Iowa·Business and Financial Operations Occupations·SOC 13-1121

Best Meeting programs in Iowa, ranked by enrollment

Coordinate activities of staff, convention personnel, or clients to make arrangements for group meetings, events, or.

2 schools in Iowa run programs that feed this job, graduating 145 people a year. The job pays a median of $51,750 in Iowa across about 1,120 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledEvents ManagerConference Planning ManagerConference Services ManagerConvention Services Manager (CSM)PlannerEvent StaffEvent ManagerEvent Planner
Graduates / yr
145
in Iowa
Median pay · Iowa
$51,750
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,120
people employed
Schools
2
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
75%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Iowa that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Iowa that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Iowa (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Iowa page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 52.0907In Iowa
145
100.0%
2$34,218$23,364

Top 2 schools in Iowa

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 2 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Iowa State University
Ames, IA Public · 1 feeder programs
78Meeting and Event Planning$36,74375%89%
2University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA Public · 1 feeder programs
67Meeting and Event Planning$36,75275%84%

All 2 schools in Iowa

Every school in Iowa with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Iowa that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Iowa State UniversityAmesPublic781
University of IowaIowa CityPublic671

What meeting, convention, and event planners earn in Iowa

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Iowa
$51,750
Mean annual
$55,340
Jobs in state
1,120
What the range looks like
10th pct$36,100Median$51,75090th pct$78,710
Versus the national median
-15.4%

U.S. median $61,160. Iowa pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.78×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Iowa

Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA
$60,410median
370 jobs
Dubuque, IA
$54,150median
40 jobs
Iowa City, IA
$48,030median
100 jobs
Cedar Rapids, IA
$51,660median
110 jobs
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
$49,140median
90 jobs
Ames, IA
$47,980median
100 jobs
Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
avg
70 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+4.8%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
15,500
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
7,500
155,800 → 163,300
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners page.

How to become a Meeting

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Reading ComprehensionActive ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Iowa

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 2 majors mapped to Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 19.0604Facilities Planning and Management
  • 52.0907Meeting and Event Planning

Common questions

Answers for people weighing meeting, convention, and event planners programs in Iowa.

What degree do you need to become a Meeting?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Meeting and Event Planning, which awarded 145 degrees in Iowa in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Meeting?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Hospitality Administration/Management. Together they graduate about 145 people a year in Iowa.

How much do meeting, convention, and event planners earn in Iowa?+

The median is $51,750 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 15.4% below the U.S. median of $61,160. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for meeting, convention, and event planners growing?+

BLS projects a +4.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 15,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Iowa?+

2 institutions in Iowa reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do meeting, convention, and event planners work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Events Manager, Conference Planning Manager, Conference Services Manager, Convention Services Manager (CSM) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 13-1121.

Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners in other statesFloridaNew YorkTexasPennsylvaniaArizonaGeorgiaIllinoisMichigan

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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