Marketing Events Director

ABOUT THE ROLE

Marketing Events Director will manage the event planning and execution of a variety of public-facing events and meetings for Accela with the goal of driving and converting sales pipeline as well as raising Accela’s brand profile. As a marketing events strategist, you’ll be responsible for working with our internal teams, industry organizations, and external vendors to define and deliver event programs that stimulate growth. Events include tradeshows, user groups, industry / association events, seminars/road shows, field events, and especially our annual customer conference.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

If you are passionate about delivering high quality, innovative customer-centric events and experiences, have the capacity to manage multiple priorities and resources, and are known for being collaborative, professional, flexible, and outcomes-driven, we’d love to speak with you.

• Develop annual event and tradeshow plan based on business priorities and effectiveness
• Define the goals, success metrics, resourcing, and strategy/messaging for all Accela events
• Own the planning and execution of our annual customer and partner conference, Accelarate
• Pre-event planning and venue selection
• Work with marketing colleagues in brand, partner, and demand to develop theme and approach for a memorable educational experience, and develop audience
• Lead a cross-company team of internal committees to support key conference components, including content for mainstage and 50+ breakout sessions, a partner pavilion, Accela Experience Center, and more
• Work with production company to develop creative and effective visual design, manage AV, and run of show
• Work with hotel and off-site venues to create unique experiences, and select F&B select
• Budget management and staffing
• Event website development and management
• Keep company executives informed of plans and their responsibilities
• Post-event reporting on results, learnings, next steps, and recommendations for future

• Own the planning and execution of ~20 trade shows and other third-party events – either individually and/or leveraging contractors and colleagues

• Determine appropriate levels of investing and resourcing
• Expertly drive pre-event meetings, and event planning documentation; Build and distribute regular pre-event status reports and post-event summary reports
• Booth design and production
• Event promotion, audience development, and registration
• In-booth meeting and demo management
• Audio visual management
• Printing and shipping materials and collateral
• Budget management
• Staffing
• Track, report, and continuously optimize lead generation from events
• Post-event reporting on results, learnings, next steps, and recommendations for future
• Oversee Accela’s Event-in-a-Box program – allowing sales and other colleagues to run smaller shows themselves
• Support regional customer user groups
• Lead the strategic planning and creative development of event initiatives, proactively managing all event needs from branding, agenda design, content creation, and venue selection to event execution
• Partner and collaborate with demand generation, field marketing, corporate comms and social marketing colleagues to communicate and promote event participation
• Gather and track ROI, engagement analytics and feedback to consistently assess opportunities for improvement, and value of specific events
• Ability to Travel

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong experience developing and driving event strategy – from logistics to content to promotion 
• Experience in vendor management/relations (i.e. selection process, negotiations, understanding of contracts, conflict resolution)
• Demonstrated experience working effectively under pressure while remaining flexible, adaptable, and open to new ideas and feedback.
• Excellent organizational, administrative, project management, and time management skills with the ability to prioritize tasks under tight timeframes/deadlines; ability to carry out multiple responsibilities with minimal supervision.
• Punctual, dependable, attentive to details, and dedicated to achieving operational excellence through events that meet and/or exceed attendees’ expectations.
• Strong written/verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate clear, concise information to a variety of internal/external stakeholders, vendors, etc.
• Ability to lead by influence across functions, colleagues, and vendors; consult and negotiate effectively
• Outstanding interpersonal skills and the ability to create lasting partnerships with stakeholders, colleagues, vendors, etc.
• Comfortable working with executives on planning and managing their role at events

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Marketing or related field
• 10+ years of experience working with event planning/management (i.e., corporate events, conferences, tradeshows)
• Ability to travel (20%)
• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite; knowledge of Cvent and Marketo (or similar) a plus
• Certified Meeting Manager (CMM) and Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) strongly preferred
• Experience with public sector audiences a plus

ABOUT ACCELA
For nearly 20 years, Accela has been an industry leader in designing and delivering government software to improve efficiency, increase citizen engagement and enable the development of thriving communities. Today, citizens are savvy to how services should be delivered, and expect a consistently convenient, openly transparent view into their local government. While government agencies struggle to do more with less, our mission has never been more critical. Accela provides a robust, cloud-based platform of government software solutions that accelerate growth, efficiency, and transparency in communities of all sizes. From planning, to building, to service request management and more, Accela’s SaaS offerings level the playing field for small and medium governments and enable smaller agencies to leverage larger city technologies. Our open and flexible technology helps agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are well prepared for the emerging challenges of the future.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
Accela believes in developing and nurturing a workplace community where our differences are celebrated, and everyone feels a sense of psychological safety and belonging. Accela is committed to putting resources and attention towards evolving our practices, policies, and philosophies to enable diversity to thrive and to support equity in opportunity for everyone.

Accela is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer and will respond to requests for job accommodations.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status, or based on disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

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