Part 1: The Events Industry Doesn't Have Too Many Event Planners. It Has Too Many Selling the Same Thing.
I'm going to be honest here.
The events industry is oversaturated with event executors. Period.
Not event planners. Event executors. People who are really, really good at making the thing happen. I know because I was one of them for 20 years.
And the problem isn't that there are too many of us. The problem is that we all sell the same thing.
Some of us have been doing it for five years. Some of us for twenty-five. And somewhere along the way, most of us added a fancier title. Event producer. Event designer. Experience director.
New title. Same product.
Let's talk supply and demand
Day one of any business class. Price comes down to two things: how many people want something, and how many people can supply it.
Water keeps you alive. Diamonds don't. Yet diamonds cost more. Why? Scarcity. Value isn't about how important something is. It's about how hard it is to get.
Now apply that to us.
The demand for events is real, and it's growing. The U.S. trade show and event planning industry is a $24.7 billion market in 2026, and 80% of B2B organizations are maintaining or growing their event sponsorships this year.
But the supply? Anyone can walk into this profession. No license. No required experience. Certifications are optional. There are already 172,100 of us, and the field is projected to grow 6% by 2035, faster than average. One recruiter told Skift Meetings that a single event planner job can pull in thousands of resumes in a couple of days.
When supply is that high, the buyer holds the power. And when the buyer holds the power, you get compared.
Your proposal sits next to three others that look just like it. Same timeline. Same vendor list. Same run of show. And when everything looks the same, the buyer decides on the only thing left.
Price.
That's commoditization. Not because you're not good. Because you're interchangeable.
A fancier title on the same skill set doesn't change the product
So we try to stand out. We make it bigger. More beautiful. More over-the-top spectacular. We add years, budgets, certifications and software skills behind our names.
That's not differentiation. That's a better version of the same thing. It's putting a prettier label on bottled water. Still water.
Underneath every new title, we're still selling one thing: I can execute an event.
Execution isn't worthless. It's abundant. And abundant never commands a premium.
Welcome to the Planner Plateau™
The Planner Plateau™ happens when your market value is tied to an abundant skill set.
You can get better and better at it. You can give it a fancier title. You still hit the ceiling, because you're competing in an overcrowded pool. The median employed event planner earns $61,160 a year. Only the top 10% earn more than $101,700.
And here's the part that stings. Getting better at execution doesn't move you up. It makes you faster. It makes you busier. We get great at our jobs, so we get handed more of what we're great at. Without a real raise.
That's why so many of us are burnt out.
Busy doesn't equal revenue.
How you create scarcity
You can't make execution scarce. There are too many of us. So stop trying to win on it.
Scarcity comes from moving into a skill most people in your market don't have. In events, that skill is strategy. And it gets rarer with every question you can answer:
What does the business actually need this experience to accomplish? Fewer people can answer this.
How do we design the experience around that objective? Even fewer.
How will we prove it worked? Almost no one.
That last one isn't my opinion. In a 2026 survey of more than 120 B2B marketing and events leaders, 98% said they struggle to justify event spend to leadership. 86% said they can't accurately attribute ROI back to their events.
So who answers those questions today? Usually not the event team. Events are a marketing line item: 59% of B2B organizations have events owned by marketing, and events lead offline marketing spend. Sales owns the proof. Leadership decides if it was worth it.
The strategic thinking lives in other departments. And the business pays for it. Marketing managers earn a median of $166,790 a year. That's not a promise of what you'll make. It's proof of what the market values.
Here's how you create scarcity for yourself:
Your experience + a strategic skill few people in your market have = a category of one.
You already have the first half. 10+ years of execution, a creative eye, a marketing instinct, an operations brain. Nobody can copy that. Add the ability to connect an event to a business outcome, and suddenly you're not one of a thousand resumes. You're the only one in the room who can answer all three questions.
This is experiential strategy
An event is what you create. Experiential strategy is knowing why you created it, what it's supposed to accomplish, and how you'll prove it worked.
It's not a new title on the same old work. It's a different value proposition, and it earns you a title that finally means something.
I tested it on my own clients. Bigger budgets. A seat at the decision table. And best of all, respect for my thinking, not just my planning.
The event profession is evolving from executing events to owning outcomes. You can evolve with it, or keep competing on price.
You don't have to start over. You have to add the skill set.
Stop competing on what everyone else can do. Become known for what most people can't.
More revenue, less stress. It starts with proving event success.
Next week in Part 2: how to get off the Planner Plateau™.
My free guide, From Event Executor to Experiential Strategist, shows you where to start: edgucationinstitute.com/executortostrategist
Jenny Howard-Maxwell, CPES, is the founder of the Edgucation Institute and author of Make Them Feel That Way On Purpose.
References
https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/trade-show-event-planning-in-the-us/1502
https://vendelux.com/event-marketing/event-marketing-statistics
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/meeting-convention-and-event-planners.htm
https://meetings.skift.com/2026/04/23/the-new-rules-of-the-event-job-market/
https://campaignlive.com/article/marketing-budgets-hold-77-2025-gartner-cmo-survey/1920581
