Senior Conference Producer (Hybrid)

Fastmarkets Group; London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a dynamic and fast-growing global events business as a key player in shaping standout experiences in the agriculture sector. This role offers the chance to lead the creation of innovative event content and strategies that resonate deeply with industry stakeholders. You will collaborate with various teams to ensure each event not only meets but exceeds expectations, fostering a strong community and driving commercial success. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and are passionate about delivering exceptional events, this opportunity is your chance to shine and make a significant impact in the industry.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience in producing and managing large-scale events.
• Strong knowledge of agricultural commodities market is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage event content and agendas for the Agriculture Portfolio.
• Conduct customer research to inform event design and strategy.

Skills

Project Management

Event Production

Customer Research

Networking

Communication

Digital Event Design

Market Analysis

Innovation

Education

Bachelor's degree (2:1 or above)

Job description

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

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join a highly successful events production team in a fast growth global events business. In this role you will be responsible for developing the best-in-class content, agendas and customer experience across events in Fastmarkets’ Agriculture Portfolio. You will set the vision, commercial value proposition and strategy for each event based on deep customer insight, providing clear customer led rationales for the proposed vision and design principles.

At the event level, you will need to ensure you are delivering highly differentiated and standout agendas, confirm the best speakers and create imaginative and immersive experiences, ensuring in-depth customer and industry research is conducted and used to inform the overall event design.

You will be embedded in your industries and with your customers year-round, becoming a recognizable industry figure with a strong network of connections across key influencers, partners, government bodies, organizations and thought leaders to ensure your events are seen as not only must-attend but also co-created by and for the industries and customers they serve.

Your role will involve collaborating with the events and wider Fastmarkets teams to ensure your vision is aligned and the intended customer experience is standout both in-person and online. You will work closely with editorial to co-create agendas and elevate our experts and authority, with marketing to provide clear, differentiated, and actionable value propositions and inputs to key messaging, with sales to provide guidance on maximizing revenue opportunities whilst ensuring the integrity of your event is retained and work closely with operations to ensure the event achieves its profitability goals.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Taking ownership of your entire portfolio of events to accelerate strategic growth and develop long-term business plans. Building an engaged year-round community through curated content that culminates in the must-attend and standout in-person event. Fully driving the commercial value proposition and results for your portfolio and delivering key initiatives with detailed planning.

• Customer Research and Insight:
  • Conduct thorough customer research with event target market to shape the event's commercial value proposition, agenda, and design.
  • Utilize customer insights and industry research to create audience market maps and identify pain points that align with the overall event design and agenda.
  • Record all insights and market research to create a shared central repository all producers can access.
• Agenda Development & Strategy:
  • Deliver differentiated agendas with industry leaders as speakers, ensuring they surpass competitor offerings.
  • Set up and manage customer advisory boards for all events.
  • Develop a clear vision and strategy for the event and communicate to all stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Speaker Recruitment and Management:
  • Identify and recruit outstanding speakers, managing them throughout the event life cycle.
  • Ensure over 40% of speakers are new to the event, providing a competitive edge.
  • Deliver all agendas and speakers within strict project timelines.
  • Achieve all speaker targets including DE&I goals.
• Commercial Success and Partnerships:
  • Support securing key partnerships and sponsor relationships to enhance commercial success.
  • Monitor, contribute, ideate, and problem-solve to achieve overall event objectives and revenue/profit targets.
• Customer Metrics and Research:
  • Ensure events meet or exceed Fastmarkets event customer metric scores.
  • Conduct robust customer research for strategy and event design, maintaining updated records.
• Industry Relationships and Mentorship:
  • Develop and maintain relationships with key industry players and associations.
  • Mentor fellow producers to build knowledge and share best practices.
  • Develop in-market 365 content-led activities such as webinars, briefings, and videos to engage your community and key relationships year-round.
• Post-Event Insights and Analysis:
  • Own pre, at, and post-event customer insight, including consistent post-event surveys and analysis.
• Communication and Coordination:
  • Provide clear briefings to sales, marketing, operations and wider stakeholder teams, ensuring alignment and buy-in.
  • Conduct effective project meetings, utilize project management sheets, and adhere to timelines.
• Competitive Landscape and Alignment:
  • Keep a comprehensive competitive matrix, stay informed about opportunities and threats, and understand industry changes.
  • Align events with wider Fastmarkets divisional objectives and prices.
• Event Briefs and Marketing Support:
  • Write clear, actionable event briefs for marketers and salespeople.
  • Provide inputs for website content and support with key messaging for promotional activities.
• On-Site Oversight and Innovation:
  • Oversee events on-site, acting as the "face of the event."
  • Generate ideas for new events and features within the portfolio.
  • Drive innovation in event experience design based on your deep understanding of your customers' motivations and goals.
• Launching new events and content-led initiatives:
  • Validating and launching new large-scale events.
  • Creating new content-led initiatives to engage your community year-round as well as strategically add new revenue streams.
  • Developing commercial add-ons such as awards, focus days, summits, and briefings to increase our market position and create additional value.

KEY INTERFACES

• Events Managing Director
• Head of Production
• Events Marketing
• Events Sales
• Events Operations Team
• Accounts & Finance
• Editorial, strategy, analysts and pricing teams.
• Fastmarkets Risk and Compliance
• Fastmarkets Operations Team
• Central sales and marketing teams
• Customers and prospects
• Conference speakers and prospective speakers
• Clients and prospective delegates
• IT/Development teams
• Internal and external advisers including senior industry leaders and experts.

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

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and has a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

The ideal candidate must have a Bachelor's degree (2:1 or above) or equivalent, at least 3 – 5 years producing and managing commercial large-scale events. Candidates with experience in event production, management, analysis or any role specifically within agricultural commodities (e.g., biofuels, feedstocks, grain, etc.) is highly desirable and will be prioritized.

• Agricultural Commodities Market Knowledge:

Proven track record and knowledge of working within this sector as well as extensive network of contacts.

• Self-motivated Professional:

Proven experience in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.

• Project Management:

Proficient in managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders whilst adhering to strict timelines.

• Tenacity and Ambition:

Demonstrates perseverance and a goal-driven approach.

• Innovative and Entrepreneurial:

Exhibits the ability to reimagine and reinvent events to foster growth.

• Highly Organised:

Efficient and well-organized in handling responsibilities and a keen eye for detailed planning.

Proven ability to collaborate seamlessly within a team.

Articulates a defined vision and commercial value proposition for events, ensuring stakeholder alignment.

• Research and Synthesis:

Excellent research skills, adept at distilling vast information into easy-to-understand event concepts, experience design, and compelling agendas.

• Effective Communication:

Proficient in conducting research calls, face-to-face meetings, and strong written communication.

• Digital Event Design:

Experience in designing digital events to enhance sponsorship opportunities.

• End-to-End Event Strategy:

Competent in developing and delivering an event strategy from conceptualization through development to successful delivery.

• Networking Prowess & Presence:

Excellent networker with the ability to build strong relationships internally and externally, becoming the go-to person for their events.

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

Additional Information

Our 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 capitalize 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.