Best States for Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners: California Tops Overall, but Northeast and Island States Pay More

For meeting, convention, and event planners, LaborCove’s data shows a national median annual salary of $61,160 and an employment count of 142,860. A national projected employment growth rate of 4.8% provides broader context for the occupation, but the state results highlight how differently pay, employment, and Geography Scores align. California holds LaborCove’s #1 state ranking with the highest Geography Score in the dataset, the largest supplied state employment count, and a median salary above the national median. New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey also sit near the top of the rankings while posting median salaries that are above both California and the national benchmark, though with smaller employment counts than California. Texas, Florida, and Colorado demonstrate that states with mid-range rankings can still line up close to or modestly above the national median salary while supporting thousands of planner jobs. Hawaii and Vermont illustrate a different pattern: relatively small employment counts but high median salaries well above the national figure. Across these top 10 states, the data shows that a higher Geography Score does not always correspond to the highest median salary or largest employment count, underscoring that LaborCove’s ranking integrates multiple factors rather than mirroring any single metric.

Nationally, meeting, convention, and event planners have a median annual salary of $61,160 with 142,860 people employed in this occupation. LaborCove’s national projection shows 4.8% employment growth for the occupation as a whole. Within the top 10 ranked states, six have median salaries above the national median. New York ($74,730), Massachusetts ($75,740), New Jersey ($72,780), Hawaii ($74,460), Vermont ($74,310), and Washington ($65,530) all exceed the $61,160 national figure. California ($71,120) and Colorado ($62,050) also stand above the national benchmark. By contrast, Texas ($57,470) and Florida ($60,270) fall below the national median salary. On employment, California’s count of 20,650 planners is the largest supplied state figure and exceeds the national employment total for any single other state in the top 10. Texas (10,730), New York (10,330), and Florida (10,480) each have employment counts above 10,000, while Massachusetts (4,640), Colorado (4,650), and Washington (3,600) sit in the mid-thousands. New Jersey (2,160), Hawaii (550), and Vermont (430) round out the list with smaller reported employment counts.

California ranks #1 in LaborCove’s state list for meeting, convention, and event planners, backed by a Geography Score of 83.43. This is the highest Geography Score among the top states provided in the evidence. California’s median annual salary for planners is $71,120, which is higher than the $61,160 national median. Its employment count of 20,650 is not only the largest supplied state employment figure in the dataset but also nearly doubles the next-largest state employment counts in New York, Texas, and Florida, each of which is close to 10,000. Even among states with higher median salaries, none surpass California’s combination of top Geography Score rank and employment size in the supplied data. This illustrates that LaborCove’s #1 ranking aligns with both a Geography Score advantage and the largest measured employment count among the top 10 states, while still offering pay above the national benchmark.

New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey occupy LaborCove’s #2, #3, and #4 state rankings, respectively. All three post median salaries above both California and the national median. Massachusetts has a median salary of $75,740, which is higher than New York’s $74,730 and New Jersey’s $72,780. All three exceed California’s $71,120 median, and each stands above the $61,160 national median salary. Despite these higher salaries, California maintains a higher Geography Score (83.43) than New York (70.44), Massachusetts (63.05), and New Jersey (55.54), underscoring that the ranking does not simply follow salary level. Employment counts also differ among this group. New York’s 10,330 employed planners outnumber Massachusetts’s 4,640 and New Jersey’s 2,160. Both Massachusetts and New Jersey, while offering higher median salaries than California, have substantially smaller employment counts than California’s 20,650.

Texas, Florida, and Colorado appear in LaborCove’s top 10 with Geography Scores between 49.35 and 54.00 and employment counts that are significant within this ranking set. Texas, ranked #5 with a Geography Score of 54.00, reports 10,730 employed meeting, convention, and event planners. This is slightly higher than New York’s 10,330 and Florida’s 10,480, and more than double Colorado’s 4,650. However, Texas’s median salary of $57,470 is below the national median of $61,160. Florida, ranked #7 with a Geography Score of 52.45, has 10,480 employed planners and a median salary of $60,270, which is also below the national median. Colorado, ranked #10 with a Geography Score of 49.35, shows 4,650 employed planners and a median salary of $62,050, which is higher than the national figure of $61,160. In contrast to these three, California’s median salary of $71,120 is higher than each of their median salaries, and its Geography Score and employment count both exceed theirs in the supplied data.

Hawaii, Vermont, and Washington demonstrate that some top-ranked states combine relatively small employment counts with higher-than-national median salaries. Hawaii, ranked #6 with a Geography Score of 52.99, has 550 employed planners and a median salary of $74,460, which is higher than California’s $71,120 and the national median of $61,160. Vermont, ranked #8 with a Geography Score of 51.32, has 430 employed planners and a median salary of $74,310, also above both California and the national median. Washington, ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 50.96, reports 3,600 employed planners and a median salary of $65,530. That median salary is higher than the national figure and higher than Texas’s $57,470 and Florida’s $60,270. While these three states have smaller employment counts than California, New York, Texas, or Florida, their salaries position them among the higher-paying states in the top 10 ranking.

LaborCove’s Best States rankings for meeting, convention, and event planners are based on its structured labor‑market database and Geography Score methodology. For this article, LaborCove used national occupational statistics and state-level salary, employment, and Geography Score data specific to meeting, convention, and event planners (occupation code 13-1121). National median salary, national employment, and projected national employment growth come from authoritative occupational data sources. The underlying OEWS observation period for the salary and employment figures is May 2025, even though the product report year is 2026. The projected 4.8% employment growth cited here is a national projection for this occupation and is not a forecast for any individual state. Geography Scores and state rankings are produced by LaborCove’s internal methodology, which combines multiple metrics into a single comparable score for each geography. The specific weight of salary, employment, or other factors within the Geography Score is not disclosed in this evidence. Because individual circumstances differ, these rankings should be used as structured labor‑market input alongside personal preferences, experience, and other factors when evaluating potential locations.