According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country has 149,000 meeting planner positions, with an average of 16,500 vacancies per year.
What is the average salary for a full-time meeting planner? Estimates vary widely, with glass doors ranging from $67,000 to $118,000 per year, with a median of $88,623 and an average of $75,365.
The Professional Conference Management Association (PCMA) 2024 Salary Survey sets the average salary for conference planners in North America at $103,150, while the planners who do not report directly at $87,000.
To find a meeting planner job, you can search online listings on sites like Monster and LinkedIn and explore industry association working committees such as International (MPI) and PCMA. Common search terms are “conference planner”, “event planner” or “conference planner”.
Develop your LinkedIn connection
Social media sites, especially LinkedIn, are not only a study job opening, but also a good source of various corporate cultures.
“If you have an industry or company, you can learn a lot by being friends with people from LinkedIn,” said Dawn Penfold, president of the cadre company MeetingJobs. “You can connect and get information about your employer by chatting on LinkedIn. The only caveat is not to do it too much. You don’t want to be considered a stalker.”
When you learn that a job is open, act quickly, as tomorrow may not be there. Penfold and other industry recruiters agree that the planner who applied first is the planner who gets the most attention.
Consider weight
Due to tight budgets, many companies are deciding to fill meeting planning positions with payments rather than full-time.
Cadres, sister company meeting jobs, place contracts and freelancing positions through its online platform. No need to serve as part of a freelancer lineup of over 6,500 activities; the only fee is the $25 fee for completing background checks. The other two interim planner companies are response and meeting.
“The planner’s staff base has changed forever after Covid,” said Todd Taranto, Cadre President. “The company is rebuilt as 80% full-time employees and adds 20% of the variable workforce to expand or shrink as needed.”
Taranto saw companies hire contractors for work as little as two to four weeks, conduct on-site inspections or hotel contracts, and perform three to nine months of an event.
You never know if these occasional gigs will turn into permanent gigs, or even full-time positions. At the same time, you can continue to seek a job.
