The days are long gone when a person’s title meant something; not everyone agrees. Sure I’m willing to concede business titles such as CEO, CFO, COO tend to carry some weight but even they are prone to fall short with respect to helping communicate “what” a person does. And that’s the point - a job title should say something, it should hold some meaning, otherwise it’s not helpful. I find this to be true in the event industry.

When meeting other event professionals I’ve come across many different titles but the most common seem to be:

1. Coordinator
2. Planner
3. Manager
4. Producer

I’ve ranked them according to levels of responsibility – at least how I see them. I realize that most people in the event industry wear multiple hats; of course that could be said of most careers these days. However, I’ve been encouraging students of the event industry to be sure they know which type of role they’re looking to fill. To focus on ones’ strengths is huge when involved in bringing an event project to a successful conclusion.

Now, I’m not saying that we should heap new demands on a dying descriptors but I do feel like it’s important to say that roles and title do come into play from time to time. When considering the list above I see too many event planners call themselves event planners when in fact they’re taking on the responsibility and liability which I feel constitutes the title of producer. It’s not that I want to have a fight about semantics but the event biz would benefit from working with consistent terminology. These titles do carry some weight, some level of ranking, that would suit our business well if we operated under uniform definitions. In my view there’s a pecking order when it comes to roles and their are benefit of clarifying the position one carries. There are different levels of leadership (and ownership) with respect to an event project. Here’s how I would describe these roles:

1. Coordinator – tasks are assigned to them, check-list oriented work, heavy on the logistics and event-day operations
2. Planner – facilitating tasks and people, delegating, some decision making power
3. Manager – developing project strategy and direction, leading key elements like goal planning and marketing
4. Producer – the boss, idea maker, initiator, content planning, the final authority (aka Jesus Jr.)

The normal chaos of events can be significantly limited when the event professional(s) know their role. I’ve used these titles as the starting point for an event team (paid or volunteer) for nearly three years now and I’m glad I have.