Portfolio Director, Event & Training

Company Description

We’re part of Informa, a global business with a network of trusted brands in specialist markets across more than 30 countries, and a member of the FTSE 100. Our purpose is to connect our customers to information and people that help them know more, do more and be more. No other company in the world helps more people share professional knowledge or make business connections. We run around 800 events each year, create digital platforms based on engaging news and information content, and operate professional development programs for individuals and businesses.

HDI has been serving the IT service and support community for nearly 40 years through industry events, certification and training, community, organizational certification, and informational resources like research, forums, articles and blogs. It also partners with a network of local chapters.

ICMI has been serving the contact center market for over 35 years as well – through industry events, professional training, organizational consulting, and informational resources like research, articles, forums, and blogs. Both organizations are 100% focused on improving support and contact centers.

Job Description

Informa is seeking a strategic, driven, and dynamic professional to manage HDI and ICMI’s events, certification, and training businesses as well as the brands’ content. As the Portfolio Director you will be responsible for the strategy and day-to-day operations of HDI and ICMI’s market-leading professional development services – including certification and training. You will also manage the group’s market-leading events and content strategy, ensuring our approach supports robust community engagement and thought leadership and that our content is used consistently across the business to grow our products and empower our marketing efforts.

In partnership with a highly motivated and skilled team of content, marketing, sales, instructional design, and operations professionals, as the Portfolio Director you will:

• Product Strategy and Management – 40%:
  • Drive the events and certification and training product strategy to include: establishing annual goals, tracking to these goals, operationalizing the goals, and communicating the goals to the larger team in a way that motivates and engages them to achieve said goals.
  • You will also drive the group content strategy with a primary focus on best practice and performance improvement for the professional communities we serve. The bulk of the content appears on our community websites: thinkhdi.com and icmi.com. While the Senior Manager, Content and Community will be driving the day to day on this front – including the editorial calendars, content operations, and community outreach –  you will push the team to cover trending topics and market shifts.
• Financial Management – 20%: In collaboration with the Senior Director and Finance team, you will budget, forecast and track product 9 P&Ls (6 for training; 3 for events) in accordance with Informa’s financial guidelines to include intensive monthly and annual forecasting.
• Team Management – 15%: Manage a cross functional team of event, instructional design, operations, and content/community professionals – tracking performance, mentoring and motivating their career growth, and guiding their priorities, which will mainly align with achieving commercial targets.
• Market Alignment and Quality Assurance – 10%: Ensure that the strategic direction for the events and training businesses meets the educational and professional development needs of and complements market trends for both the IT service and support industry (HDI) and the contact center industry (ICMI).
  • Events:
    • Ensure each conference agenda reflects industry trends and best practices and features senior level practitioners from known organizations.
    • Revisit and redesign the customer experience for each event to ensure these events stay fresh and offer new experiences to engage and retain attendees
    • Support activities and content on the show floor that attracts qualified buyers and keeps them engaged with exhibitors and sponsors
  • Training:
    • Update and develop content in line with brand strategic priorities.
    • Ensure course updates align with the brands’ high-quality standards. 
    • Monitor course and trainer performance, and adjust approach based on data analysis.
    • Drive innovation in the way we deliver our training whether it be integrating more interactive approaches and/or employing more enabled technology resources
• Content Strategy Consult Across Business – 10%: You will collaborate with teams across the business to inform content best practice and strategy and how we integrate content into our products and through ou