How ETHOS Is Helping Mentor the Next Generation of Event Professionals

Every accomplished event professional has one thing in common: someone gave them an opportunity to learn. The meetings and events industry is built on relationships, experience, and knowledge that can’t always be taught in a classroom.

While education provides a strong foundation, some of the most valuable lessons come from navigating a last-minute schedule change, watching a client vision come to life, or learning how to solve challenges with confidence under pressure.

As the industry continues to evolve, preparing the next generation of professionals has never been more important. Event professionals today are expected to think strategically, embrace emerging technology, create experiences that connect people, and understand how individual decisions contribute to a larger business objective.

At ETHOS, mentorship is part of our responsibility to support the industry. By investing in future professionals today, we’re helping strengthen the future of meetings and events tomorrow.

The Industry Is Evolving. So Should the Way We Teach It.

The industry isn’t only changing because of new technology or evolving attendee expectations. The people entering the profession are changing too.

Today’s workforce includes younger professionals, people entering the industry through new paths, and those bringing perspectives and skills from other fields. That creates tremendous opportunities for fresh ideas and innovation, but it also reinforces the importance of mentorship, education, and knowledge sharing across every corner of the meetings and events industry.

For destination management companies, that means meeting professionals where they are. We have an opportunity to educate, guide, and help build confidence, whether we’re partnering with a planner early in their career or mentoring a student preparing to enter the profession.

Future professionals deserve opportunities to see how strategy becomes execution, how relationships are built, and how thoughtful decisions ultimately shape the attendee experience.

Some Lessons Can’t Be Learned in a Classroom

Classrooms teach theory.

Events teach judgment.

No textbook can fully prepare someone for balancing competing priorities during load-in, building trust with a client during a site visit, or finding a creative solution when plans unexpectedly change. Those experiences shape professionals.

At ETHOS, mentorship is designed to help bridge that gap by providing meaningful exposure to the realities of destination management. Whether participating in brainstorming sessions, supporting event logistics, attending client meetings, or seeing how destinations come together behind the scenes, every opportunity can help build confidence alongside technical skills.

The Mindset We Hope to Pass On

While every organization teaches different processes, we believe great event professionals share several common ways of thinking.

Think Beyond Logistics

Transportation, timelines, and operations matter, but they are only one part of a successful program.

Every recommendation should support what the client is ultimately trying to accomplish. Are they rewarding top performers? Bringing a distributed team together? Reinforcing company culture? Building stronger relationships?

Those objectives should influence what the experience becomes and the decisions that follow.

Design Experiences, Not Itineraries

Attendees may not remember every detail of an agenda, but they remember how an experience made them feel.

That requires thinking beyond filling time. The strongest programs consider how design, interaction, storytelling, hospitality, and the destination itself can work together to create the right experience for the people in the room.

Every Recommendation Needs a Reason

At ETHOS, we challenge ourselves to ask why.

Why this activity? Why this restaurant? Why this nonprofit partner? Why this destination?

Purposeful Planning™ means recommendations shouldn’t exist simply because they’re available. They should make sense for the client’s goals, the attendees, and the place where the program is happening.

Community Is Part of the Experience

Destinations are more than hotels and attractions.

They’re made up of local businesses, nonprofits, artists, makers, and community members who help shape what visitors experience.

Whenever possible, we encourage future professionals to think about how meetings and events can connect more thoughtfully with the communities that host them, whether through local sourcing, partnerships, experiences, or opportunities to give back.

Never Stop Learning

The meetings and events industry changes constantly, and even the most experienced professionals never reach a point where there’s nothing left to learn.

New technology emerges. Client expectations shift. Destinations change. New generations enter the workforce with different ideas about how people gather and connect.

That’s why we encourage young professionals to build habits of continued learning early: follow industry organizations and publications, attend educational events, ask questions, seek out mentors, and stay curious about perspectives that are different from their own.

Experience gives us instincts. Continuing to learn keeps those instincts from becoming assumptions.

Mentorship Can Shape Careers

One of our favorite examples of mentorship in action is one of our employees journey with ETHOS.

Maura first joined our team as an intern, eager to learn and gain experience in destination management. Over time, her curiosity, dedication, and willingness to embrace new challenges allowed her responsibilities to grow alongside her confidence.

Today, she leads our Savannah office, helping clients create experiences throughout the destination while continuing to build relationships within the local community.

Her story is a reminder that mentorship isn’t simply about providing temporary opportunities. When organizations invest in people, those opportunities can grow into meaningful, long-term careers that strengthen both the individual and the industry.

Building the Pipeline Takes More Than Mentorship

Supporting the next generation also means paying attention to the systems preparing them to enter the industry in the first place.

In September, ETHOS Founder & CEO Joe Fijol joined leaders from Florida universities and hospitality organizations for a dinner at The Addison in Boca Raton focused on the future of hospitality and tourism education and the workforce behind it.

The conversation coincided with Florida’s Governor’s Conference on Tourism and included discussion around Programs of Strategic Emphasis, an initiative within Florida’s State University System designed to better align degree programs with the state’s workforce and economic needs.

Hospitality and tourism have historically faced challenges in being represented within that designation, despite the enormous role the industries play in Florida’s economy. Educators and industry leaders are working together to bring current workforce data and industry needs into that conversation.

It’s a reminder that mentorship can happen one student at a time, but developing the next generation requires something bigger too.

Industry professionals, educators, and employers need to keep talking to one another about what students are learning, what employers actually need, where workforce gaps exist, and how we create stronger paths from education into long-term careers.

Taking the Conversation Back to the Classroom

That work continues on October 21, when Joe will join students at Iowa State University for a classroom panel focused on how meetings and events drive revenue.

The conversation will explore a side of the industry students may not always see right away: events aren’t only about what happens in the room. They can be strategic business tools that build relationships, influence behavior, strengthen brands, support sales, and ultimately contribute to the bottom line.

Joe will bring the DMC perspective to that discussion, sharing examples from meetings and incentive programs and helping students understand how the experiences being planned connect back to larger business goals.

For ETHOS, showing up in spaces like this is another way to invest in the future of the profession. It gives students access to real-world perspectives while helping them see the broader role events can play inside an organization before they ever enter the industry themselves.

Why Investing in Future Professionals Benefits Everyone

Mentorship isn’t only beneficial for students.

It strengthens the entire industry.

Emerging professionals bring fresh perspectives, new ideas, and curiosity that can challenge established ways of thinking. Experienced professionals bring context, guidance, relationships, and practical knowledge that only comes from years of doing the work.

Together, they create stronger teams capable of serving clients with creativity, confidence, and purpose.

Clients benefit from organizations that continuously invest in learning, too. Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when experienced leaders create environments where people can ask questions, test ideas, learn from mistakes, and continue getting better.

The future of meetings and events depends on organizations willing to share knowledge rather than keep it to themselves.

Looking Ahead

Preparing the next generation of event professionals isn’t simply about filling future roles. It’s about protecting the creativity, collaboration, relationships, and problem-solving that make this industry what it is.

At ETHOS, Purposeful Planning™ extends beyond the experiences we design for clients. It also shapes how we invest in people, develop future leaders, and contribute to the profession we care deeply about.

Every student who asks a thoughtful question, every intern who gains confidence, and every young professional who discovers a passion for this industry represents another step toward a stronger future for meetings and events.

Because exceptional events begin with exceptional people, and every exceptional professional starts somewhere.