Special Events Department Head

Redemption Church•San Jose, CA

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Special Events Department Head is responsible for planning, managing, and executing all aspects of special events, special services, and annual conferences for both the San Jose and Greenville Campuses. This includes managing a significant volume of events, setting the annual calendar, implementing the vision of Senior Pastors and the Creative Team, overseeing creative decoration, managing on-site load-in, creating schedules for staff and volunteers, coordinating marketing and social media plans, organizing merchandise sales, developing banquet event orders and hospitality menus, managing attendee registration, communicating with vendors, developing and managing event budgets, troubleshooting challenges, overseeing venue layout, and ensuring events comply with company policies. The role also involves developing and maintaining vendor relations and training VIP-Experience Teams. Additionally, the Head will coordinate the event approval process for all departments on both campuses, ensuring proper POs and calendar entries are managed. This is a full-time, salaried, exempt position.

Requirements

Typically, 3-5 years of experience in event planning or management.
At least 1-2 years in a leadership role.
Strong knowledge of event planning processes, from concept to execution.
Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously, with strong organizational and time management skills.
Experience in creating and managing event budgets, including cost estimation, tracking expenses, and ensuring events stay within budget.
Ability to source, negotiate, and manage relationships with vendors, including catering, entertainment, and venues.
Understanding of event marketing strategies, including social media, email campaigns, and partnerships.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills to interact effectively with clients, team members, and vendors.
Proven ability to lead and motivate a team, including delegating tasks and providing direction.
Strong problem-solving skills to handle unexpected issues that arise during events.
High attention to detail to ensure all aspects of an event are executed flawlessly.
Strong focus on customer service to ensure client satisfaction.
Ability to come up with creative ideas and solutions to enhance the event experience.
Familiarity with event management software and other relevant tools (Asana, Planning Center).
Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Willingness to work irregular hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as events often require.
Ability to handle the physical demands of event setup, coordination, and teardown.
Collaborative mindset with the ability to work well with others under pressure.

Responsibilities

Plan, manage, and execute all aspects of all special events, special services, and annual conferences for San Jose and Greenville Campuses.
Set and manage annual calendar of events for the organization, special services, and conferences for San Jose and Greenville Campuses.
Create and manage systems, communications, and tasks in Asana and CCB for managing and executing all aspects of the special events and hospitality areas.
Implement vision from Senior Pastors and Creative Team objectives, budget, and preferences per event and execute each event per coast.
Manage and oversee creative decoration for each event per coast and manage the creative staff lead to ensure all deadlines are met, orders are timely placed, received and organized on each coast; layouts per room are completed, volunteer and load-in and load-out schedules are created and communicated, and coordinate with facilities teams on each coast.
On-site management of load-in process of all areas per event to ensure creative vision for event is properly implemented.
Create schedule and timeline of all activities for staff and volunteers to follow during events from pre-event preparation, to load-in on day of event, and load-out of all décor, supplies, and equipment post-event.
Communicate and coordinate marketing and social media plan, all print needs, digital assets, and content per event with the marketing director and social media director.
Organize and coordinate merch or product sales per event as needed for the department, conference, or guest speaker; work with Redemption Merch team to organize needed volunteers and set up, layout of merch sales area.
Plan and develop all banquet event orders and hospitality menus, communicate and coordinate with Hospitality Department Heads each coast to develop menu, budget, contract, and coordinate/implement all catering needs per event.
Set up and manage registration for all attendees as required per event; manage the registration process, respond to inquiries from attendees, prepare attendance check-in reports for check-in team. Recruit, manage and train check-in team volunteers for all areas – general check-in, Redemption Fellowship, VIP/Friends & Family, guest speakers.
Communicate with all vendors and suppliers before, during, and after event.
Develop and manage the overall budget per event; restructure budget as needed to incorporate changes throughout event.
Troubleshoot challenges or changes throughout the event process that arise to ensure event is properly executed.
Oversee and coordinate venue layout for hospitality and facilities departments that work during and clean up after events.
Manage all aspects of each event and act as onsite manager during load-in to ensure all events are delivered effectively and professionally.
Develop new/maintain current vendor relations.
Ensure that events comply with company policies regarding proper insurance and safety standards.
Develop and maintain structure and training for VIP-Experience Teams on both coasts to act as personal hosts, greeters, servers, Green Room hosts, parking attendants, transportation hosts, for all VIPs, speakers, guests per event; communicate and coordinate all needs per individual event to team to ensure appropriate execution and standards are met.
Manage Special Events volunteers for both campuses; onboard new volunteers; meet and communicate with team volunteers as needed per event; manage west coast team to ensure new volunteers are onboarded and receive communication and training.
Create and manage process for approving all event requests from all departments on San Jose and Greenville Campuses, which includes all department meetings, classes, and events for all departments; respond to staff inquiries; ensure all approved events are added to the Planning Center calendars for San Jose and Greenville Campuses and that there are no conflicts.
Ensure all event requests have an approved PO before confirming the event is approved; communicate to all departments requested to support each event that the event is approved; follow up with event requestor to ensure all support forms are completed in teams and all departments are communicated with that have been requested to support the event.
Reconcile all charges for Special Events Department.
Other duties and special projects as assigned.