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 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

Many of these blog posts have been about the various meeting planner careers that are available to you. It doesn’t matter whether you want to plan events for nonprofits, weddings and honeymoons, corporate meetings, or incentive travel for top employees–there is a career to match your creative streak.

However, do you know what the job prospects are for your chosen profession? The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook has many of the answers you’re looking for. Even with the recession and government frown in the direction of meetings and planners, it says that this profession is expected to grow faster than average between 2006 and 2016.

It also says that some of this will be due to natural attrition–some people will retire, some will move on to other professions, and some may switch professions within the planning category. That said, the handbook also tells us, “Unlike workers in some occupations, meeting and convention planners often can change industries relatively easily, so they often are able to move to different industries in response to the growth or declines in particular sectors of the economy.”

This is important to consider when choosing your specialty. Think about the days when you might want to switch, or pretend that you are only planning a five-year-long career. If you think about where you want to go, and it’s within the meetings profession, you can start planning for it while you’re working and training now.

Thinking ahead should be one of your strong points as a meeting planner–use it for yourself as well, and be on top of things when you need a change.

Many companies are trimming the fat from their expenditures, which means that the face of event planning is changing. In spite of that, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) expects faster than average growth for this industry. Here are some tips on how to become an event planner.

Education

Schooling for event planners can cover almost any business topic–general business, marketing, advertising, communications, public relations, and hospitality, just to name a few. Sometimes a two-year degree will be sufficient. There are now degrees available in meetings management, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many companies also expect certification. You can earn the well-respected Certified Meeting Professional credential, or CMP, from the Convention Industry Council. Read more…

When planning for a new career, one of the most important aspects you should consider is the salary. Event planner salaries vary widely depending on the specialty and who you talk to, but there are some general guidelines to check when deciding on a career.

National Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) says that in May of 2006 a convention planner’s median annual earnings were $42,180, with the low end of the salary scale at under $26,000 and the upper ten percent earning more than $70,000. The agency further divided the categories, stating business, professional, and political event planners made the highest amount, around $45,000, and the lowest wages were earned by those in the travel industry at $38,270. Salary.com reports current salaries at $53,532, with variations allowed for location and specialty. Read more…