To meticulously craft a memory is no small task.

Whether you are seeing your favorite musical artist perform at a sold-out show, walking down the aisle at your dream wedding, or celebrating you and your colleagues at a prestigious work event, it’s easy to overlook the masterminds behind the scenes who make it possible.

Meeting and event managers are the ones who seamlessly blend artistic creativity, logistics, and strategy to craft that memory you will never forget.

Rich experiences are the key to living a fulfilled, rich life. Yet, when it comes to designing experiences, the to-do list extends beyond just picking a venue or setting up décor. It becomes the art of shaping intention, designing for how you would like your guests to feel, think, interact, connect, and immerse themselves within the event.

With the rise of technology, the desire for human connection and community is stronger than ever. That’s where meeting and event planners become a powerful force behind the unforgettable memories, through bridging innovation and strategic planning to create spaces where communities can celebrate and connect with one another.  

With the backing of science, data-driven strategic planning, behavioral psychology, budget management, and neuroscience of sensory and emotional responses, meeting and event managers create not only a memorable event, but one that ensures smooth and efficient operations, and creates positive clientele and guest experiences.

By leveraging science, they work to seamlessly bridge strong creative passion, precision, reinforcement of brand messaging, and blend tailored aesthetics and visuals to bring an artistic eye to make a client’s dream to reality.

Advance your career in event planning and hospitality with the Master’s in Meeting and Event Management from SDSU Global Campus. This flexible online program helps working professionals build skills in event design, leadership, and strategy while connecting with industry experts. Prepare to lead and innovate in the fast-growing meeting and event management industry.

Turn your creative passion and strategic skills into an ever-growing career field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average annual salary for Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners is $59,440, and the field is reported to grow by 5% in the next decade, making the meeting and event management space a stable, well-compensated, and versatile field with a variety of career opportunities.

See where your specialties can take you with these four growing fields in the meeting and event management space.

Where can a Meeting and Event Management Degree Take You?

  • Event Planning

Event planners are responsible for meeting with clients to craft a perfectly executed event that meets their clients’ dreams and logistics. From a wide range of social, weddings, and corporate events, event planners can do it all and are the masterminds behind the start-to-finish planning, execution, and wrap-up of an event. Event planners conceptualize themes, create budgets, book venues, arrange transportation efforts, manage clean up, and ensure client satisfaction.

  • Venue Management

Location is everything when it comes to crafting the perfect event. Venues become the backdrop to the perfect evening, making venue managers a key role in the event management space. Venue managers are responsible for handling the operations, clientele bookings, keeping their space up to code, overseeing staff, scheduling, vendor coordination, and ensuring smooth event execution, creating a great experience for their clients and event guests.

  • Marketing and Communications

Marketing and communications managers in the event management industry work to promote events, venues, and vendors, handle public relations, ensure positive brand awareness, maintain positive and active communication efforts between clients, create content, and develop marketing strategies to meet operational goals.

  • Catering and Sales

Catering and sales managers work to provide food and beverage services for venues and events, customize menus, uphold positive relationships with customers, transportation of goods and supplies, coordinate logistics, budget, manage staff, and ensure quality food and experience with clients and guests.

Why SDSU Global Campus?

The Master’s in Meeting and Event Management program through SDSU Global Campus is created in partnership with SDSU L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and Meeting Professionals International (MPI). The program is the first graduate-level program in North America, which is designed to elevate the careers of professionals in meeting leadership into versatile event strategists.

Our program is tailored to working, highly motivated professionals who dream of leveraging their careers into leadership roles in their respective fields, like director, general manager, or CEO. The program’s coursework is led by highly esteemed, experienced, and dedicated professionals, with many members of our faculty being well-connected high-level professionals in the meetings and events industry. With our faculty of well-experienced members of the industry and community of motivated students, you will have the opportunity to network and connect with other expert professionals, classmates, alumni, and instructors throughout the program to make your career dreams a reality.

You don’t have to put your career and life on hold to achieve your dreams. Our program’s coursework is formatted online, features two weeks at the beautiful campus of SDSU located in sunny San Diego, and has a minimum completion time of 21 months, designed for working professionals looking to level up their career with a quality-assured education, networking opportunities, and flexibility to meet their needs.

Our program focuses on hands-on learning with real-world content, a capstone project, a cohort-based experience that allows you to go through the program with other students, and opportunities to expand your skills and network. With coursework covering a variety of topics in strategic leadership, stakeholder management, finances, business analytics, change management, and marketing, the program is designed to apply to over 100 career paths in hospitality and tourism-related industries.

According to a 2019 report from Burning Glass Technologies, research indicates proven results that event managers with a graduate degree make $8,000 more annually than their professional counterparts who have solely a bachelor’s degree. Our program is designed to give students the experience and skills that are proven to ensure return on their investment, opportunities for networking and community expert connections, and a hands-on capstone project rather than a thesis completion that can transform their passion into lucrative career opportunities.

​Redesign your future with flexibility by becoming one of the first to earn your master’s degree in meeting and event management.

Make your next event your graduation celebration with SDSU Global Campus.