Contributed by Nikita Khandheria, Founder and CEO, ERIA Hospitality
When we hear the word “influencer,” most of us immediately think about social media.
We think about someone with a large following recommending a hotel, restaurant, beauty product, or destination, and thousands of people seeing that recommendation. But the more time I spend working in events, the more I think we are overlooking another kind of influencer entirely: the event planner.
I started thinking about this because I noticed how often our clients ask us questions that have nothing to do with the actual logistics of their event. They ask where they should stay, where they should go for dinner, which photographer we love, who makes the best florals, where we found a certain piece of furniture, what they should give their guests, or what we would do if it were our own event. These conversations happen so naturally that I do not think most planners stop to consider what they mean. Our clients are not only hiring us to execute an event. They are trusting our taste and asking us to help decide where they should spend their money.
Our clients are not only hiring us to execute an event. They are trusting our taste and asking us to help decide where they should spend their money.
That is a tremendous amount of influence, especially when you consider how many industries an event planner touches while producing a single event. We work with hotels, restaurants, fashion, beauty, transportation, entertainment, food and beverage, furniture, floral design, photography, technology, travel, wellness, and gifting, sometimes all within the same weekend. We are constantly discovering companies, trying products, building relationships, and deciding which ones are good enough to put in front of our clients.
The Planner’s Influence
What makes this particularly interesting to me is that our influence works differently from traditional social media influence. A planner might not have hundreds of thousands of followers, but when a client who trusts them asks which hotel they should book for 100 guests, which furniture company they should use, or what espresso machine they should put in their home or office, that recommendation can be incredibly valuable. We are often making or influencing purchasing decisions at the exact moment someone is ready to spend.
…when a client who trusts them asks which hotel they should book for 100 guests, which furniture company they should use… that recommendation can be incredibly valuable.
I have started seeing this play out firsthand at ERIA, and it has changed the way I think about what partnerships between planners and brands could eventually look like.
When we were building our venues, we started approaching companies whose products we genuinely wanted in our spaces. We had furniture donated and placed a plaque recognizing the company that provided it. We received an espresso machine that could live inside the venue rather than simply appearing for one event. These were not traditional sponsorships, and we were not asking brands to pay us to post about them. We were creating a physical place where their products could be experienced over and over again by the people walking through our doors.
The concept itself is not completely new. The events industry has always had versions of this. A coffee company might bring machines into an event, a beverage brand might provide product, or a rental company might contribute furniture in exchange for exposure. Those relationships have generally been attached to one event, one client, or one moment.
From One-Time Sponsorships to Lasting Partnerships
What I think is changing, and what we are beginning to experiment with, is the possibility of making those relationships continuous.
Owning venues has made that especially visible to me. If I know that thousands of guests, executives, couples, planners, and companies are going to move through our spaces, suddenly an espresso machine is not just an espresso machine. It is a product being used by people every week. Furniture is not simply furniture we needed to purchase. It is something clients sit on, photograph, ask about, and potentially want for their own spaces. A product can become part of the environment in a way that feels completely natural because it is actually being used.
A product can become part of the environment in a way that feels completely natural because it is actually being used.
We are now starting to build relationships with companies that understand this model, and that is where I think it becomes really interesting. Once you know the brands that are open to creative partnerships, you can begin thinking differently when a client comes to you with a need. Instead of starting from zero every time, planners can become a bridge between brands looking for meaningful exposure and clients looking for exceptional products and experiences.
That creates an entirely different kind of value for everyone involved.
The client can receive something better than they may otherwise have been able to access. The brand gets its product in front of a very specific audience in a real environment. The planner can stretch a client’s budget further or create an experience that would otherwise have been difficult to justify financially. Most importantly, the guest encounters the brand naturally rather than feeling like they have walked into an advertisement.
A Win for Brands, Planners and Clients
I think that last part is incredibly important. Nobody wants an executive dinner or private celebration to suddenly feel like a sponsored Instagram post. The brand has to belong there. If the espresso machine makes the hospitality better, it makes sense. If beautiful furniture improves the venue, it makes sense. If a transportation, fashion, beauty, food, or hospitality brand can genuinely make the guest experience better, there is an opportunity to create something where everyone wins.
Nobody wants an executive dinner or private celebration to suddenly feel like a sponsored Instagram post.
This is also where I think event planners have an advantage that traditional influencers do not necessarily have. We are not introducing a product to someone for a few seconds on a screen. We can let people actually experience it.
Someone can sit on the furniture. They can drink the coffee. They can sleep at the hotel. They can ride in the car. They can taste the wine. They can use the beauty product while getting ready for a wedding. When they ask where something came from, the recommendation is attached to an experience they already enjoyed.
That is a very different kind of influence.
The Power of Experience
There is also a level of trust in this relationship that cannot be taken for granted. If someone has trusted me with their their company’s retreat or an event with a significant budget attached to it, they are generally going to take my recommendations seriously. That means planners have to be extremely careful about the partnerships we accept. If I recommend something because it benefits me rather than because I genuinely believe it improves the client’s experience, the entire model falls apart.
For me, the test is simple. Would I still want this product in the room if there were no partnership attached to it? If the answer is no, it probably should not be there.
I do not think event planners are going to replace traditional influencers. I think we are creating another category of influence altogether, one that is less dependent on follower count and more dependent on trust, purchasing power, access and experience.
The interesting part is that I think we are still very early.
At ERIA, we are figuring this out as we go. The individual concepts existed before us. Brands have loaned products, donated goods, sponsored events, and partnered with hospitality companies for years. What feels new is connecting those pieces into a more deliberate model and building a network of brands that want to participate repeatedly rather than treating every partnership as a one-time exchange.
If planners begin thinking this way, our role changes. We are no longer only sourcing what a client asks us to find. We can walk into a conversation already knowing the furniture company that wants its pieces experienced, the coffee company interested in getting machines into the right rooms, the hotel looking for the right guests, or the brand willing to help create an experience people could not otherwise have.
That is where I think the next version of event planning gets particularly exciting. We already sit at the intersection of brands, hospitality, spending, taste, and experience. We already influence what our clients choose. We already have their trust.
Now we are beginning to build the infrastructure around that influence.
The most influential person in the room may not always be the person with the largest audience online.
The most influential person in the room may not always be the person with the largest audience online. It may be the person a client trusts enough to hand a budget to and ask, “What would you choose?”
Event planners are already answering that question every day. The opportunity now is realizing what we can build around the answer.
