Director, Meetings and Events

Job Description

As a Director on the Events and Sponsorships team, you will lead a team that designs and executes a portfolio of industry-leading meetings and events for Corebridge Financial Retirement Services.  In this role, you will report to the Head of Events and Sponsorships, and will have the opportunity to bring new thinking to build and oversee breakthrough programs that drive engagement, business outcomes, and affinity with partners, clients, and employees.  The ideal candidate for this role will bring a blend of leadership, creative, strategic, and consultative skills, a collaborative mindset, and an ability to interface with senior leaders within Marketing and across the organization to do what it takes to put plans into action to drive success.

Key Responsibilities

• Engage as a leader on the Events and Sponsorships team.
• Manage meetings and events planners, overseeing approximately one dozen key Corebridge-hosted meetings and events, including leadership meetings, advisor and wealth management conferences, incentive trips and client conferences and meetings.
• Oversee the planning and activation of a portfolio of internal and external meetings, client and partner events and conferences, including location and venue selection, vendor negotiation and contract approval, development of meeting agendas, scheduling and management of internal and external speakers, coordination of logistics before, during and after the events, post-event surveys, and reviews.  Oversee the building and maintenance of registration sites and mobile apps using Cvent and CrowdCompass.
• Work across the organization, create strategic plans for a portfolio of meeting and events that drive business outcomes.
• Create Event budget plans and provide regular oversight and management of same with accountability for variances and driving savings through negotiations and concessions.
• Write and manage RFPs, hotel and venue selection, contract negotiations, approvals, and supplier selection based on preferred companies and using company guidelines and tools.

• Lead meetings with internal contacts and external vendors for planning purposes. Produce meeting agendas and notes to share pre and post event. Assign/re-cap next steps.
• Bring key programs to life by collaborating with marketing and business colleagues to deliver experiential marketing initiatives, including digital engagement programs and brand activations.
• Manage third-party resources and agencies, including visual design, technical and production teams, destination management agencies, photographer/videographers, and live entertainment.

Job Requirements

• Strong leadership skills, with ability to manage internal team members and external vendors
• Demonstrated executive leadership presence and ability to interface with, C-Suite leaders, executive leadership, and key clients required
• Experience planning events in varying sizes including large scale/complex sales trainings, executive meetings, client events and sales incentives
• Strong business acumen and industry experience required as well as ability to maintain strong relationships with internal and external clients
• Demonstrated experience managing teams and vendors for Food and Beverage Planning and BEO review; Ground transportation planning and oversight; Coordination of group travel flight booking and billing; Hotel room block management
• Sourcing and RFP experience required
• Experience negotiating complex group contracts for sponsorships, vendors and venues and obtaining concessions.
• Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills and an eye for detail and visual design
• Demonstrated experience bringing to life in-person and digital engagement programs
• Budget management expertise and proven strong negotiation skills
• Excellent creative problem-solving and team collaboration abilities
• Meticulous project management skills, with ability to think strategically, while focusing on the details necessary to plan and flawlessly execute successful programs
• Knowledge and understanding of FINRA entertainment and gift rules/SRO regulatory requirements and guidelines
• A minimum of 8-10 years of professional experience, five years minimum managing a team and vendors, Financial Services industry experience preferred
• Deep knowledge of CVENT (Event Management system knowledge) and CrowdCompass (Mobile event app) functionality and features.
• Travel required (25%+ varying times throughout the year)

Desired Degrees / Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree or comparable work experience, preferably in Marketing, Communication and/or Event Management disciplines
• CMP or CMM certified preferred

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer