Head of Event Operations and Experience - Maternity Cover (Hybrid)

Fastmarkets; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting leadership opportunity awaits at a dynamic price-reporting agency. This role is pivotal in driving the success of a rapidly growing events business. You will lead a talented team, ensuring outstanding event experiences while managing operational processes and budgets. With a focus on both in-person and digital events, you will leverage innovative technologies and foster collaboration across teams. If you are a motivated leader with a passion for event management and customer service, this is your chance to make a significant impact in a forward-thinking organization committed to excellence and inclusivity.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in event management with a focus on B2B and B2C experiences.
• Strong leadership skills with experience in managing operations teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing event operations team.
• Manage event budgets and ensure cost efficiency.
• Oversee delivery of in-person and digital events.

Skills

Event Management

Leadership

Project Management

Negotiation

Customer Service

Creative Thinking

Financial Management

Job description

Head of Event Operations and Experience - Maternity Cover (Hybrid)

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets.

Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond.

Job Description

This is an exciting leadership opportunity to be truly instrumental in driving the success of our fast growth events business, which sits at the heart of one of the most trusted and rapidly expanding global Price Reporting Agencies.

We are looking for an experienced people manager who excels in developing, training, and coaching high performing operations/event experience and customer service teams across the in-person and digital event sectors. They will be responsible for overseeing the Fastmarkets Events portfolio delivery, ensuring that we are delivering the highest levels of customer service, constantly reviewing our operational processes before, during and post event to ensure that we maintain our reputation for excellence.

They will be highly experienced in delivering content/conference led and networking/trading event experiences (in-person and online) and able to leverage event technology wherever this can elevate and future proof our event experiences.

Reporting to the MD, they will work with key stakeholders across the business and the Senior Management Team to collectively support our ambitious fast growth event strategy by building a world-class Event Operations and Experience Team. They will head up a team of 12 including 6 Operations and 6 Customer Service specialists located across the UK, Bulgaria, and China.

They will be responsible for all operational event delivery costs across the business, ensuring that these are managed within the agreed budgets. As a senior leader, they will actively be involved in building the operations budgets for the business, as well as providing accurate forecasts on a regular basis. Managing venue and supplier contracts will be a key part of this role, always ensuring that any negotiated contract is secured at a highly competitive rate.

Communication and reporting is also a key part of this role, ensuring transparency on costs at all times and keeping all stakeholders informed and aligned on both this and the event design. They will be a strong team player and embed a robust collaborative mindset in the team.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Develop high performing Operations and Experience Team. Provide coaching, training, and development to enhance skills and create a learning and rewarding environment.
• Manage and develop direct reports using KPIs to track performance.
• Recruiting and training new members of the team.
• Carry out supervision/appraisals and performance reviews.
• Guiding day to day activities of the Operations and Experience Team.
• Set and administer annual operations event by event budget.
• Embed robust Health and Safety standards throughout all events.
• Embed consistent and forensic management of event costs against agreed budgets.
• Ensure all events are designed in line with their Event Briefs.
• Manage Operations Team to ensure that event design is ambitious, innovative, and high value.
• Manage Customer Service Team to ensure delegate service is the highest standard and efficient management of invoicing across delegates, sponsors, and suppliers.
• Manage resources efficiently and effectively – identify bottlenecks and forward plan extra resources as required.
• Stay ahead of latest in event experience design trends and ensure Fastmarkets is at the cutting edge.
• Negotiate competitive venue and supplier contracts.
• Provide accurate forecasting at all times.
• Travel to events as part of SLT team and onsite support (20% Travel).

Qualifications

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world’s leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.

If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• At least 5 years’ experience successfully delivering outstanding event experiences (B2B or B2C, physical and digital).
• Proven and successful leader of Event Operations Teams able to inspire and motivate (3 years +).
• Experience in venue contracting and negotiating from £100K +.
• Strong Project Management skills.
• Event Design Expertise – Based on customer needs.
• Ability to manage outcomes in a matrixed organisation.
• Proven ability to manage multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to communicate and report clearly at a senior level.
• Experience in delivering both in-person and digital event experiences.
• Experience incorporating event technologies into event experiences.
• Ability to think creatively and commercially.
• Positive in nature, able to both develop and get the best out of those around them.
• Ideally experience in Design Thinking and Customer Journey Mapping.
• Able to drive initiatives through and resolve obstacles/blockers effectively.
• Self-starter who loves taking ownership of processes and projects.
• Commercially focused – Strong financial management, control, and reporting.

If you're excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don't perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Additional InformationOur Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

• METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance.
• ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done.
• GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency.
• INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
• CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do.
• COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you!

If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day.

It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great.