Great production team, but zero recognition, overworked, underpaid, and disrespected - Conference Producer IMAPAC Employee Review

The company has little to no respect for the production function, despite the fact that every single conference begins with us. If sales underperform, production gets blamed—even if we’ve delivered a strong agenda with high-quality speakers. But if sales do well, the credit (and commission) goes entirely to the sales team. Producers get no bonuses, no recognition—zero. We are constantly expected to do everyone’s job. From doing sales’ research (even though everything’s already in the business plan, which no one reads), to providing long lists of target companies for them to pitch. Networking team asks us to do their research too. On top of that, we’re expected to secure 5 speakers per week, create ebooks (which take at least a week of research), and juggle multiple conferences at once. We’re even expected to build awards programs from scratch, and even host it.. This would be unrealistic even if we were only doing our own job. But the amount of work dumped on production is insane, and no matter what, if something goes wrong, production is the first to be blamed. No sales? Production's fault. No delegates? Production's fault. AC not working? Production's fault. Post-event meetings often feel like waiting to be thrown under the bus, regardless of how well the event actually went. And if things do go well, sales and networking get all the praise while production is ignored. There’s also an ongoing issue of cost-cutting that directly affects conference quality. Speakers, sponsors, and VIPs often give negative feedback about poor event quality, and even though we’ve raised these concerns repeatedly, management’s solution is always to cut costs further—not improve the experience. Travel? We fly on low-cost airlines, sometimes have ridiculously long layovers, and those layovers aren’t even paid. No lounge access, no support—we’re just left to "figure it out." And somehow, we’re still expected to arrive fresh and ready to deliver a flawless conference. This isn’t a holiday—we're representing the company, yet they treat us like an afterthought. We even have to share rooms with colleagues, which means waking up early to get ready, no privacy, and no real rest. And then there are the monthly trainings. They add zero value. Every single time, it’s two hours of fluff (even though the CEO says it’ll only be one hour), and sometimes we even get homework. For what? It’s absurd. It’s just another way to waste our already-limited time. The worst part is, people are resigning left and right—and instead of investigating why, management just keeps holding more pointless trainings. They don’t hire replacements. They don’t fix the actual problems. They just push even more work onto the people who remain. And when it’s convenient, they’ll fire staff without warning. And finally, the compensation is nowhere near adequate for the amount of work and stress this role demands. We do the work of several departments, yet get paid peanuts.