This position reports to: Director, MICE
Overview: At Atlas Travel & Technology Group, our purpose is to Stand-Up, Stand-Out. To do something every day that makes the next day better for all. We value creativity to build new paths forward, collaborate respectfully, have the drive to get up and do it, open ourselves to grow, do what we say, love what we do, and have fun along the way. This is who we are, our culture.
The Meeting & Event Manager of the Meetings & Incentives division of Atlas Travel is responsible for managing all aspects of a meeting, incentive, convention, or event, as well as providing on-site support if needed. This position requires ability to fully manage large and/or complex events from strategic planning through final reconciliation and be able to lead an internal team on programs requiring full event management. The Meeting & Event Manager should possess strong leadership skills and have a love of event management.
Responsibilities and Duties:
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Administer Request for Proposals (RFPs) through our eRFP tool and provide recommendations to clients; after client selects desired property, negotiate contract to best of ability before presenting to client for review; after contract is executed, monitor for important deadlines
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Negotiate contracts with various suppliers including hotels, venues, trade show facilitators, destination management companies, transportation companies, audio-visual and internet providers, décor companies, team-building and activity organizations, printing companies, and deliverable providers.
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Build successful, collaborative relationships with hotel, DMC, ground transportation and other supplier partners through an open communication process that includes detailed specification of needs.
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Collaborate with Group Air Desk to provide air feasibilities during site selection process.
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Create, maintain and update realistic project timelines for full-service management events with contingency time built in; relay important strategic deadlines and keep entire team accountable.
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Lead strategy calls with pre-determined agendas and action items.
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Find opportunities for upselling ancillary MICE services.
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Research, recommend, and contract with off-site event venues, ground transportation companies, entertainers, décor companies and other event-support vendors.
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Manage on-line registration website development: request assistance from Coordinator or Planner to build and administer site; request updates on attendee management process and handle any escalated issues.
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Track concessions/negotiated savings for each project and provide client with summary of savings as needed.
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Provide cost estimates and budget recommendations and highlight potential ROI when developing objectives and strategies for events.
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Perform site inspections as needed, either with client or on behalf of client.
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Procure and lead on-site event staff; clearly outline requirements and tasks prior to event.
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Manage complex event budgets and provide financial reconciliation of all event costs.
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Provide post-event analysis to determine effectiveness and ROI; make recommendations for developing objectives and strategies for future events.
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Provide internal program audit to determine profitability.
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Lead operations of programs requiring full event management and delegate tasks to team members as needed.
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Provide air manifests to ground transportation vendor and strategize to provide the best value to the client.
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Issue client invoices and process vendor payments; track receipt of payment with back office.
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Track and record incoming commissions.
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Attend continuing education forums, industry events, and meet with industry sales personnel both in and out of the office.
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Travel required up to 25%.
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Ability to work nights and weekends as events dictate.
Skills/Qualifications:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
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Demonstrated ability to do whatever necessary to make an event successful
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Project Management experience or ability to lead a cross-functional team and work within a team environment and interact with professionally and effectively with all levels of associates including senior executives
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Proven experience in negotiating contracts
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Ability to multitask with a high volume of deliverables
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Outstanding problem-solving, financial management and oral/written skills
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Ability to work under pressure, deal with constant change, and meet deadlines and reprioritize workload as new projects arise
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Ability to work long hours, some nights and weekends
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Ability to travel
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Ability to manage complex event budgets and monitor cash flow
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Extremely detail oriented & organized
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Excellent customer service and listening skills
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Ability to manage difficult situations and conversations
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Resourceful and imaginative
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Open to learning new skills and technology and improving processes and best practices
Core Competencies:
Core Competencies identify behaviors and skills all employees are expected to demonstrate to carry out the mission and goals of the company
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Initiative and Creativity
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Judgement
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Cooperation / Teamwork
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Quality of Work
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Reliability
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Support of Diversity
Education and/or Experience:
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Bachelor’s Degree or High School Degree with industry experience
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5+ years of recent industry experience
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5+ years of customer service experience
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CMP strongly preferred but not required
PC Skills:
Position requires high working knowledge of the following: MS Office (e.g., MS Word and Excel, Outlook), on-line web registration tools such as Cvent, and CSR tools like Salesforce; basic knowledge of information sharing platforms (e.g., Dropbox, GoogleDocs).
Language Skills:
Ability, to communicate in standard business English both written and spoken. Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, correspondence and memos. Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one, small group situations to customer, clients and other employees of the organization.
Physical and Mental Demands:
The requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
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Requires an adequate range of body motion and mobility to enable the individual to perform the essential functions of the job.
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Requires ability to remain in a stationary position for prolonged periods of time throughout the workday.
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Requires ability to move about to access file cabinets, office equipment, etc.
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Requires ability to operate a computer, telecommunication devices and other office equipment for prolonged periods of time throughout the work day.
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Requires ability to express or exchange ideas by means of the spoken word. Talking is important for those activities in which the employee must impart oral information to other employees, clients and customers, in person or via telephone, and in those activities in which they must convey detailed or important spoken instructions and information to others accurately, clearly and quickly.
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Requires the ability to perceive the nature of sounds. Hearing is important for those activities that require ability to receive detailed information through oral communication, in person or via telephone, and to make fine discriminations in sound.
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Requires clarity of near vision. This factor is important when special and or minute accuracy is demanded and defective near acuity would adversely affect job performance and/or safety of self and others.
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Requires ability to work other shifts and weekends and in excess of 40 hours/week, as necessary.
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Requires the ability to work and cooperate with other employees and clients at all levels and from diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas, information and opinions to facilitate the task at hand.
Work Environment:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The work environment is a hybrid remote / office environment.
