Photo courtesy of adragan

Few words captivate the corporate meeting and event environment more than the word “change.” At one level, all of us would like to avoid change. But we — and the businesses we inhabit — simply can’t. Anyone with even a casual understanding of the corporate meeting planning space recognizes that change is constantly afoot. The challenge is how to manage it.

When Emily Choporis, event planner at TD Synnex, a major global IT distributor, is in the planning process, most of the time she’s thinking way ahead of her stakeholders, to anticipate areas of challenge or great success.

“Not only am I thinking 10 steps ahead, but I’m balancing the nuances of each event element and weighing how they all work in harmony to promote the goals of the event,” Choporis says. “So often, when change happens during the planning process, it triggers a domino effect that spills over into many other moving parts of the event. When this happens, I have no other choice but to reanalyze how each cog in the machine helps the next one, and move to prioritize action items based on the goals of the event.”

Choporis says right now she’s seeing the biggest changes happening in hotels. More and more, corporate event planners are being required to have the event paid in full prior to arrival, which has not been standard in the industry until recently.

“In addition, we’re being asked to pay incidentals — I’ve paid as high as 15%, on top of paying for the event master folio in full,” Choporis says. “While the incidentals are refundable, it can be challenging for most event budgets to be able to accommodate this upfront. Another area that can be unreliable with changes happening is airlift. Airlines face baseline operational challenges every day; however, it seems that the current climate — staffing challenges due to government regulations, operational system blackouts, etc. — has made airlift even more volatile than ever.”

Carrie Davenport, CMP fellow, lead event manager, industry engagement at Altria, says corporate planners expect changes during the planning process, but as they often say, “contingencies cost.”

“Every change requires money, resources and time — and can divert focus from other priorities critical to achieving strategic business outcomes,” Davenport says.

Pilar Gutierrez, CMM, SEPC, head of events at Solidigm Technology, has found that several areas of corporate meetings and events tend to experience changes that require corporate meeting planners to pivot.

“Event programs and agendas, such as keynote addresses, often evolve over time. This is due to multiple iterations, rehearsals, narrative refinements and the continuous pursuit of stronger, more compelling storytelling,” Gutierrez says. “In addition, going over budget and not anticipating hidden costs or ancillary fees are other areas that change.”

Of course, when change happens in event planning, challenges arise that corporate planners need to handle. For instance, a team that isn’t aligned or working cohesively may struggle to adapt to changes. Also poor communication makes even small adjustments harder to manage.

“Tight timelines mean changes often happen close to the event date, leaving little room to adjust without extra cost or pressure,” Gutierrez says. “Also, budget challenges pop up when new requests or changes increase costs or force trade-offs in the event experience. And content and messaging updates — like keynote changes or agenda tweaks — impact production, rehearsals and audience flow. Frequent changes can drain team bandwidth, lower morale and affect focus and confidence.”

Effectively Dealing With Change

“Change is inevitable in our world. Venues fall through. Budgets get cut. Stakeholders shift priorities. Attendee counts fluctuate. The challenge isn’t that change happens. It’s how we respond to it while keeping our eyes on what actually matters,” says Kimberly Greene, CMP Fellow, director of meetings and events at Cencora.

Greene says staying anchored to business objectives amid change is paramount. As she explains, when chaos hits, it’s easy to get pulled into reactive mode and start making decisions just to solve the immediate problem.

“But every pivot, every adjustment, every last-minute call needs to be filtered through one question: Does this still serve our business objectives? If the change takes you further from your goals, you haven’t solved anything. You’ve just created a different problem,” Greene says.

Of course, when plans shift, everyone has an opinion. The challenge is keeping all your stakeholders aligned on what success actually looks like.

“I’ve seen planners lose weeks going in circles because the goalposts moved and nobody recalibrated together,” Greene says. “Get everyone back in the room, reconfirm the objectives and make sure you’re all solving for the same outcome. That’s where having clear business objectives becomes your compass. When you know what you’re solving for, decisions get faster.”

Change also often opens the door to “while we’re at it” requests. Suddenly, a budget cut turns into a complete redesign or a venue change becomes an excuse to overhaul the entire agenda. That’s why Greene says flexibility is essential, but so is protecting the integrity of the event. Not every change requires a domino effect.

“As event professionals, we are wired to be flexible and accommodate everyone’s needs but we need to ensure we are still staying true to our objectives,” Greene says. “Your team feels the stress of change first. Keeping them informed, focused and confident in the plan is critical. When the backstage reality gets chaotic, your onstage performance depends on a team that trusts the process and knows the priorities haven’t shifted just because the circumstances have.”

To effectively deal with change during the event planning process, Choporis keeps reminding herself that, in this industry, the only thing that’s constant is change. Quite simply, when change happens, the whole corporate event is in jeopardy. A tiny menu change won’t make or break your event goals, but if a sponsor pulls out of funding a crucial event element, the tone of your event can shift and alter the level of success overall.

“When this happens, the most important thing to keep in mind is: There’s no such thing as over communication. In a perfect world, everything goes smoothly 100% of the time, but we don’t live in a perfect world,” Choporis says. “I can recall a program I had this past fall where we were bringing a group of executive business partners to the U.S. Virgin Islands around the same time a major hurricane was slated to hit nearby. Thankfully, the hurricane missed us by a long shot but we have to act as if it’s going to be rough sailing, literally. I immediately had to pivot all outdoor activities and meal locations, as well as reschedule flight itineraries to fly above or below the hurricane as attendees made their way to the event.”

For Davenport, dealing with change during the meeting and event planning and implementation process has been a slow evolution. The first thing she does is set early deadlines and expectations with internal teams.

“We put together a strategic plan for our year and let leadership know why we set our deadlines. I say it is an evolution, because we had to change a mentality that existed where we were seen as ‘wizards’ who could easily change anything on the fly,” Davenport says. “We now must demonstrate to our teams the true cost of change. Whether that be actual funding or time and resources – all change costs, and when you can demonstrate that in business terms, people start to listen.”

To effectively deal with change, Gutierrez first assesses whether the change is truly necessary — especially when it involves content or presentations.

“As ‘showtime’ approaches, team members often become nervous and begin to second-guess themselves. If the change is valid, I move forward; however, many times it’s about helping someone manage stress and regain confidence rather than making an actual change,” Gutierrez says.

Early in her corporate meeting planning career, about 15 years ago, Gutierrez faced a significant onsite challenge. The fire department threatened to shut down an event because stage management had built concert seating that blocked an emergency exit. The stage was enormous, more than 5,000 people were expected to attend, and they were just three hours from the start of the event.

“I was told we could not proceed unless the issue was resolved. I quickly rallied everyone I could possibly muster to rework a portion of the stage, reroute power and reset the layout for the concert,” Gutierrez says. “We completed the changes in under two hours — and the event went on as planned.”

Of course, when change isn’t managed appropriately, team stress and inefficiency can result. As Gutierrez explains, poor change management creates uncertainty, leading to stress and poor decision-making during the event.

Mishandled changes can also result in budget overruns, penalties and costly last-minute add-ons. What’s more, logistics suffer, and the meeting planning team spends most of its time catching up instead of executing smoothly.

“When change spirals out of control, the event risks becoming a “dumpster fire” that fails to deliver on strategic goals,” Gutierrez says. “It’s important for a corporate meeting planner to avoid blame and focus on solutions. Strong mentorship is key. New planners should learn that casting blame when change occurs is counterproductive. Stay calm, be adaptable and move forward.”

The moment Greene knows something is shifting, she loops in her team and stakeholders. “Silence breeds panic. Transparency builds trust,” Greene says. “Even if I don’t have all the answers yet, I let people know we’re aware and working on it. That keeps everyone calm and aligned.”

A few years ago, Greene was deep into planning a major conference — thousands of attendees, months of preparation, significant budget. Then, weeks before the event, she got word that a keynote speaker had to pull out. This wasn’t just any speaker. This was someone the attendees were specifically coming to hear.

“The easy reaction would have been to panic or scramble to find a replacement who checked similar boxes. Instead, we paused and asked ourselves: What’s the business objective of this session? It wasn’t just about having a big name on stage. It was about delivering strategic insights that would help our attendees solve real problems,” Greene says. “With that clarity, we restructured the session entirely. We brought in a panel of internal leaders who could speak directly to the challenges our audience was facing. We made it more interactive, more relevant, more tailored to what attendees actually needed. It became one of the highest-rated sessions of the entire event. Attendees appreciated the authenticity and the direct access to people who understood their world. The change forced us to get creative. Because we stayed anchored to our objectives, we didn’t just recover. We delivered something better.”

The Future of Change

When corporate planners become stagnant and fail to challenge the status quo, they risk becoming irrelevant. That’s why many corporate planners recommend fellow planners embrace change, especially slow change that will improve their jobs and the industry as a whole.

“The events industry is dynamic — audiences, technologies and business priorities are constantly evolving,” Davenport says. “If planners don’t adapt, innovate and question traditional approaches, they miss opportunities to deliver strategic value. Stagnation leads to redundancy because organizations need partners who can anticipate change, embrace new tools and align events with shifting business objectives. In short, adaptability isn’t optional — it’s the key to staying indispensable.”

Gutierrez says that in this industry, change is inevitable. The key is being prepared to pivot — remaining cool, calm and collected — while keeping the mantra “it’s all going to be okay” top of mind.

“In events, we must always expect the unexpected: people arrive late, get sick, don’t read emails, logistics shift, weather intervenes and even society can change in a moment’s notice. It only becomes a hardship if you’re unable to think on your feet,” Gutierrez says. “That’s why having a Plan B — quietly waiting in the background — is essential. At the end of the day, as most seasoned event professionals know, the only person who realized there was a mistake was you.” C&IT