Director of Global Event Operations

Crain-Communications; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Crain Communications is seeking an experienced Event Operations Leader to oversee the orchestration of Crain's event portfolio, ensuring consistent processes and scalable systems across brands. The role requires onsite work three days a week with travel 30-50%.

You will partner with Events leadership on budgets, venue sourcing, vendor negotiations, and end-to-end logistics, mentoring the team and driving operational excellence for conferences and large-scale events.

Qualifications

• Must have 8+ years of experience producing conferences, executive events or large-scale business events.
• Expertise in budgeting, venue management, production, logistics, and onsite execution.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Events leadership to develop and manage event budgets.
• Lead venue sourcing and vendor negotiations while partnering with Events leadership on final recommendations and contract approvals.
• Oversee food & beverage planning, production schedules, registration, signage, audiovisual coordination and all event logistics.
• Partner with Events leadership to develop event timelines, operational plans and resource allocation.
• Develop and maintain standardized run-of-show documents, timelines and operational playbooks.
• Direct onsite event operations and proactively troubleshoot execution issues.
• Manage relationships with production partners, venues and event vendors.
• Lead, mentor and develop members of the event operations team.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to align event objectives, operational priorities and execution strategies.
• Manage multiple events simultaneously while maintaining exceptional execution standards.
• Establish operational best practices that improve efficiency, scalability and the attendee experience.
• Support Events leadership with post-event operational reviews and continuous process improvements.
• Leverage event technology and registration platforms (Cvent preferred), along with project management tools, to improve planning, attendee experience and operational efficiency.

Skills

Budgeting

Venue management

Vendor negotiations

Event operations

Leadership

Cvent

Travel 30-50%

Tools

Cvent

Project management tools

Job description

Crain Communications is seeking an experienced Event Operations Leader to oversee the orchestration of Crain's event portfolio, ensuring consistent processes and scalable systems across brands. The role requires onsite work three days a week with travel 30-50%.

You will partner with Events leadership on budgets, venue sourcing, vendor negotiations, and end-to-end logistics, mentoring the team and driving operational excellence for conferences and large-scale events.