We're thrilled to have Megan Martin leading our partnership and event strategy and we think her unique perspective is inspiring to anyone in the events industry looking to take that next step in their own career path.

In this article you will learn:

• Her origins as an event organizer and how she taps into that experience in her new role
• How she made the transition to event strategist and why she believes event technology is the key to revolutionizing your own career
• Why she decided to join the Sessionboard team

The Career Path Less Traveled - By: Megan Martin

“The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity.” - Madame Clicquot Ponsardin

Every time I try to put a plan together for my career or life, the universe says “hold my beer”. As the saying goes, the only constant is change. Change is hard even when you know it’s coming. Mix in a high functioning anxiety brain, like mine, change could put me in a vortex. But what I’ve come to realize in my career is that I have mastered change and my comfortable state is uncomfortable. 

Disruption is my normal state of being. So much so that this is one of my super powers.

THE TIME THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED

2020 changed everything for the event and hospitality industry. It changed everything for me including my career passions. I spent 15+ years as a conference and event organizer working with associations and corporate organizations designing and executing event strategy. When 2020 rocked our world, I realized I no longer wanted to solely work on my organization's events, but wanted to leverage my expertise in events, passion for human connection, and love of technology to help our industry, and fellow event organizers, thrive in the next evolution of our industry. After all, “professional networker” isn’t a job title that exists, yet…

JOINING THE EVOLUTION

Event tech blew up in 2020 and 2021 and I dove head first into it. Throwing a decade and half of comfortability out the window. As crazy as it sounds and probably looks on my resume, working with event tech companies primed for disrupting a space that hasn’t seen innovation in years has become a new passion. Helping these organizations navigate the intricacies of our industries and getting to work with hundreds of planners and organizations has been a dream. Being able to settle the startup chaos by building processes and structure that drives scalable customer results is now my favorite part of my job. 

RIGHT ROLE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Joining Sessionboard as Director of Partnerships and Events has felt like the compilation of all my experience and passions into one plus add some amazing industry friends now turned colleagues. The people are amazing, the tech is slick, the UX is even better and the cherry on top is working every day with industry partners and planners to help all of us work smarter together. 

When we can leverage technology to make our jobs easier, it gets planners out of the operational weeds so they can focus on strategy and creating the best content and experiences for their audiences; which at the end of the day is why we all continue to do one top 10 most stressful jobs.

The fog is clearing from the chaos of the last few years. The pendulum is settling down. Planners have a prime opportunity to move from “party planner” persona to what they truly are, Business Event Professionals, Event Designers with Purpose. Getting to work with Sessionboard pushes me to be a better planner, pushes planners to work more efficiently, and pushes our industry to the next level. 

Let's Connect!

Connect with me, afterall that’s my favorite thing. I speak planner; I speak change is hard but we can persevere better than where we started. I’m here to help you work smarter and achieve goals you didn’t know you could reach. Let’s connect!

LEARN HOW TO FORGE YOUR OWN PATH

Want to learn first hand how to take the leap from event planner to event strategist?

Register for our webinar, hosted by our very own Megan Martin, Megan Saad, and Owner of Measured Meeting Strategies, Molly Witges, on June 7th @ 1:00PM EST.

About Sessionboard

Sessionboard is a next generation speaker & content management platform that simplifies the complex workflows and disjointed communications that exist around speaker and content management. From call for papers, abstract evaluation, awards, applications, agenda building, speaker onboarding and communication, Sessionboard helps event organizers work smarter, move faster, and improve their ROI.

The results? A faster-growing event, more productive staff, seamless collaboration with speakers and more time back to do what you do best—building epic experiences.

If you’d like to learn more about our platform and how it’s saving event organizers like you hundreds of hours per event, let’s talk.