliers, will help a planner to strengthen negotiations, make solving problems easier and project leadership. Photo courtesy of PCMA

Nurturing Human Nature

In this article, we will provide advice from individuals who have successfully navigated association minefields to gain influence within the organization and the events industry at large.

First, though, it’s important to establish the context in which association planners are operating. The boards of directors that planners interact with are often “pale, male and stale,” quips L’Italien.

Indeed, the pace of change in any association can feel glacial. Leadership may very well be stuck in their views. As a planner, there is only so much you can do about such high-level challenges. The focus should be, just as with planning an event, on your audience, says L’Italien.

“Just like anything else, we have to be students of human behavior and figure out how somebody will listen to what we’re trying to share,” L’Italien says.

Garrity’s perspective returns to the very basics of the event industry. “It really is about the relationships that you build,” she says. “You have to be strategic about how you manage personalities.”

The better-liked and more respected a planner becomes, they will naturally earn promotions and gain trust. For instance, Garrity spent nearly seven years with the National Association of Community Health Centers before joining ASAE in June 2025. That span is unusually long for a meeting planner with an association, notes Garrity.

It is a testament to Garrity’s comfort level and opportunities for growth that the professional marriage was so mutually beneficial for the event organizer and organization.

Similarly, Elisa Barnes, CAE, has been with the Houston Building Owners and Managers Association since April 2017. She’s now vice president of operations and oversees the organization’s overall strategy regarding events. Among the results is that Barnes can advocate for herself and the events team she supervises.

“I manage my event manager, and leadership has actively positioned them with appropriate goals to better show our Board the need to promote from within and acknowledge accomplishments of our entire staff,” notes Barnes.

Barnes has the position and influence planners should be striving for, L’Italien says. “You want board members supporting you,” says L’Italien. “You want them to think about needing you and your expertise.”

It is important to stay active in associations, to attend industry events and benefit from educational and networking opportunities. Photo courtesy of PCMA

Tips to get ahead

The battle for influence begins with an internal struggle among planners to complete tasks at hand while also trying to see the big picture, which is where the board of directors is typically focused. That’s where our list of nine strategies to success begins.

1. Change your mindset

Among the common challenges for meeting planners is that they can still be thought of as party planners. Not quite as bad, but still underselling their value, is the notion that planners handle all the logistics while the decisions are made above them. “The fact is, planners are experience designers,” L’Italien says. “There’s not that appreciation.”

To showcase their knowledge and expertise, planners need to emerge from the weeds of organizing the next event. Rather than problem solving in the moment, planners should push for more control before the event. L’Italien notes they should have a say in site selection, the F&B menu, hotel room blocks, speakers and other elements that will dictate if members thrive onsite and associate the annual meeting with future success.

The decision to become more assertive is the first, and arguably most important, step on the road to strengthening your position.

2. Invest long-term in vendor and partner relationships

Before winning over a board, planners should establish themselves as the bridge between the organization and its partners, suggests Garrity. Strong relationships with sponsors, host hotels and destinations, transportation services, caterers, AV production teams and other vendors demonstrate the planner has the wide-ranging knowledge to lead the event from start to finish.

Good relations with partners can strengthen negotiations, improve event outcomes and elevate reputation across the industry, adds Garrity. “We need to make sure that we’re getting the best bang for our buck,” she says. “At the end of the day, we’re still an association. Things cost money, so how do we partner with the vendors to give them the exposure that they need while adhering to our budget?”

Staying on budget and improving an event is a fast track to greater approval from association management.

3. Prove your worth with numbers

Barnes says planners should have the mindset of a business person when discussing past, present and future events. Try to avoid general statements and come armed with statistics that support your positions, suggests Barnes, who says, “Quantifying events with appropriate analysis leads to better understanding of changes to implement in the future.”

Planners should study year-over-year growth, or decline, and determine the catalyst for those changes. A thorough report educates the Board on the whys and hows of the event, and demonstrates you are thinking about growth opportunities for the association.

4. Become and stay active in associations

Association planners should inherently understand the importance of joining like-minded members in an organization. Their goal when planning meetings is to prove that value. Event professionals should apply the same lessons to themselves and their career.

Garrity credits much of her career success to maintaining strong connections with fellow event planners through outside organizations. Prior to her full-time role at ASAE, Garrity was a member of the association for most of her career and also sat on the organization’s meetings and expositions advisory council. The experiences built a network of colleagues to draw upon for advice. That familiarity was also crucial to securing her job leading events for one of the industry’s most respected organizations, only adding to her influence.

L’Italien advocates for taking advantage of education presented at event industry association events, like PCMA’s Convening Leaders and EduCon, and MPI’s World Education Congress, to learn trends you can report back to your organization’s management. “They stay on top of what the most recent developments are because things are changing,” she says. “You need to develop an understanding of everything from neurodivergent learning to understanding what makes people feel like they belong.”

5. Educate association leadership without sounding like a know-it-all

After gaining all of that valuable knowledge, planners should then transfer that information to leadership to create actionable change. While this is vital not only for the planner to show worth and to improve the event experience going forward, planners have to step lightly to avoid rubbing management the wrong way. “They don’t have to tell people they’re thought leaders,” L’Italien says. “People don’t always take it well when you say you should listen to me.” Instead, turn the lesson into a collaborative moment through an informal gathering like a brown bag lunch or morning coffee, suggests L’Italien.

6. Demonstrate business acumen

Barnes and Garrity agree it’s important to balance creativity and innovation with fiscal responsibility and partnership value. Sometimes, that means making a tough decision, notes Barnes. “Don’t be afraid to drop or sunset events that negatively impact the bottom line,” she says, reinforcing the need for data-based findings. “It’s important to come prepared when having those conversations. Some members may have emotional ties to long-running events, so fully explain why there is a need to reassess current efforts to something more fruitful.”

7. Share in your success

Management may not be aware of just how well you are doing in your role without sharing successes. But, returning to the importance of tact again, Garrity makes it a point to also credit the whole team and not point to individual accomplishment. “I always say ‘we’ and never say ‘I,’” Garrity says. “I’m always promoting the success of people on my teams. If you can just let people shine, obviously you’re going to shine as their supervisor.”

Taking it to a higher level, Garrity delegates responsibilities so team members can take greater responsibility and earn trust themselves. For instance, Garrity recently handed over the reins of ASAE’s leadership summit as a growth opportunity for a young planner.

8. Be prepared to take no for an answer

No matter how well prepared a planner is or how well they present a position, “No” is going to be a board’s response. Garrity admits it took some time to mature to accept that fact. Now, it’s a matter of knowing which battles to fight. “If it’s something that isn’t going to be catastrophic, and the attendees are not going to really notice it, I’ll just let it happen,” Garrity admits. That said, she’ll keep track of attendee feedback to bolster arguments for future events.

Regardless of how a planner feels about a decision, big or small, they have to do the best they can under the circumstances, adds L’Italien. “Like Tim Gunn on ‘Project Runway’ would say, ‘Make it work,’” she says. “Maybe you’re given the worst location, you just have to run with it.”

9. Build your brand

“Personal branding sounds gross and icky to a lot of people,” says L’Italien, adding it’s a necessary evil. The more ways a planner can demonstrate thought leadership, including on LinkedIn or speaking at conferences, the more confidence they will gain and their opinions will carry greater weight.

“The best way to think about it is, ‘How can I communicate the value that I have within my organization so that I’m brought to the table when decisions are being made to make these events more successful?’” she says.

Also, given the unpredictability of life circumstances and the economy, planners should remain aware of new job opportunities and be attractive candidates for other organizations, L’Italien adds, noting that new jobs often lead to more influential titles and responsibilities than current roles. | AC&F |