On a normal day in 2019, I’ll receive anywhere from 10-15 “Event” invitations. From Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Meetup and networking groups I belong to, I could literally fill my entire month’s calendar in the span of a week. Less, if I took into consideration all of the articles I read concerning local events and happenings, and personal invitations. There is, quite literally, not enough hours in the day. There is, though, enough so-called “events” in the day.

If you’ve been following my journey, you know the importance of community in building the person and businesswoman I am. From my tenure with Professional Women’s Roundtable; to Party Partners of Philadelphia (now The Industry Formula); to entrepreneur networking groups like Wellstruck Lady Boss, finding or cultivating a community of people who support one another has been instrumental in my success.

When I graduated with my degree and experience in event planning, I happened to step out into the worst economy my generation had known. Every major company was shying away from events, cutting their event planning teams and giving any event-based tasks to either the marketing department, Human Resources, or an administrator (who all had pretty hefty workloads of their own!)

As the economy started to get better, budgets started to once again be allocated to events. Emphasis on marketing events, celebratory events, incentive trips, and the like began to come back into the forefront. However, the sentiments of the post-market-crash lived on. Budgets were cut for events, and planners were expected to deliver the same quality of events with a budget that was slashed in half. Vendors had to begin “getting creative” with their pricing and offerings, and many planners expected an incentive to book.