Meeting Planner Careers

Meeting planners are in demand, but there are different paths to success. Some people choose to start at smaller companies as a meeting planner with modest job requirements and salaries and have the option to grow into other possible roles later or to move on. Others plan on working directly for major companies that offer lucrative salaries right off the bat in exchange for competent meeting planners that are willing to give it their all.

For new meeting planners this might almost seem like there are two completely different jobs in two completely different industries, but it is not a choice unlike those faced by paralegals, bookkeepers, or other office professionals.

There is no reason that a new meeting planner could not start small and work their way up, but not everyone aspires to spend years as a meeting planner. Some change that view after a few short weeks on the job, and may even launch their own business as a freelance meeting planner. Others start in the corporate meeting planning field only to feel as if they have attached themselves to shooting comets or raging tempests of information, appointments, facts, protocols, etiquette, and rules. Some start on the low end of the spectrum with smaller businesses and dislike the requirement that they were so many proverbial hats, but that is how small and medium sized businesses tend to be in order to get by.

Ultimately the choice can be a fateful one, but a little tenacity can go a long way.

There are many jobs that are disappearing every day, and many of them will not return in the immediate future. In fact, some economists think that some entire industries may be undergoing serious transitions in who they employ and how they handle those employees to the point where some jobs will probably not return in our lifetime. Thankfully, that does not seem to be the case for meeting planners. In fact, meeting planners are probably safe for a few reasons:

• There have been freelance meeting planners for decades now, so even if corporate or SMB meeting planners start to be downsized, there are plenty of opportunities for moonlighting. It is even likely that mixing and matching a day job as a meeting planner and a side job as a freelance meeting planner would work out.
• Companies are striving more than ever to create effective meetings and presentations, and thus meeting planners that are willing to work hard are going to be in more demand than ever. In fact, there are probably more meeting planners moving up the corporate ladders now than ever before.
• Even smaller companies are starting to understand that they are their image, at least to a point. That means that they need meeting planners just as much as they need PR people.