Events and Marketing Executive

About Forgather

At Forgather, our business is to create intelligent events packed with exuberance and fun. Our goal is to ensure that participants (both on stage and in the audience) love every second and come back for more.

We work across a range of clients and projects, but technology and innovation are our special subjects. We have worked in and around the tech ecosystem for years, with recent clients including Boardwave, Balderton Capital, Target Global, Unilever and The Times. We are passionate about bringing people together to share ideas, experiences and connections, as well as helping to grow the next generation of entrepreneurs through our work with charities such as The Prince's Trust and Founders4Schools.

As a company we’re keen to seek out or create projects that speak to our passions. Snowball is an annual Forgather-owned event, which brings together a community of tech leaders, VCs, corporates and serial entrepreneurs to eat, drink, ski and learn; often with life changing results. In the past we’ve also co-created a Mindfulness Summit which set out the business case for mindfulness in the workplace, and our own NetZero series of virtual events to explore how sustainable businesses models can tackle the climate crisis. 

At our core, we are event marketers and content creators as well as event producers, and we recognise that how you engage with your audience pre-and-post event is as important as the big day itself.

About the role

The beauty of events is that no two days are the same. One day you might be creating a marketing plan for a new conference on the future of tech, the next you might be working out where you can get hold of a couple of hay bales at 5pm on a Friday…We’re London-based, but our events often take us further afield in the UK, Europe and beyond.

More specifically, the role requires strong marketing and communications skills with event delivery and production experience. But, if we had to choose, we’d go for a strong communicator with entrepreneurial flair and limited events experience, over someone with pure events experience.

We’re flexible in our approach to hiring. You might be a few years into your career, armed with fresh ideas for creative projects you’d like to work on. Or with more experience under your belt, you might bring strong client management experience and be able to hit the ground running to build our portfolio. 

Typical duties: 

• Event content creation/design – research and ideas generation to develop event agendas, speaker recruitment etc.
• Managing recruitment and relationship development with suppliers including design, AV, production etc. to ensure a quality and high value ROI. Negotiating contracts as required.
• Budget planning and management.
• Project management including development and management of event timelines 
• Onsite event management / logistics – including travel to events to oversee onsite execution.
• Communications and copywriting – creating content for blogs, event microsites, case studies, event collateral etc.
• Digital marketing – updating the Forgather website and client/event microsites; managing content creation and integration of social channels within marketing activity – e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube; email marketing and audience generation. 
• Virtual event production – working with a range of virtual event platforms e.g. Hopin and our own production company to build out virtual and hybrid events.
• Speaker liaison – identifying, briefing and managing event speakers. 
• Pitching to existing and prospective clients.
• Business development – seeking to acquire new clients, projects and business opportunities through partnerships.
• Networking and attending events to build industry knowledge and connections.

About you

We’re looking for someone with the following experience and skills:

• A real entrepreneurial spirit – someone who can find innovative ways to achieve success and is a ready to embrace a variety of challenges in a fast-paced environment.
• You’ll have a lust for life – and be curious and interested in new experiences, places and things.
• At least 3 years’ experience in an events or marketing role.
• University degree or equivalent.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. A demonstrable understanding of how to write B2B marketing copy.
• Working knowledge of social media, website management and email marketing software. No coding knowledge is required, but experience with Squarespace, Mailchimp and Eventbrite an advantage. 
• Experienced producing virtual and hybrid events, with an understanding of virtual event technologies. We have run a number of virtual events using Hopin, and also work regularly with our production company to build bespoke platforms.
• Event production experience – both in terms of planning and logistics and onsite delivery.
• Great organisational skills – the ability to juggle multiple projects to deadline and budget. If you like concentrating on one thing at a time you won’t like it here. 
• Someone competent in using Excel – data wrangling and reporting is an important part of the role. You will also need to be a dab hand at PowerPoint as well as Google Drive apps. 
• Strong stakeholder management skills. Getting people to do things they don’t really want to do is super useful – whether it’s meeting a challenging print deadline, or managing to get a speaker to squeeze us into their diary.
• A great eye for detail.
• Someone who can demonstrate resilience and rigour, as well as grace and polish!
• Flexible and happy to get stuck into tasks of all sizes when needed. With a natural ability to solve problems and find great solutions.
• Agency experience and/or client management skills would be useful.
• PS - The phrase ‘that’s good enough’ isn’t in our vocabulary...

What we offer

• Competitive salary dependent on experience.
• An exciting and diverse role working with some of the leading players in the UK tech scene.
• Travel opportunities – events have taken us to Paris, Bavaria, Lisbon, Ibiza, New York, up many European Alps and more…
• Regular team outings – from lunches at some of London’s best restaurants to cultural ‘missions’ to gather event inspiration.

Hours & location

Usual office hours are 9.30am to 6.00pm. As you might expect in this business, sometimes we work longer hours including evenings and occasional weekends when we’re running an event.

Our office is in London, in the heart of Seven Dials, handy for both Covent Garden and Soho. We share the space with one of our collaborators, FieldHouse Associates. The role would be a mix of office-based and remote working - ideally 2 or 3 days a week in our London office.

The team

You’d be joining a small but nimble team. You’ll be working on a day-to-day basis alongside the founder, as well as an events director based in Bristol. We scale up as needed for larger events and have a trusted team of freelancers who we work with regularly.

Hours

Usual office hours are 9.30am to 6.00pm. As you might expect in this business, sometimes we work longer hours including evenings and occasional weekends when we’re running an event.

Salary Details

£28k-£31k depending on experience, with the opportunity for profit-related bonuses.

Please note we are interviewing immediately so please apply ASAP.