Ladies Leaders in Conferences: Lori Allen

Lori Allen epitomizes the phrase: You get what you give. She’s an all-in, passionate skilled, which has helped in her journey up the occasion ladder. She considers it “a privilege” to present time to her group, they usually’re energized and excited to work for her. She’s additionally an lively member of Monetary & Insurance coverage Convention Professionals, and a believer within the energy of networking.

Skift Conferences lately sat down with Allen, vp, international occasion operations at  MetLife, to study her management philosophies, how she evokes her group, and what evokes her.

Skift Conferences: You’ve spent your whole profession, the previous 25 years, in occasions? What’s it about this trade that has stored you in it for therefore lengthy?

Lori Allen: I feel that with regards to occasions, it is one thing that you just’re simply known as to do. Occasions got here into my life in 2004 and I’ve at all times labored within the occasion house at MetLife. I have been capable of have such a wealthy and numerous profession. As an organization, we’re so completely different in 2025 than we had been in 2004, and because the firm has modified, I have been capable of stretch and be taught and develop proper together with it.

In order the corporate grew globally, your alternatives grew?

After I began with the agency, it was primarily a face-to-face distribution mannequin, U.S.-based. As the corporate grew globally, the chance to turn out to be concerned within the worldwide facet of the enterprise was so engaging to me. I ended up collaborating with our enterprise leaders in Japan, which is our largest enterprise exterior the US, and serving to to arrange and develop their occasion administration group, which continues to be in place as we speak and stronger than ever.

What do you do in your function as VP of worldwide occasion operations?

Our group helps and plans the highest-profile conferences and occasions, something that’s multi-region, multi-country—the strategic initiatives which are slightly bit extra complicated. We now have 17 folks on the group, together with myself.

We now have a group of planners who project-manage the occasions; a group of occasion technologists who handle all of our information and construct all of our know-how, like our attendee-facing registration platform and our cell apps; and a group that does occasion manufacturing, primarily the enterprise periods within the ballroom, however they’re additionally whizzes at issues like video creation and lighting.

We even have groups in Japan and in Mexico, who, whereas they don’t seem to be straight reporting to me, are nonetheless a part of the advertising operate, which is what we’re part of. 

Do you’ve gotten a powerful relationship with these different international groups?

We now have initiatives we work on collectively, and I discover that the relationships that you just construct if you’re doing the work are higher than something. You’ll be able to construct that belief, get to know folks, and have these shared experiences collectively.

It’s like what we  give our attendees—these shared experiences and reminiscences and engagement in particular person.

That is a very essential piece of being a part of a worldwide firm, and one of many issues that is actually engaging to me is basically that circle of studying and communication.

Who has helped you essentially the most to develop your profession?

I’ve had tons of help to get the place I’m as we speak and specifically from my former boss, Jeff Calmus. Jeff’s a legend. And he was so beneficiant to me along with his time and along with his expertise—and simply his spirit. I imply, he was wonderful. Who I’m as we speak as a frontrunner has been influenced lots by my expertise with Jeff.  

How do you assist to develop the folks in your group?

It is all about realizing my group and taking the time to be the type of chief who understands what her group wants, in addition to creates an surroundings the place they’re secure to specific that. 

I feel that typically folks do not feel snug sufficient to have an genuine dialog, or really feel challenged to have the ability to communicate up. I wish to create an surroundings the place persons are capable of self-advocate, and to be reflective about their careers and what alternatives they may want.  

It is also about listening, ensuring to have these conversations. It’s really easy to push off and to prioritize different issues that really feel actually pressing. My group deserves that point. And it is my privilege as a frontrunner to have the ability to assist them. 

I at all times attempt to ask them: Is there something I can do for you? Do you want one thing to do your job higher? As a result of I feel that folks, typically, in the event that they’re not requested, will not let you know. It’s essential to me to be sure that I am an enabler and never a roadblock.

Who evokes you to be a greater chief?

It is arduous to determine a single particular person. Truthfully, I might must say the folks on my group. Each time we’ve a mission, I really feel consistently in awe on the stage of dedication that my group displays, the extent of experience, the extent of persistence.

What we do shouldn’t be simple. My favourite analogy is that it’s like we’re in a play: We now have a script, we have got actors, we have got an viewers, we have got a stage, however each evening is the gown rehearsal and the closing evening. You are by no means going to do it twice. And so I feel it takes a very particular type of particular person to have the ability to deal with that type of strain with grace and to have success. 

You’re concerned in Monetary & Insurance coverage Convention Professionals…What’s one piece of recommendation you’ll give to somebody beginning out as a gathering planner?

If I had been giving recommendation to my youthful self, it will have been to have began networking earlier and to acknowledge the large worth that inner and exterior networking can carry to your profession. And to you as an individual.

I feel you get greater than you anticipate if you determine to turn out to be concerned in trade organizations, or inside your individual agency. Ensuring that you have a very sturdy community is massively essential.