Belonging by Design: Andrew Roby and the False Divide Inside the Event Industry

For years the industry dismissed “party planners.” Andrew Roby’s career suggests it misunderstood them.

The events industry has always carried a quiet hierarchy, even if few people say it out loud. At the top sit the producers of massive trade shows, global conferences, and sports spectacles, the sectors that speak the language of square footage, registration numbers, and sponsor activations. Further down, in the minds of some, sit the planners who work i…