Head of Events & Training – Association (Financial Sector)

Regan & Dean Recruitment Ltd.
Lead operational role at this innovative, dynamic and highly regarded membership body operating at the heart of the Financial sector, ensuring their events & training programme is brilliantly 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 commercial return across an extensive portfolio of UK training and events.

Company
This is a very well established and highly regarded Body serving as a collective voice for the banking and finance industry, representing nearly 300 leading banks and firms across the sector. Their 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. Delivered by an operational events team of c. 6 Event Managers and 2 Co-ordinators the events programme is a busy calender, conferences, workshops, seminars, webinars, workshops, lunches/dinners, receptions, a mix of regular events and also ad hoc events in response to additional stakeholder requests.

The Role
The role holder will work closely with the Commercial Director to support them in defining and operationalising the wider strategy for the Commercial Delivery team. With 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 – constantly looking forward to improve and enhance.Responsibilities include:

• Integral to the planning, and responsible for operational delivery of the portfolio of events and training products (mainly face-to-face but also virtual)
• Monitoring and oversight of budgeting across the events and training 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 and training products 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 and Training Delivery team (of c. 8)
• 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 training and 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 – Events and Training, speakers, service providers and sponsors.
• Producing event collateral in close collaboration with Principal, Head of Content – Events and Training and policy teams, including (but not limited to) sponsorship prospectuses, holding slides, promotional material and onsite delegate packs – in line with brand guidelines
• Undertake Commercial Delivery team wide leadership responsibilities as defined and requested by the Director.

You:
You’ll be an experienced and proactive Events Professional, a process-driven business strategist and operational delivery practitioner, used to organising high-pressure and high-profile conferences, training and networking events. 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
• 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, 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 opportunity for a talented Senior Event professional looking for their next challenge, to fully immerse themselves in leading the events team and playing a key role in the current delivery and future shape of the organisation’s event programme. Click APPLY now – we look forward to hearing from you!