Events Manager

The Great Escape takes place every May and is now firmly established as the festival for new music and new music business. A total of 16,500 festival goers and 3,500 delegates descend upon the seaside town of Brighton where over 450 bands perform across 35 walkable venues for 3-days each May. Our conference programme features inspiring seminars, keynote interviews, workshops, parties and B2B networking. The thirteenth annual festival will take place from 17th – 19th May 2018. 

We are now recruiting an Events Manager who ideally has a minimum of 3 years experience in a similar management role and is ready for the challenge to become The Great Escape linchpin. We’re seeking an individual who combines a natural flair for financial, organisational and management skills, with excellent experience in event planning, promotion and delivery, and has the ability and ambition to deliver the event on target and on budget, ideally exceeding expectations. You should be able to demonstrate a genuine passion for The Great Escape and commitment to ensure the festival’s continued success. 

Key aspects of the role include:

• Becoming the main central point of contact for the festival on a day to day basis

• Ensuring that all work delivered reflects the festivals’ brand identity, ethos and vision

• Managing and leading the core festival team and agencies including: Festival Manager, Festival Programmer, Marketing Manager, Event Executive, Conference Programmer and PR

• Project managing the overall event, creating timelines and ensuring deadlines are adhered to

• Managing the festival’s P&L to ensure that the event is delivered within budget, ideally exceeding budget expectations

• Driving all revenue streams to hit and exceed targets including but not limited to: Ticket Sales, Sponsorship, Public Funding, Trade Sales, Bars, Hotel Sales, Alternative Escape and Merchandise 

• Overseeing all expenditure, PO’s and payments, including but not limited to: Operational, Online, PR & Marketing, Production, Programming and Travel

• Working with and reporting into the MAMA Festivals Director and CEO to establish new revenue streams

• Frequently forecast the overall budget, reporting into the MAMA Festivals Director and CEO

• Working with the Festival Programmer to curate the festival programme

• Working with the Conference Programmer to curate the conference programme

• Working with the Marketing Manager to ensure that brand values and messaging are being clearly communicated across all channels including: PR, online, socials, eshots, launches, First Fifty, TGE Presents, printed programmes, at event branding, photography and videography

• Attending industry events both nationally and internationally to represent and promote the festival, including speaking on panels and delivering keynotes

• Overseeing key stakeholder relationships, concepts and delivery including: sponsors, public funders, agents, venues, media, national and international trade organisations, regional partners, suppliers and charities

• Working with the Festival Manager to oversee all aspects of event production planning and execution across the festival, conference and Alternative Escape including: staffing, volunteer recruitment, venue contracting, event management plan, technical production, health & safety, TGE led venue operations, partner production, artist advancing and accreditation

• Leading all core team meetings including: weekly planning meetings, bi-weekly festival meetings with MAMA Festivals senior management team and monthly production meetings

• Overseeing the festivals operations including: IT, legal, content management, financial planning and management, data capture and retention, documentation generation and storage, debriefing, feedback collation and reporting

About you:

• Ideally three years’ experience in a similar management role within events, ideally festivals

• In-depth music industry knowledge, awareness of current trends and issues affecting the music industry

• Awareness of up and coming music talent and new music scene

• Broad understanding of the industry showcase and festivals event market

• Experience of leading and managing a team of 5 people or more

• Extensive P&L management experience and ability to manage multiple budgets at once

• Extensive revenue generation and partnership management experience

• Experience of applying for, and being successful with public funding applications

• High level event promotion experience

• Experience of working on site at events and festivals, with a good understanding of how they operate

• Outstanding organizational skills and proficient with office software on either Mac or PC formats

• Excellent communication skills with an ability to manage both upwards and downwards 

• Passionate, hardworking and a self-starter