This is a "HYBRID" role.  Candidate will work in the Arlington, VA office Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

SUMMARY

The Director, Event Operations oversees the planning and execution of all live and virtual NACD education programs and specialty events and manages a team of event planners, registration, and virtual learning specialists. The Director’s primary responsibilities include ensuring the team delivers exceptional gold standard service for NACD members attending programs, project oversight for entity wide events our annual Directors Summit conference, providing strategic direction in site/venue selection, contracting and production, registration and delivery of events and collaboration with internal stakeholders. The position will interact with numerous internal and external stakeholders and lead best- in- class experiential events for our executive stakeholders who are corporate board members.

The Director successfully manages expenditures of over $5 million a year for hotel accommodations, F&B, Audio-visual, and outsourced provider services for over 10 events a year. NACD has one large premier event, and the rest of the portfolio consists of smaller, bespoke events (100 or fewer attendees). This individual plays a crucial role in planning and communicating the annual educational programming calendar, working closely with various departments including marketing, chapters, partners/sponsors, member engagement, governance, and content development.

This role has oversight of the associated platforms used to deliver online education (including a learning management system) to provide asynchronous and synchronous, in-person and self-directed training options. This position requires technical expertise, excellent interpersonal skills, and the ability to provide coaching and feedback to internal employees, vendors and contractors. This is a hybrid role, and the selected candidate must be able to work at NACD’s Corporate Headquarters in Virginia.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Experiential Learning

• Identifies emerging industry trends to ensure high-quality, high-touch educational experiences. Stays current, and often ahead of the curve, on event planning, design, and production trends.
• Focuses on delivering unique and enhanced onsite experiences that make NACD stand out from the competition and consistently delight the membership.
• Networks and builds relationships with various organizations such as government agencies, innovative start-ups, and other engaging, immersive learning experiences for our members.
• Inspires and leads team members and cross-functional stakeholders to create engaging and impactful experiences across all touchpoints for pre-event, event, and post-event moments.
• For virtual live events, ensure focus on a flawless tech experience and continued focus on improving the virtual user experience, including innovating virtual networking and interactivity.
• Makes site selection decisions that deliver a superb meeting experience for participants.

 Service Excellence & Communication

• Ensures world class customer service related to learning events from the registration set up process through dissemination of continuing professional education (CPE) credits.
• Operates as a center of excellence by providing exemplary meeting and event management services to internal business unit stakeholders.
• Creates an atmosphere for all in-person events that meets or exceeds expectations.
• Ability to manage a hybrid team, advance a high-performance culture, and drive a growth mindset.
• Demonstrated experience in navigating and managing cross-functional relationships within and outside an organization.
• Holds team accountable to a level of gold standard service to both internal and external stakeholders.

Business Acumen

• Excellent negotiation skills on behalf of the organization. Successfully negotiates contracts working with legal team to ensure terms that are favorable to the organization and minimize attrition and other penalties/risks.
• Successfully manages the prudent use of expenditures and outsourced provider services. Benchmarks market rates via requests for proposals.
• Develop, implement, and track performance metrics and KPIs; assess opportunities for improvement.
• Proactively manages budgets, expenses, reviews and approves invoices and service payments to ensure timely and accurate disbursement to contractors and vendors as well as internal allocations of service costs.

Event Logistics & Technology Operations

• Serves as project lead and oversight for entity-wide events including our flagship annual NACD Directors Summit conference, D100 Gala, as well as smaller events such as Leading Minds programs, Battlefield to Boardroom, Master Classes, Board Leader Exchanges, etc.
• Ownership of site selection process by coordinating with VP, Education to solicit and secure proposals from potential meeting venues.
• Develops working relationships with outside vendors, including hotels, other types of venues, audio/visual and technology vendors, drayage and installation vendors, and establishes prices and service agreements to enhance the in-person event experience and to increase profitability for NACD.
• Ensure successful implementation and operations related to virtual education offerings (comprising hybrid conferences, self-study, webinars, virtual instructor led, and similar offerings) across the learning portfolio.
• Ensures documentation and training for the team including SOPs and workflow management which reflect changes in the business, including adoption of new technologies, and crisis management / contingency planning.
• Ensures compliance with legal, insurance, health & safety, and data protection & privacy regulations.
• Travels to offsite events, as necessary.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBLITIES

This role has two direct reports, as well as their related team members. Specifically, this role supervises a Senior Manager of Events, and Senior Manager, Education Technology & Operations. This role may manage outsourced resources if more capacity is needed (e.g., a professional conference organizer (PCO)).  

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

• Stand for long periods of time
• Required to climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl
• Lift up to 20 pounds and occasionally up to 50 pounds

EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in management, business, or related field is required. Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) and Digital Event Strategist (DES) designations are preferred. A minimum of 10 years of Event Management experience demonstrating a steady career progression with increasing roles and responsibilities is required. A minimum of 10 years of managerial experience is required. Must have excellent interpersonal skills and be an effective communicator with both internal and external stakeholders. Must have demonstrated experience leading and managing people including the ability to encourage, empower, and hold others accountable. Extensive experience in developing and managing event budgets and contracting is required. Knowledge and experience in planning, development and execution of events, and strategic annual plans is required, as is thorough knowledge and understanding of the Convention Industry Council practices and terminology. Must have exceptional oral and written communication skills as well as proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Must be able to manage multiple demanding projects simultaneously.

This position description summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be required to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.

The salary/hourly range for this position is $160,000-$170,000 plus bonus potential.  Compensation is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc.