Meeting and event professionals have navigated a distinct professional identity—evolving from “pink-collar” administrative support roles into a global discipline centered on ROI, experience design, and organizational strategy. Yet even as the field’s business impact has grown, many practitioners still encounter persistent occupational challenges, including:

• Underestimation of their expertise
• Burnout tied to emotional and invisible labor
• Role ambiguity and scope creep
• Compensation misalignment

These issues are characteristic of occupations still progressing toward full professionalization—the broader process through which fields gain societal recognition and legitimacy. Classic theories outline the steps by which occupations become professions, but newer scholarship highlights how fields with feminized labor histories often face additional barriers along this path.

This interactive session will explore the history of the meetings and events industry and demonstrate how roles within it have advanced toward greater professionalization. We will also examine how MPI and professional organizations have accelerated this evolution. Finally, the session will identify strategies the industry can adopt to more fully support its highly skilled workforce on the journey toward full professional status.