Description:
The Strategic Event Manager will play a critical role in designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating Zendesk's events, including Zendesk Relate, our flagship annual conference. This role will be responsible for all aspects of event management, including logistics, contracts, vendor management, technology, strategy, and reporting. Beyond strategy and logistics, the ideal candidate will possess strong knowledge of event technologies and best practices, and should be well versed in cutting-edge technology to enhance attendee engagement and experiences at Zendesk events. This role is also responsible for event data and analytics, setting up reports and dashboards and creating post-event recommendations to continue evolving Zendesk strategic events.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Develop and implement comprehensive event strategies for corporate events that align with company goals, budget, and timelines.
- Oversee logistics including event organization, venue selection, catering, AV, vendor management, and on-site experience design and coordination for corporate events.
- Leverage event technology solutions to meet event goals and create a streamlined process for event attendees. This includes registration, event websites, virtual event platforms, and event-related apps.
- Stay up-to-date with cutting-edge technology that can be utilized at events to impact the overall attendee experience and engagement.
- Collect and analyze data to create post-event reports, assessing the success of events and providing recommendations for improvement for the event planning process, event marketing, and overall event impact.
- Manage budgets, ensuring cost-effectiveness and optimization of resources.
- Identify potential risks and develop contingency plans to mitigate any issues that may arise during events.
Qualification
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in event management, with a focus on corporate events. Experience planning events with over 1,000 attendees is preferred.
- A strategic thinker, strong communicator, and relationship builder with a proven track record of managing events of varying scales.
- Experience planning global events in multiple regions is preferred.
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage complicated and tight timelines.
- A customer-oriented attitude, always thinking about the customer experience while planning and executing events.
- Experience managing and maintaining event technology that supports registration, ticket sales, event mobile app, lead retrieval and more. Experience with Cvent is a plus!
- Ability to think strategically and analytically, with strong problem-solving skills.
- A track record of managing and reporting on event metrics and ROI, and experience using data and metrics to measure impact and determine improvements.
- Experience with innovative in-person and virtual program development and execution.
- Ability to travel to global events as needed up to 20% of the time.