Assistant Director of Convention Services

Corporate Office•Fort Lauderdale, FL

About The Position

Overview Fort Lauderdale Hotel Opening in Fall 2025, Omni Fort Lauderdale will provide South Florida with 120,000 square feet of event space, new food and beverage options, a Natural Spring inspired full-service spa and entertainment pedestrian plaza featuring high-end shopping, amphitheater, charter boat docking and beautiful promenade. The new iconic landmark offers unforgettable views of the Atlantic paired with unrivalled convenience and intelligently designed meeting spaces. The hotel will be directly connected to the Broward County Convention Center, immediately adjacent to Port Everglades cruise terminal and less than two miles from Fort Lauderdale Airport. Job Description Be a part of the opening team for the brand new Omni Ft. Lauderdale Hotel ! Opening Fall 2025 , the Omni Ft. Lauderdale Hotel is a 29-story hotel, located at 1950 Eisenhower Blvd, and connected directly to the Broward County Convention. The property offers 801 guest rooms and suites, multiple restaurants, a vibrant rooftop bar, a sprawling pool, spa, and fitness center. The hotel will also have over 120,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space, including a grand ballroom, junior ballroom, 25 breakout rooms and pre-function meeting space with waterfront views. Responsible for assisting with directing, coordinating, training, and supervising the Catering Sales team in addition to selling catering business while maintaining profitable operations and high quality products and service levels to generate repeat business potential. Some detailing will be required for events contracting within 2 weeks of arrival.

Requirements

At least 5 years of catering sales experience in a hotel in a senior role in a High Volume 4-Star Hotel
Must be an expert in Computer operations, Company approved spreadsheets and word processing.
Must have knowledge of F&B preparation techniques, health department rules and regulations, liquor laws and regulations.
Delphi or Equivalent Training.
Maintain a professional business appearance, attitude, and performance.
Must be able to work a variety of shifts, including weekends and holidays.
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

Nice To Haves

Certified Meeting Planner (Optional).

Responsibilities

Responds to incoming catering leads within a 24 hour timeframe (unless a lead is received on a Friday and the response must be back to the client by Monday Noon their time)
All leads must be presented at the daily DBR (Daily Business Review) outside of the catering free-sell window
Proactively identifies, qualifies, and solicits new business to achieve personal and hotel revenue goals
Closes the best opportunities for the Hotel based on the market conditions and hotel needs
Understands the overall market in which they sell (i.e.: competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, economic trends, supply and demand, etc.)
Effectively manage and develop relationships with key internal and external customers, ensuring a high degree of customer satisfaction
Assist in ensuring in p reparing 10-day, monthly, weekly, and quarterly Food & Beverage forecasts as requested to monitor business flow accurately.
Assist with Sales Action Plans, via the Account Coverage Program (ACP), and (KRA's) on a quadrimestral basis in order to focus on client needs and maximize sales efforts to minimize gap periods.
Prepare six-month rolling forecast for Director of Catering and Convention Services to review prior to deadline.
Builds and strengthens relationships with existing and new customers to include sales calls, FAM events, site inspections, etc.
Effectively uses sales resources and administrative/staff support
Generates contracts and creative proposals to meet customer needs
Provides accurate, complete, and effective turnover to event services
Can develop clear and effective market plans and action steps
Possesses effective communication skills
Presents ideas, expectations and information in a concise, well-organized manner
Continues communications with catering contacts before, during and after all meetings to encourage rebook of business or to solicit other business within account.
Manager may be required to entertain outside of business hours.
Represent hotel at functions which are related to the hotel sales and marketing efforts
Conduct site inspections, familiarization trips and other related functions to develop potential catering business
Maintain the highest ethical standards while representing Omni Hotels and Resorts
Maintain a thorough understanding and direct knowledge of hotel’s primary competitors
Achieve revenue sales goals presented for each quarter on a consistent basis.
Create and keep up to date banquet event orders, event resumes, and all other relevant event information if booking is within 2 weeks of arrival.
Assist with the creation of profitable menus and distribution of client expectations to Food & Beverage Departments.
Effectively coordinate efforts between Sales and Food & Beverage management.
Assist in ensuring that the department standards are met and that all company policies and procedures are adhered to.
Assist in ensuring that all departments meets all federal, state and local regulations affecting the hotel, Food & Beverage operation, its associates and guests.
This brief job profile is to give a general idea of the job and in no way states or implies that these are the only job duties to be performed by the associate in this position. Other duties will be assigned.