Head of Events – Association/Professional Body (Financial)

Head of Events (mat cover), leading an impressive team and programme of events at this innovative, dynamic and highly regarded membership body operating at the heart of the Financial sector. You’ll be key to ensuring their events programme is brilliantly devised and delivered, forward looking and always ‘of the moment’.

Reporting to the Commercial Director, working closely with the content and marketing teams, and consultatively with internal policy experts and stakeholders, you’ll be responsible for planning, oversight of processes, team management and operational delivery to maintain a consistently high standard for the ‘member experience’ and excellent commercial return across an extensive portfolio of UK events. The ideal candidate will have experience working closely with content and policy teams, as well as expert in leading a busy operational events team.

Early October start – 13 months – excellent benefits - hybrid - office 2 days a week

Company
You’ll be joining a very well established and highly regarded Body at the heart of the banking and finance industry, representing nearly 300 leading banks and firms across the sector. Their impressive inhouse team of c. 250 offer research, policy expertise, thought leadership and advocacy in support of their work. And a brilliantly executed and dynamic events programme in both terms of content and experience is a key aspect of their offering. Delivered by an operational events team of Event Managers and Co-ordinators the events programme is a busy calendar, conferences, seminars, webinars, workshops, lunches/dinners, receptions, a mix of regular events and also ad hoc events in response to additional stakeholder requests, and sponsor partnerships.

The Role
You will have full responsibility for the excellent delivery of the events programme, managing the team, ensuring the maintenance and improvement of processes, and working closely with internal content, policy and marketing teams to drive forward a relevant and high quality events programme within their sector (finance/banking) – constantly looking forwarding with an eye to innovation and improvement. You’ll work closely with the Commercial Director to support them in defining and operationalising the wider strategy for the Commercial Delivery team. Responsibilities include:

• Integral to the planning, and responsible for operational delivery of the portfolio of events (mainly face-to-face but also virtual)
• Monitoring and oversight of budgeting across the events delivery team with individual project owners; ensuring financial detail is always ready to be reported, that milestones are being met, costs are being controlled and revenue targets met.
• Through collaborative working with the wider Commercial Delivery Team, and with colleagues across the business, responsible for ensuring that events are delivered to time and to budget, with both member value and commercial return being optimised. 
• Leadership, motivation, development and line management of the Events team (team of 7-8 including Conference Producer and Event Managers and Co-ordinators)
• Acting as key liaison with the Head of Marketing, offering a holistic view of the whole portfolio to ensure that marketing and content efforts are maximised and that milestones between marketing and events leads are being met.
• Representing the Commercial Director, at key meetings, carrying out presentations to internal and external stakeholders.
• Enabling a culture across the team of collaboration with policy teams across the business and the support / validation of members and associate members
• Responsible for end-to-end management of multiple events and varied content streams.
• Responsible for generating event revenue, by delivering world class events, in line with the budget expectations of the Commercial Delivery team;
• Ensuring key sponsors and event partners are provided with support as required; that they are satisfied with their branding, exposure and overall experience
• Ensuring that all presentations and materials are received and checked in advance of events; working closely with the Principal, Head of Content - speakers, service providers and sponsors.

You:
You’ll be an experienced and proactive Senior Events Professional, ideally a Head of Events with proven track record working to a member/sector agenda (within finance ideal!) - a process-driven business strategist and expert operational events practitioner, used to organising high-pressure and high-profile conferences, training and networking events. Experience of managing a fairly substantial team is important. This role will be a natural home for a person who has experience of both conference production and event logistics, as it requires the skills to continually match complex regulatory and legislative issues with an interactive, outstanding delegate experience. An ability to analyse a complex problem’s component parts to find innovative event solutions will be advantageous, while the ability to juggle multiple, diverse workflows simultaneously is essential.

• Team leadership, development and line management skills within an events environment (this team is 7-8 people)

• Experience of delivering event programmes to meet organizational/sector objectives (could be Association, Corporate or other representative Body), working closely with content production teams, varied stakeholders and policy teams
• Experience of successfully managing large scale, c-level events and of varied event formats across f2f and virtual of varied sizes within a busy programme including dinners/lunches/receptions/workshops/webinars/conferences/training

• Experienced in working closely with content/policy teams and understanding of content as a driver for event design and planning
• Experience working within the financial sector is highly beneficial, though not essential
• Strong negotiation skills and advanced presentation skills.
• Solves complex problems; takes a new perspective using existing solutions.
• Understanding of branding sensitivity; experience of working successfully with multiple sponsors while maintaining brand integrity.
• Event marketing and copy-writing experience would be advantageous.

• Experience of successfully managing complicated budgets, managing costs and maximising commercial return.
• Able to appraise, improve and innovate as a natural part of your approach, forward thinking, a driver able to consultatively gain confidence, trust and high regard from others to drive event programmes and surpass expectations
• Excited about the next chapter in your career

This is an excellent contract opportunity for a talented Senior Event professional / Head of Events looking for their next challenge, to fully immerse themselves in leading the events team and exciting and dynamic organisation.

Click APPLY now – looking for an October start – 13 month maternity cover