According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 149,000 meeting planner jobs in the country, with an average of 16,500 openings for meeting, convention, and event planners projected each year.
What is the average salary for full-time meeting planners? Estimates vary widely, with Glassdoor showing a range between $67,000 and $118,000 per year, a median of $88,623, and an average of $75,365.
The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) 2024 Salary Survey pegged the average salary of North American meeting planners at $103,150, with planners without direct reports earning $87,000.
To find meeting planner jobs, you can search online listings on sites like Indeed, Monster, and LinkedIn, as well as explore the job boards of industry associations such as Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and PCMA. Common search terms are ‘meeting planner,’ ‘event planner,’ or ‘conference planner.’
Grow Your LinkedIn Connections
Social media sites, especially LinkedIn, are good sources for learning not only about job openings but also about the cultures of various companies.
“If you have a certain industry or corporation in mind, you can learn a lot by befriending people on LinkedIn,” said Dawn Penfold, president of Meetingjobs, A Cadre Company. “You can make connections and get information about employers through chatting on LinkedIn. The only caveat is to not do this to excess. You don’t want to be perceived as a stalker.”
When you learn of a job opening, act quickly, because the opening may not be there tomorrow. Penfold and other industry recruiters agree that the planners who apply first are the ones who get the most attention.
Consider Temping
Because of tight budgets, many companies are making the decision to fill meeting planning positions on an as-needed rather than full-time basis.
Cadre, sister company to MeetingJobs, places contract and freelance positions through its online platform. There is no fee to be part of Cadre’s roster of 6,500+ event freelancers; the only cost is a $25 charge to complete a background check. Two other companies that place temporary planners are Soundings and MeetingsNEvents.
“The planner employee base was forever changed after Covid,” said Todd Taranto, president of Cadre. “Companies rebuilt to 80% full-time employees and added 20% variable labor to scale up or down as needed.”
Taranto has seen companies hiring contractors for jobs as small as two to four weeks for site inspections or hotel contracting, alongside the more standard three- to nine-month gigs for a single event.
You never know if these occasional gigs will turn into permanent ones, or even a full-time position. And meanwhile, you can continue your job search.