POSITION TITLE:      Program Events Manager

DEPARTMENT:         Marketing & Communications          

REPORTS TO:           Executive Director, Marketing
 
DATE:                        June 2015
  
 
Primary Objective of Position:
 
The Program Events Manager will be responsible for planning and coordination of all program related events, including but not limited to; four 3 day academic events through the HBA 1 Learning through Action curriculum, HBA and MBA Leadership Days, HBA1 Leadership Character and Candour Conference , Parents’ Day, Scotiabank International Case Competition, Spring and Fall Convocations (HBA, MSc, MBA, EMBA and PhD), the MBA Internal Case Competition, Ivey Career Management Networking events and Ivey’s MBA Get Connected event.   The incumbent will have full budget accountability of all events, will work with many internal and external contacts and partners; he/she will review events’ itineraries, arrange speakers, book rooms, catering and A/V and technical requirements, coordinate student volunteers, prepare promo materials and prepare competition/conference packages; develop and maintain strong relationships with external organizations that sponsor these events.   As lead for each event, and working with a key client and coordinator in each program, the incumbent will be the liaison to students during academic events in partnership with the program services teams – student inquiry and communication during the event will be managed by the incumbent.
 
The role of the Program Events Manager ensures all events runs effectively and efficiently to create a seamless and professional experience for our stakeholders regardless of the event that affirms our reputation as a world class business school.  Equally important is ensuring a strong, positive student experience through the event.  Understanding event timelines, expectations and deliverables is critical to student satisfaction and event success.   Big picture thinking in working with programs across the school is balanced with excellent program management skills.
 
The Program Events Manager role requires strong project management skills, exceptional stakeholder management competencies and the ability to build effective relationships with external clients, and internally across all departments at the Ivey Business School.  The experiences which stakeholders have with Ivey through their involvement in key Ivey events are a vital point in the relationship and are critical to Ivey’s reputation with our corporate partners and alumni.  This role is critical to ensuring consistency across all of Ivey’s program events.  

Key Result Areas: 

1. On-site Event Management (35%)

• Plans, initiates and builds consensus across all departments on communications plans for both students, faculty, alumni and recruiters that supports and ensures Ivey events are robust and attendance by both firms, students, faculty and alumni are well managed and expectations are clear. These communications include but are not limited to invitations to participate to external clients and suppliers, event detail communications for participants, student communications, and event running orders for all events.
• Assesses departmental facility requirements and ensures needs are met for key stakeholders: 1) recruiters 2) students 3) programs teams 4) internal and external facilities staff.
• Negotiates space allocation, access, maintenance and booking processes with internal clients, working in cooperation with HBA, MSc and MBA Program Offices to ensure efficient usage of available space, and partners with the Facilities and Great Hall catering departments to ensure our guests on campus is easy to coordinate, and has a service and quality standard that aligns with the expectations of these world class guests.     
• Continuously looks for process improvement areas that have a goal of enhancing the student and external guest experience and strives for consistency across all Ivey program events.
• Defines the timing and collaborates with the program teams to drive content on surveys from students and recruiters to get critical feedback that will inform recommendations and annual planning on all events hosted by Ivey.

 
2. Cross Enterprise Engagement (10%)

• Collaborates across operations teams and with senior faculty and administration who head up the programs teams (HBA, MBA and MSc) to ensure there is an understanding of desired outcomes on all events.   This engagement is critical to ensure smooth alumni/recruiter/student engagement during events.    
• Works with a key client in each department to ensure understanding of their needs, and delegates where necessary to a program coordinator on each team, for example, where grading needs to be assigned after an event.
• Ensures solid understanding of sponsor agreement (where applicable) that all needs of sponsors are managed and accurately executed throughout each event.
• Works closely with external facing teams across Ivey programs to receive feedback and look for solutions to issues including IT, facilities, personal service and access points that are inhibiting recruiter and student satisfaction during events.  This will at times lead to the creation of new events and/or processes.
• Assesses and advises on synergies and consistencies across all event processes, communications and execution where possible.
   

 
3.   Event budget planning and accountability (10%)

• Understands current and historical departmental spending on events, sponsorship agreements on spending specifications, manages the process with the senior leaders across departments to determine budget for each event and provides information to support department heads in annual budget planning and proposal meetings.
• Responsible for communicating across the teams any policy changes that impact team’s budget spending for each event.
• Holds accountability to ensure the event budgets remain on track.
• Manages all post-event invoice payment and reconciliation and/or delegates to the appropriate team coordinator to ensure accurate budget tracking.
   

4.  Project Management – (45%)  

Learning Through Action (LTA) consists of 4 academic events that are integrated into the HBA 1 Curriculum for 600 students across 8 sections.  LTA provides an opportunity to apply lessons from multiple courses in a real world context.  The BCG Case Competition in November, a case competition in January, the Deloitte Innovation Forum in March and end of year LemonAid Challenge make up the LTA Curriculum.  This is a graded component for HBA 1 students – each event is assigned a faculty lead with partnership from the HBA Program Services Office.  Other HBA Events consists of Parents’ Day, where all parents of our HBA1 students are invited to Ivey for the day to experience Ivey firsthand and the Scotiabank International Case Competition, where international schools are invited to compete in this annual event and Leadership and Leadership.  All aspects of these events are managed by this role including direct student interface on event information, expectations, and deliverables.
 
MBA Events
 
Get Connected is the marquee event in the MBA curriculum where Career Management (CM) takes approximately 150 students to Toronto for 3 days of recruiting initiatives ensuring students are competitive relative to their MBA peers in the permanent recruiting season. The Corporate Networking Nights and any other new external facing CM large scale events are also project managed by this role.
 
Annual Convocations make up other events managed by this role.  Spring convocations are run separately in June for each program, while the Fall finds opportunity for collaboration across some programs to run events in tandem.  This role would be accountable for all pieces related to convocation planning with further partnership with each of the program services team.
 

• Within the project plans for all events, set clear process expectations and timelines for internal client groups.
• Resource management becomes critical for this role.While the expectation is that the incumbent attends all events, is lead during the event, and manages event details throughout the duration of the event, other staff and student resources will be necessary.It is the incumbent’s responsibility to define resource needs and liaise with administrative heads on what those needs are.During the event, staff and student volunteers will take direction from the incumbent.
• Works with the department leads on the events to arrange and implement a strong communication plan for students and for our recruiting and alumni partners and the broader Ivey community.Channels include a proprietary operations website for students, in person presentations and private one on one discussions or emails to ensure a full understanding of what the event entails.
• In consultation with the departments, works to identify venues to meet and enhance the event structure, finalize contracts and all event details pertaining to the event, including but not limited to hotel, catering, and special event and transportation contracts.
• Manages all annual event budgets in excess of $300, 000 total which represents events across the MBA, HBA, MSc programs and Career Management.
• Oversees administration of participant surveys (recruiter, alumni and student) and collection of event feedback.Review and assess feedback to implement annual planning and implementation plans.
   

 
Education, Skills, Requirements:
 

• University degree with a minimum of 5 years of experience preferably in the areas of event management, project management and client service.
• Experience working in a multi-faceted service environment, where several departments/area groups work with the same client groups, and shares common goals.(e.g., exceeding service expectations to impact student and recruiter/alumni satisfaction).
• Event management experience/Project Management is strongly desired.
• Experience in a complex service environment that is focused on client experience and relationship management versus a transactional or administrative one that is typical to universities around the globe and specifically in Canada.
• Strong client services skills and experience dealing with several client groups in tandem.
• Ability to apply professional knowledge/skills across various events. This requires the ability to understand how the department processes and systems interact with the Ivey community and client interaction with all areas of the school (i.e. Alumni Relations, Program Services, etc.).
• Astute attention to detail (e.g., managing event logistics, academic events, calendar details across several programs)
• Experience in a process improvement role – the ability to think through and create effective process and procedures for a positive event experience.
• Sensitivity in dealing with confidential information, accuracy and a critical attention to detail.
• A proven ability to solve problems and make sound decisions independently.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Demonstrated flexibility, initiative and the ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Excellent organizational, planning and time management skills.
• Knowledge of the business procedures of the University and the Ivey Business School, the programs offered, the market challenges and the product is beneficial.
• Communication/negotiation/analytical skills required to solve a variety of problems, whether they are customer concerns or operational difficulties.

 
Location: Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Ontario

This is a 16 month contract position covering a maternity leave.

Qualified candidates should forward their applications in confidence to: hrresumes@ivey.ca. Please reference MC192 in the subject line.
 
Candidates will be considered as applications are received and the posting will remain open until a candidate is identified – and remove until we have found a candidate.