The evolution of events planning

The history of events planning dates to the days of pioneers like Cleopatra, Madame Pompadour and Marie Antoinette, all of whom were responsible for organising key events that were executed via conventional means including free labour. With limited communication methodologies, these icons relied on foot soldiers to perform services to deliver key messages about their events; in most cases, these communications took very long periods to reach their projected destinations.

Today, the events industry has evolved so much that practitioners, with the aid of technology, can complete their tasks within shorter periods and countries can earn substantial revenue from major events like Carnival. An example of this is TT's 2025 Carnival, which reportedly generated $668,060,354.40 from visitors between February 14 and March 4. This figure represented a $34 million increase over the $634 million for the 2024 Carnival.

Unlike the execution of events long ago, the objectives of events have not really changed significantly from then to now.

An event is still viewed as an organised gathering that brings different types of people together for varying reasons some of which include entertainment, socialisation, education and networking. Conversely, events also play a formidable role in a country’s expansion and TT is no exception. Likewise, the TTCSI, the umbrella organisation for the services sector, acknowledges the significance of the events sector in the progression of the local economy. As the events industry continues to evolve with technological innovations and the new normal following the covid19 pandemic, many people are gradually seeking employment in this effervescent profession for contrasting motives.

To this end, in this segment, the TTCSI introduces one of its newest members and flourishing event professional, Wendy Campbell-Paul, the managing director of Majic Touch Events & Communications Services – a supplier of events, education and communication services.

From Wendy’s perspective, the events industry is so dynamic that it is profoundly linked to many different sectors.

When she thinks about events, tourism, hospitality, sponsorship and logistics immediately come to her mind. From her working experiences at large-scale regional meetings like the 2007 CAWP, 2009 VSOA and 2023 37th ACCP AGM and conference, Wendy knows that these sectors rely tremendously on events for, inter alia, venue selection, catering, foreign exchange, sponsorship, job creation, decorating, promoting, attendee engagement, protocol and excellent customer service. For these reasons and the prospects for future growth, innovativeness and collaboration with major stakeholders, Wendy and her Arima-based company remain encouraged to be an emerging force in the industry.

Entering the events sector was perhaps decided very early in Wendy’s life because she was always attracted to detailed planning and perfection. Moreover, her prior experiences with micro events, led her to rebrand and diversify her 2008-formed public relations and communications company; consequently, events became the vanguard yet communications still plays an essential part of her business.

She knew that penetrating the events industry would be a difficult challenge; notwithstanding this reality, Wendy made the deliberate decision to rename her sole-trader business to Majic Touch Events & Communications Services in October 2019. However, the road to the events industry was not always smooth; less than five months after rebranding, like many other events professionals and companies, her company came face-to-face with one of its most horrifying challenges – the covid19 pandemic – which severely decimated the events sector. This led to rising costs, budget constraints and fatigue. Nonetheless, because of her calculated love for events, Wendy never surrendered the idea and made the choice to work on building her young, but strong company during the pandemic through education and strategic measures.

Since then, through her company, Wendy, also an events lecturer, has been very active in the industry by providing a range of events services for the private and public sectors in the virtual, hybrid and face-to-face formats. These major and minor events services were done for conferences, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, milestone and themed events at various locations including the Hyatt Regency, community centres and restaurants. On an even more positive note, Wendy has seen how her company’s involvement in the events industry has boosted the national economy by creating limited employment; at times, she has recruited capable and dependable vendors to supply several services including catering, entertainment, emceeing, photography and videography. Although restricted, this triumph ties in with one of Wendy’s dreams – to assist others with partial employment.

As the events industry continues to recuperate from the pandemic, Wendy is appealing to all stakeholders to respect the work that events professionals do. Most attendees see the end-product which looks and feels good; however, interested parties must understand that despite the modernisation of the events sector, event professionals still work extremely hard to get the finished creation to this stage. Moreover, from the pre-planning stage to the execution stage to the evaluation stage, events practitioners are duty-bound to ensure everything goes according to their plan to meet the needs of their customers. While there is a real possibility that Murphy’s law may still occur, the stark reality is that the conventional event planning days of Cleopatra, Madame Pompadour and Marie Antoinette are behind us.

Accordingly, she urges the key players to bear in mind that events, like weddings, do not generate high revenues like Carnival; consequently, stakeholders must adjust their event visions and high expectations to suit their respective resources so that all parties can benefit. As well, her simple message to mushrooming events professionals is to follow their dreams despite the challenges in the industry, to stay on top of their game by understanding and accepting that the industry’s trends change rapidly, to network and to develop pertinent human-related skills like communication, adaptability, organising, and problem-solving because they play integral parts in event planning.

On reflection, Wendy is quite ecstatic about the events sector, and as this industry continues to recover from changes created by the pandemic. She has been constantly tweaking her company to meet these important deviations which will undoubtedly redound to their benefit and ultimately satisfy the demands of the TT population and by extension, the global community. She is also proud to be a valued member of the TTCSI and is encouraging those in the services sector to appreciate the efforts of the TTCSI in its calculated effort to wholly support the services sector.