Executive Profile
Name: Jen Totten
Title: Founder, CEO
Company: Meet Us
Birthplace: Santa Rosa, California
Location: Eagle, Idaho
Career History
• Owner, Auto Glass Company (2003 – Present)
• Founder & CEO, Meet Us (2016 – Present)
Years of volunteering turned into a career for Jen Totten, owner of Meet Us. Before building the meeting and event planning company she founded in 2016, Totten spent years coordinating travel as a volunteer for Rotary, the PTA and her children’s sports teams — all without knowing the industry she now works in even existed.
“We were winging it,” she said with a laugh. “We didn’t know that you could literally hire someone and have them help you with housing.”
Those experiences shaped how Meet Us operates today. When planning events as volunteers, Totten and her fellow volunteers would list a hotel’s information and leave booking to attendees.
“People couldn’t come because the hotel was already booked, and so our events weren’t as successful because we didn’t how to do a room block,” she said. It was only later that she realized planners could have managed accommodations while also securing rebates. Now she assumes nothing about what a client already knows. “Educate your client on all the services out there to help them expand their event.”
Meet Us now has a team of six serving nearly every market, including sports, association, corporate and incentive travel. Totten thrives on the variety.
“It’s just so exciting and so fun because you meet different people, but then you meet different interests,” she said. “It makes you more aware of the world.”
For Totten, responsiveness is what separates a one-time booking from a long-term relationship.
“Typically, I always go to my relationships first to book business if it’s the best for my client. And then, if it’s not the best for my client, I go outwards. But having that relationship established, they always go the extra mile.”
She recounts an example when she needed to expand a block for a recent Los Angeles event. A number of hotels went silent, but the JW Marriott stepped up, opening rooms, waiving the cutoff date and effectively absorbing much of her administrative load.
“You couldn’t tell they didn’t work for me,” she said. “What hotel does that?”
Totten values destination partners for similar reasons, relying on them to help her turn a single meeting into a longer, more profitable stay. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”
She has learned from her mistakes, including sending an initial communication to 1,500 attendees from her personal business email instead of to a team address, which routed all replies to her alone. “I had to take that client solely myself. That was a hard lesson to learn.”
When she is not working, Totten likes to keep it simple, spending time with her family (including two grandchildren) and cheering on her daughter, who competes on the professional rodeo circuit.
Tips from Jen Totten
• Your client may know nothing about the industry, so offer and explain every service you provide.
• Don’t default to just one planning platform; they aren’t one-size-fits-all.
• Build pre- and post-events around the main program to create excitement, boost attendance and make a more memorable, more profitable experience for the client.
