Meeting and Event Planning

Types of Degrees Meeting and Event Planning Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many meeting and event planning graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Graduate Certificate	117
Master’s Degree	76

What Meeting and Event Planning Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, meeting and event planning majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Meeting and Event Planning Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for Meeting and Event Planning Majors

When studying meeting and event planning, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Meeting and Event Planning Majors

Meeting and Event Planning majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a Meeting and Event Planning Major?

People with a meeting and event planning degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners	10.9%	$49,370

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in Meeting and Event Planning?

This major is dominated by women with about 87% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of meeting and event planning majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	7
Black or African American	3
Hispanic or Latino	5
White	31
International Students	26
Other Races/Ethnicities	4

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Meeting and Event Planning, too. About 34.2% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Meeting and Event Planning

Some careers associated with meeting and event planning require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for meeting and event planning careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	7.9%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	6.6%
Some College Courses	37.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	7.5%
Bachelor’s Degree	40.8%

Online Meeting and Event Planning Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	14	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	13	2
Bachelor’s Degree	5	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	5	1
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Meeting and Event Planning

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to meeting and event planning.

Major	Number of Grads
General Hospitality Administration/Management	8,593
Hotel/Motel Administration/Management	1,923
Tourism and Travel Services Management	915
Restaurant/Food Services Management	784
Other Hospitality Administration/Management	542
Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Management	323
Resort Management	190
Casino Management	7
Brewery/Brewpub Operations/Management	5

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Bblackpsu under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.