Meeting Planner Careers

When preparing for a different career, one of the most crucial aspects you must consider is the salary. Meeting planner income varies broadly depending on the specialty, but there are a few common guidelines to check when deciding on a career.

National Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.Bls.Gov) reports that in May of 2006 a convention planner's median annual wages were $42,180, with the bottom end of the income scale at under $26,000 and the upper ten percent making more than $70,000. The agency further separated the specialties, stating business, professional, and political event planners made the highest amount, around $45,000, and the lowest wages were earned by persons in the travel industry at $38,270. Salary.Com reports current salaries at $53,532, with variations allowed for location and category.

Salary by Type

The type of planning you would like to do will determine a lot vis-а-vis your income and benefits. Corporate Meeting planners can get paid around $45,000 as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, but there are diverse types of corporate event planners. For example, meeting and convention planners could make a bigger salary than those who put together department and team building meetings.

Outside the corporate world, employees of nonprofits often have somewhat lesser salaries than corporate planners, but freelancers experience a more tough time — they are self employed and many times labor extra hours as well. College and university event planner incomes may be more in the middle to low end of the event planner income range.

Salary by Location

If you are interested in a definite location for your event planner career, you must look for statistics by state and city. For example, if you presently reside in a little town in Iowa but plan to relocate to the East coast, do a study not only on average salaries, but also on cost of living, commute times, job availability, etc., before you reach your final decision. You may uncover that a city that offers extraordinary salaries also has a high cost of living and it would benefit you to look for an alternative place.

Nonetheless how you make your career decisions, investigation and education are important.

According to a US News & World Report on December 28, 2009:
“A Meeting Planner is one of the 50 best careers of 2010, and should have a strong growth over the next decade.”

According to the weekly news magazine's report, the employment of meeting and convention planners "is expected to grow faster than the average for all professions over the next decade or so" thanks to the "growing importance of meetings to increasingly global companies."

Because the recession caused a contraction of the meetings industry in 2009, U.S. News said today's meeting planners have to be "tougher," "willing to negotiate for lower costs and better perks," and "willing to face tough questions on budgets and return on investment."

Despite companies' reduced meeting budgets, however — and in spite of the AIG effect, which caused an unfortunate association of off-site meetings with corporate excess in 2009 — U.S. News concluded that "most organizations recognize the value of the face-to-face meeting — as not just a perk but an imperative for companies that have greater global reaches."

Anticipate this future need for meeting planners and establish yourself by enrolling in a Meeting and Event Planning Certificate Program. This type of certificate program will give you the knowledge to position yourself for the future with a new career or enhance your current job or validate skills you are already using in your personal or professional life.

An elevator speech, also called an elevator pitch, is a short introduction that succinctly delivers your most important points in 30 seconds or less. About 30 seconds is the time you would have during an elevator ride to deliver your introduction to a captive audience, which in your case would be a potential client.

Elevator speeches are perfect for quick introductions when you meet a potential client by chance at an event, or when you are making your rounds at a networking function. The idea is that you create and memorize your elevator speech so that you will be prepared and come across as professional and well spoken in the short time you have to make a first impression. While elevator speeches do not always have to be as short as 30 seconds, you should definitely keep it to a minimum and avoid going over two minutes before allowing your new acquaintance to speak. Remember, you want to sound professional and articulate – not boring or self-important.

When crafting your elevator speech, make sure you answer these four questions:

1. What services do you provide?
2. What is your niche or specialization?
3. How are you different than others performing the same services?
4. How do your services make your potential client’s life or job easier?

Whether you are just starting out or have been in the meeting planning field for awhile now, it can be tempting to want to bill your services as all-encompassing. While you may indeed be an excellent event or meeting planner who can whip up any type of event and have it go off without a hitch, there are distinct benefits to specializing in a particular niche within the field. Some meeting planners select their niche prior to ever planning an event, some fall into a particular niche naturally over time, and some choose not to specialize at all and to plan a wide variety of events throughout their career.

But, whether you already know that your dream is to only plan weddings, you have already established a well-deserved reputation as a corporate event planner or you simply have no idea which type of events you might enjoy planning most, you will likely discover that finding a specialization will make your job easier and will actually help you get more business.

When you specialize in a particular type of event, it is much easier to become known as the go-to planner for that type of event. You will also likely provide better events due to becoming increasingly well-versed in your niche. Additionally, your job will be much easier when you work with the same venues and vendors repeatedly and begin to deliver exceptional events that will take less time and effort on your part.

When it comes to meetings, you have to come fully prepared and ready to state your side and then show all the documentation that you have used and collected. There are basically seven ways for you to have an easy and hassle free meeting plan.

The first thing that you must do is think about everything that you will need. Make sure that if you need an overhead projector that it is set up in the room before the meeting starts. You may want to come to the meeting an hour or two head and set the room. You need to make sure that all the equipment that you use is good and works. This is the time for you to set up the rest of the room.

You may need to rearrange the furniture and other things to make sure that everyone can comfortably see the presentation. You may also want to take this time to set your table up. If you have folders or handouts that you would like to share with your associates, you may want to leave them at the end of the table or around the table. Read more…

Planning an event is a big job.  No matter what type of event it is, you will find that there is a lot of different things that you have to make sure get done. You need to be focused and ready to take on this type of challenge when it comes to planning an event.  If you are not able to handle it all yourself, you will want to think about hiring an event planner to make it a little bit easier. 

There are a few different key factors that are important when you are trying to find a successful event planner. You need to think about the person that you are hiring and what they can do for you.  You have to learn to pick and choose your event planner wisely so that you are not finding yourself in a bad situation later on.

1. You will want to make sure that you are getting a highly successful event planner to take care of your next event. You need to make sure that you are finding someone that is ready to take on a challenge and do the best job that she can for you.  You want them to be devoted and able to help you though anything that is thrown your way. 
2. You want a professional.  You want to have someone help you with your next event that has the extensive training that is necessary to make the most of the event. You need to have someone that you can count on that has the experience that you need to make this the best ever.  You can make the event highly successful and very professional when you have help that matches your needs.
3. Getting a professional event planner that pays attention to detail is very key. This is one of the most important key factors in making an event a great success. You will want to have the person helping you very interested in making you happy. You need them to be very efficient and willing to do what you need them to. 
4. You will want to interview your event planner to make sure they are the person that you feel comfortable with. You want to have someone help you with your special event that you can trust and get to know.  They will want to be make your event the best that it can be and give you all that you are looking for and maybe even a little bit more.  You will be surprised at the amount of help you can get from your wedding planner when you chose them well. Ask them important questions that you are going to need to know.  You want to make the most of this time and get to know them very well.
5. The person that you are hiring to take care of your event will have to know the financial part of the business.  They will have to be willing to make sure that they take care of all the business transaction s that have to be dealt with so that you can get the event rolling on the right budget. They will have to be aware of the process and that they have to stay within the budget to keep on track.
6. Get the references that you need to make a good decision about the event planner that you need. You want to make sure that you have someone that is going to have former clients that are happy with their work. You want to contact these people and find out what they like and disliked about the event planner. This will help you make a better decision as to who is the right person for the job.
7. You will also need to make sure that the event planner is able to get word of your special event out there. You want them to be able to get the advertising part of the business out there for everyone to know about. You want to get as many people to your event that you can.  This will mean a lot of hard work and effort to go into the great event that you have been planning and waiting for.
8. Price.  This is one of the most important things that you need to consider before you hire an event planner. You want to make sure that you are getting someone that you can afford to do the job. You want to get an event planner that is going to be in your budget and also be very good. You do not want to pay for someone that you do not think will get the job done.  However you also want to make sure that you are getting someone that you can trust and feel good about the price at the same time. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of meeting, event and convention planners is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations over the 2006-16 decade. Additional job openings will come from the need to replace workers who leave the workforce or transfer to other occupations. Career opportunities will be best for individuals who have earned a bachelors degree and who have some meeting planning experience.

Employment change. Employment of meeting, event and convention planners is expected to grow 20 percent over the 2006-16 decade, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

As businesses and organizations become increasingly global, meetings and conventions become  more important. In organizations that span the country or the globe, the periodic meeting is increasingly the only time the organization can bring all of its members together.

Despite the proliferation of alternative forms of communication, such as e-mail, videoconferencing, and the Web, face-to-face interaction is still a necessity. In fact, new forms of communication foster interaction and connect individuals and groups that previously would not have collaborated. By increasing the number of human connections, electronic forms of communication actually increase the demand for meetings, which may offer the only opportunity for these people to interact in person.

Source:  US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Meeting and convention planners search for prospective meeting venues, which may be hotels, convention centers, or conference centers. They issue requests for proposals to all the sites in which they are interested. These requests state the meeting dates and outline the planners’ needs for the meeting or convention, including meeting and exhibit space, lodging, food and beverages, telecommunications, audio-visual requirements, transportation, and any other necessities.

The venues respond with proposals describing what space and services they can supply, and at what prices. Meeting and convention planners review these proposals and either make recommendations to top management or choose the site themselves.

Once the location is selected, meeting and convention planners arrange support services, coordinate with the facility, prepare the site staff for the meeting, and set up all forms of electronic communication needed for the meeting or convention, such as e-mail, voice mail, video, and online communication.

Become an event planner that organizes corporate events, birthday parties or weddings by volunteering with other event planners and taking classes in marketing, accounting and sales. Network an event planning business by making a Web site and contacting local vendors with the help of this free video on job information from a career service specialist.