How to Become a Conference Manager
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a conference manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.63 an hour? That's $51,235 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 9,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Conference Manager Do
There are certain skills that many conference managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, negotiation skills and organizational skills.
How To Become a Conference Manager
If you're interested in becoming a conference manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.8% of conference managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.3% of conference managers have master's degrees. Even though most conference managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a conference manager. When we researched the most common majors for a conference manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on conference manager resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a conference manager. In fact, many conference manager jobs require experience in a role such as administrative assistant. Meanwhile, many conference managers also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or event manager.
Conference Manager Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of event manager you might progress to a role such as general manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of food and beverage.
Average Salary for a Conference Manager
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Conference Managers
1. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
2. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
6. University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE • Private
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
9. New York University
New York, NY • Private
10. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
Top Skills For a Conference Manager
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.0% of conference managers listed conference logistics on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and negotiation skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Conference Manager Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Conference Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Conference Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Conference Manager Demographics
Conference Manager Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among conference managers, 71.1% of them are women, while 28.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among conference managers is White, which makes up 64.9% of all conference managers.
- The most common foreign language among conference managers is Spanish at 33.3%.
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Best States For a Conference Manager
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a conference manager. The best states for people in this position are New York, West Virginia, California, and New Jersey. Conference managers make the most in New York with an average salary of $64,539. Whereas in West Virginia and California, they would average $60,971 and $56,844, respectively. While conference managers would only make an average of $56,448 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. West Virginia
$60,971
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$64,539
Avg. Salary
3. Illinois
$53,880
Avg. Salary
How Do Conference Manager Rate Their Jobs?
Top Conference Manager Employers
Most Common Employers For Conference Manager
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IBM | $102,706 | $49.38 | 5 |
| 2 | PennWell | $82,156 | $39.50 | 6 |
| 3 | Loews | $75,506 | $36.30 | 4 |
| 4 | Federal Direct | $62,011 | $29.81 | 3 |
| 5 | The Scientific Consulting Group | $61,926 | $29.77 | 3 |
| 6 | ICF | $61,375 | $29.51 | 5 |
| 7 | Flik Hospitality Group | $61,009 | $29.33 | 3 |
| 8 | Iowa State University | $56,847 | $27.33 | 6 |
| 9 | The University of Alabama | $55,414 | $26.64 | 4 |
| 10 | University of Pittsburgh | $53,001 | $25.48 | 5 |
Conference Manager Videos
