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How to hire a meeting planner

Meeting planner hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring meeting planners in the United States:

  • In the United States, the median cost per hire a meeting planner is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • Human Resources use 15% of their expenses on recruitment on average.
  • On average, it takes around 12 weeks for a new meeting planner to become settled and show total productivity levels at work.

How to hire a meeting planner, step by step

To hire a meeting planner, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a meeting planner:

Here's a step-by-step meeting planner hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write a meeting planner job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new meeting planner
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a meeting planner do?

A meeting planner makes professional decisions in all areas of meeting preparation and presentation. They plan meetings, establish meeting objectives, schedule meetings, budget expenses, inspect meeting sites, negotiate with suppliers, and create a speaker lineup. They also need to deal with travel arrangements and with technical equipment used in the course of the meeting.

Learn more about the specifics of what a meeting planner does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    Before you post your meeting planner job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a meeting planner for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    A meeting planner's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, meeting planners from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

    This list shows salaries for various types of meeting planners.

    Type of Meeting PlannerDescriptionHourly rate
    Meeting PlannerMeeting, convention, and event planners coordinate all aspects of events and professional meetings. They arrange meeting locations, transportation, and other details.$19-37
    Director Of EventsAn event director or director of the event is responsible for organizing a successful execution of an event. This job is demanding and involves a varied range of tasks and obligations, from planning and overseeing the cast and crew recruited, supervise training for effective execution of the event... Show more$18-53
    Site CoordinatorA site coordinator is responsible for organizing special events and programs based on a client's specifications or a business's needs. Site coordinators ensure that the plan will go well by monitoring their resources, coordinating with third-party services, researching the best settings, finalizing the list of attendees, and managing the budget goals... Show more$12-26
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Client Facing
    • Event Planning
    • PowerPoint
    • Audio Visual
    • Event Management
    • Site Selection
    • Meeting Materials
    • Room Set-Up
    • Site Inspections
    • Ground Transportation
    • Onsite Management
    • Travel Arrangements
    • Contract Negotiations
    • Room Blocks
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage company's social medias and publish weekly relate topics on Facebook and newsletter.
    • Confirm reservations, registrations and manage itineraries.
    • Develop and issue client/supplier contracts, submit RFP s, secure meeting space, research and create budgets for proposals.
    • Handle all participants regarding event specifications, RFP's, registrations, confirmations, cancellations, schedules, and cost summaries.
    • Deliver onsite execution and conduct post event surveys.
    • Oversee arrangements for event production and onsite technology.
    More meeting planner duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in your meeting planner job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A meeting planner salary can vary based on several factors:
    • Location. For example, meeting planners' average salary in arkansas is 52% less than in new jersey.
    • Seniority. Entry-level meeting planners earn 48% less than senior-level meeting planners.
    • Certifications. A meeting planner with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
    • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a meeting planner's salary.

    Average meeting planner salary

    $56,257yearly

    $27.05 hourly rate

    Entry-level meeting planner salary
    $40,000 yearly salary
    Updated January 22, 2026

    Average meeting planner salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1New Jersey$75,245$36
    2District of Columbia$75,032$36
    3New York$67,603$33
    4Virginia$63,570$31
    5California$61,663$30
    6Massachusetts$60,795$29
    7Illinois$59,098$28
    8Tennessee$52,473$25
    9Maryland$51,895$25
    10Minnesota$50,217$24
    11Arizona$48,376$23
    12Missouri$47,414$23
    13Texas$45,543$22
    14Georgia$44,102$21
    15Utah$43,415$21
    16Florida$42,974$21

    Average meeting planner salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1AbbVie$88,150$42.386
    2Marriott International$65,052$31.2754
    3Prudential Bank$64,770$31.141
    4Amalgamated Bank$62,552$30.07
    5Prudential Financial$58,212$27.991
    6Dairy.com$58,175$27.97
    7BCD Travel$57,008$27.411
    8Smith & Nephew$55,508$26.691
    9Renal Research Institute, LLC$53,846$25.89
    10Rose Hills Mortuary$53,126$25.54
    11National Defense Industrial Association$52,524$25.25
    12Carlson’s Appliances$52,219$25.11
    13Randstad North America, Inc.$52,127$25.062
    14Supernus Pharmaceuticals$51,977$24.991
    15Heluna Health$51,669$24.84
    16ManpowerGroup$51,575$24.8015
    17Kelly Services$51,475$24.7518
    18Cushman & Wakefield$51,354$24.6965
    19Synergy Enterprises$51,003$24.52
    20Teleflex$50,957$24.50
  4. Writing a meeting planner job description

    A job description for a meeting planner role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a meeting planner job description:

    Meeting planner job description example

    BCD Meetings Events: Meeting Planner

    About Us:

    At BCD Meetings Events (BCD M E), we provide more than meeting and event planning services: we create connections that inspire, motivate, and change behavior for our customers. As the world's most trusted and innovative meetings and events agency, BCD M E cultivates a culture of people, passion and purpose to drive business forward.

    Headquartered in Chicago, with locations in 50+ countries across the world, BCD M E's team of 1,500+ people are committed to sustainability and driving success for our customers, our business, and ourselves.

    We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. Most importantly, we value our people and are committed to your success and continued growth. Learn more about us at bcdme.com/careers.

    About the role:

    We are looking for a Meeting Planner to join our dynamic team. In this client facing role, you will act as the event planning lead and project manager. You will collaborate with peers and vendors alike to ensure each event is executed flawlessly from site selection, to registration, to room set menu planning through onsite execution, budget reconciliation and everything in between. You keep projects running on time, on budget, and have mastered the art of managing multiple priorities at once. Sound like you? Read on!

    As a Meeting Planner you will:

    • Act as the main point of contact for your client, and ensure all milestones are clearly communicated and met. Be consultative in your approach. Afterall, you are an expert in event management.
    • Work with your client and peers on procuring an ideal venue for each event.
    • Build, monitor and maintain concise and accurate event budgets. Think outside of the box on creative cost savings ideas. Negotiate vendor contracts and build long lasting partnerships.
    • Partner with your team mates to create clear simple attendee communications and registration websites. Create a well-timed and accurate communication plan.
    • Communicate effectively with all hotel vendor partners. You'll be responsible for hotel rooms, designing and communicating room sets, AV/Production needs, offsite events, ground transportation, and signage (and more!).
    • Ensure everyone, from client to attendee to staff person, has a positive and memorable experience from invitation stage through onsite and departure. We aim to please!


    You're good at:

    • Communicating with all levels of an organization. From the first impression on, you have a professional presence, the ability to own the room and convey confidence.
    • Project management and solving problems. You excel at managing multiple priorities at once and being adaptable. You are calm under pressure and work well in a collaborative environment.
    • Establishing long lasting, professional relationships with clients, co-workers and vendors alike. Teamwork makes the dream work!
    • Cvent, Excel and Microsoft Office Suite.


    You might also have:

    • A college degree from a 4- year institution.
    • The ability to travel regularly


    You should know:

    • This role is virtual
    • Our standard working hours are 8:30 AM -5:30 PM with an hour break.
    • Covid vaccination might be required for this role.


    How to apply:

    Click 'Apply Now' to be considered.

    #LI-Remote

    #Li-KW1

    #Li-LZ1
  5. Post your job

    There are a few common ways to find meeting planners for your business:

    • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
    • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
    • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your meeting planner job on Zippia to find and recruit meeting planner candidates who meet your exact specifications.
    • Use field-specific websites.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    Recruiting meeting planners requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

    It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new meeting planner

    Once you've found the meeting planner candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

    It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

    After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new meeting planner. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a meeting planner?

Before you start to hire meeting planners, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire meeting planners pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

You can expect to pay around $56,257 per year for a meeting planner, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for meeting planners in the US typically range between $19 and $37 an hour.

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