Director, Events & Communications
SEED Group
Total years of experience :15 years, 2 Months
My main role is to establish an initiative to provide training courses for UAE based startups and entrepreneurs. I am also in charge of all client relationship management for the group.
- Identified and secured strategic partnerships and support from public and private companies
- In charge of all internal and external communication
- Built and grew the companies database through content and social media
- Sourced and managed all suppliers and freelancers
- Managed the entire life cycle of each training course from planning to execution
- Organised pre-course briefing and networking sessions to promote the initiative
- Recruited mentors pre-selected from Top 100 SME list from Dubai SME
- Responsible for all marketing collateral, including writing flyers, brochures & profiles
- Ultimately reached registration and revenue targets set out
Conference and Exhibition organization based in Dubai. Knowledge Expansion develops niche events for the Oil & Gas Sector
Position: Head of Production
My role involves recruiting, training and managing a new production team that will produce events for the Africa market. I am accountable for the productivity, profitability and quality of the events under the Africa division. I currently manage a team of 5 producers based in Johannesburg and Dubai.
Key Responsibilities: • Developing the forward schedule and profit projections for the division
• Taking full P&L responsibility and monitoring division's direct costs
• Generating conference topics and monitoring topic sources
• Proactively building the company's reputation by capitalizing on customer relationships and networking heavily within specific verticals
I was recruited by the Managing Director of the New York office to establish and grow the then struggling Big Data portfolio of events. This topic was new and complex, being a new concept for the business world. The major industries were in different stages of adoption making it difficult to nail down the major challenges and drivers. My job was to understand this topic and establish myself as a lead researcher in the industry and educate the project teams internally on the topic trends, drivers and solutions.
Achievements
• Established and grew the Data Analytics Portfolio of events
• Fostered an organization wide understanding of this complex market through extensive market research
• Strengthened the strained relationship between the sales team and the production side
• Secured sponsorship dollars and reached revenue targets for every event under my portfolio
• Ran every event under the data analytics portfolio at a 40% gross profit
• Promoted from Junior to Senior Producer within six months
• Secured a number of high profile speakers including the Chief Director of Aviation Safety, security and Monitoring from the DoT, Head of Business Development of ABSA, Vice President of Fluor, CEO of Gambia Telecommunications Company, CEO of Birmingham Airport, GM: Complementary online services of ABSA
• The only member of the Africa office to be selected to work from the Dubai office for a month to produce a Middle East event
• Press release generated interest and radio interviews with major national radio stations
• Appraised in internal meeting as the most productive member of production team in the Middle East & Africa operations
Responsibilities:
• Developing, Managing and Monitoring the execution of campaigns across all functional depts including sales, marketing, delegate acquisition and operations
• Identifying business development opportunities and running commercial viability researching for the SA office
• Overseeing the implementation of audience communication strategies to ensure effective marketing of conferences and events
• Approving sales value propositions generated by sales managers
• Approving sales value propositions generated by audience development managers
• Heading weekly project updates with marketing, sales and audience development directors to ensure that project milestones are being achieved and manage timelines
• Generating, monitoring, managing, and controlling the conference and event budgets
• Managing and building a network of speakers/contacts for future conferences
• Directing event collaboration opportunities with strategic partners
• Advising Middle East and Australian offices on the roll out of South Africa pioneered events
• Engaging in continuous development and training of stage one conference production team
MATCH is a service provider that handles key deliverables for the 2010 & 2014 FIFA World Cups.
MATCH was appointed by FIFA to manage the accommodation, ticketing, computer solutions and hospitality for the sporting event.
Position: Event Coordinator and Office Manager
• Planning, implementing and managing the life cycle of all internal events, meetings and conferences
• Managing office administration, organising office operations and procedures
• Drafting and distributing targeted communication for senior management & centre managers
• Assisting Marketing Director with branding and materials for FIFA Ticketing Centres
• Headed entire company event accreditation for 300+ staff members
• Financial administration i.e. processing claims & payments, generating invoices
• Sourcing, managing and liaising with suppliers & pricing negotiations
The Tourism Enterprise Partnership, Johannesburg | Jan 2009 - Oct 2009 (Contract)
TEP is an economic development company focusing on job creation in the tourism sector. It is funded by Business Trust and the National Department of Tourism.
Position: Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Administration
• Event planning and execution
• Marketing and communications Strategy planning
• Working with graphic designers and creative suppliers to develop marketing collateral
• Developing content for marketing and communications messages (internal and external)
• Travel planning and logistics for external promotional campaigns, roadshows and exhibitions
• Financial administration i.e. processing claims & payment requisitions
• Creating visual presentations on PowerPoint and reports on excel
Campaigns & Project Management Journalism Public Relations Marketing Global Communications