Executive Event Producer

About the role

This role is hybrid, requiring you to report on-site to one of the following office locations a minimum of 2 days/week: Austin, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco or Denver.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the efficient and effective execution of timelines and budgets across all workstreams for major, large-scale conferences and complex experiential events.
• Develop flawless concepts, general sessions, and expo floor strategies for mega-conferences or a portfolio of large-scale events.
• Maintain and strengthen partnerships with clients, acting as a strategic partner and advocate at senior levels within the client’s organization.
• Manage client relationships, providing regular updates to the Account Lead and proactively addressing any potential issues or concerns.
• Provide input and work closely with Department Managers and IP leaders on event staffing and resourcing for massive production teams.
• Handle strategic relationships with Tier-1 vendors and convention centers, maintaining effective communication and overseeing the vendor Request for Proposal (RFP) process for major builds.
• Ensure meticulous completion of closing and reconciliation processes for the entire event, identifying potential risks or significant opportunities for improvement.
• Guide and mentor large event teams and workstream leads, providing direction and support.
• Contribute to the education and development of teams working on projects, both within a specific project and across the entire practice.

Requirements

• Advanced awareness of GPJ and Project agency offerings.
• Extensive experience leading highly complex, high-profile flagship conferences and city-wide events (including multiple concurrent workstreams, multi-track agendas, large general sessions, and complex client structures).
• Proven track record managing large-scale event budgets, specifically leading conferences with $5M+ budgets (with variance based on tech sector benchmarks).
• Direct experience leading major conferences, summits, or user groups with 5,000+ attendees.
• Global conference or international pavilion experience is highly desired.
• Experience working with Fortune 500 tech brands is desired.
• Builds comprehensive budgets/estimates for entire large-scale events; manages/reconciles multi-million dollar budgets; directs and guides workstream leads to build, manage, and reconcile their respective budgets while providing final oversight and accountability.
• Understands and effectively manages/oversees key financial metrics across all conference workstreams (e.g., expo, registration, production, housing).
• Able to proactively identify and elevate potential budget/financial issues early in the planning cycle, taking effective actions to address them.
• Has the ability to negotiate and identify SCORE; oversee and drive event team SCORE results.
• Expert ability to understand on-site methodology, convention center practices, and complex venue rules and labor regulations (e.g., union rules, rigging, marshaling yards).
• Expert knowledge of end-to-end GPJ Event Production and project processes, with the ability to train others.
• Strong proficiency in Google and Microsoft Office software. Previous experience with ERP, Project Management software, or large-scale event management tools is preferred.

Competencies

• Relationship Builder: Develop, maintain and strengthen partnerships with others inside and outside the client organization. Identify new stakeholders, manage client expectations for complex deliverables, define new business opportunities and deliver against clients’ needs while skillfully balancing the needs of the client and those of the agency. Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably on the conference floor.
• Accountable: Be accountable. Demonstrate accountability. Hold yourself and large cross-functional teams to a high standard of work, that includes following set processes, achieving strict milestones, and operating within control systems. Own both success and failures, without blaming others. Create a culture of accountability in your production teams. Follow through on commitments by your actions.
• Collaboration: Seek opportunities and take action to ensure effective collaboration with the GPJ internal teams, other Project agencies, clients, and third-party vendors. If responsible for leading people or a multi-workstream team, model this behavior for the team and expect the same behavior from employees.
• Solution Oriented: Integrated Event Production: Even with tight project budget management practices and shifting scope common to major conferences, you focus on the desired outcome and are ready with multiple creative solutions in order to reach the end goal flawlessly.

Your Experience

• 12-15+ years of relevant experience in event production, live production, integrated production, account management, project management or similar.
• 4 Year College Degree; preferred in Marketing/Advertising/Event Management/Business Administration, Hospitality, Communications, or related field.

Your Impact

• Influence and responsibility over:
  • May have direct reports
  • Contribute to selling, planning, and developing work
  • Able to lead and inspire a high performing kickass team (e.g., high trust, committed, effective conflict management, focus on accountability and results)
  • Experience and confidence engaging and building respected, trusted peer-to-peer relationships with mid to senior level client side executives
  • May help mentor / teach others on Event team
  • Has overall ownership and management of master timelines / schedules

Pay

$140-170k

Schedule

Ability to travel as required, around 25%. Ability to work irregular hours in addition to normal business hours, to include nights, weekends and holidays as needed.

Who We Are

GPJ is the world leader in experiential marketing. Our 29 global offices are filled with fearless people dreaming up ideas that are transforming industries and bringing the most respected brands to life in powerfully, exciting ways. We are a part of the Project Worldwide family. An independent, employee-owned global network of complementary, wholly owned agencies.