Events Manager

This is a key role created to drive The Bookseller’s vibrant events business forward. We want that rare person who has superb attention to detail, high energy, understanding of what makes for successful events and an innate marketer’s sense of what will benefit our customers.

You will be in charge of marketing and logistics for our three conferences – Marketing & Publicity, Children’s and Futurebook – The British Book Industry Awards and our YA Book Prize as well as smaller bespoke events as they arise.

Responsibilities

• Managing the delegate revenue stream across all areas – planning; budgeting; price-setting; reporting; executing
• Growing paid-for attendance through all key channels – email; web conversion; telesales
• Managing all logistical elements of The British Book Industry Awards (alongside specialist Awards Manager) including: call for entries; judging process; liaising with and responding to guests, presenters and sponsors; managing the venue and working with production company
• Managing all logistical elements for the conferences including venue liaison, catering, staging, AV presentation and delegate administration
• Developing strong relationships with partner organisations e.g. festivals, the key book sellers and charities
• Marketing each conference from original proposition right through to email and advertising campaigns
• Marketing the Awards through all key channels and ensuring its preeminence through compelling advertising, strong partner relationship and working with PR company
• Cost management and reporting

Key skills and experience

• 5 + years event marketing and logistics success desired; ideally, but not categorically,  within publishing or book selling
• Strong copywriting and briefing skills
• Demonstrable understanding of key marketing processes and social media platforms
• Proven financial management acumen

Key attributes

• The drive to expand The Bookseller’s business
• Speed & flexibility
• Ability to handle pressure – being in charge of a major conference with all the potential mishaps is not for the faint-hearted!
• An empathetic, friendly, attitude to colleagues and customers
• Attention to detail and an ability to manage complex logistical issues
• Resourceful and imaginative approach to delivering marketing solutions
• Ability to balance short term demands with long term strategic planning
• A strong affinity with the book trade and a recognition that this isn’t just ‘any old industry’

Reporting lines/organisational structure

• Dedicated freelance support during each event build up
• Dual reporting line – primarily to Publisher Relations Director for conferences and secondarily to Chief Executive for The British Book Industry Awards
• Key working relationship with experienced freelance Awards manager. Please note, the Events Manager’s experience will decide if he/she project-reports to the Awards manager
• Key working relationships with the Editor, internal/external programme directors, online editor & producer and the head of subscriptions and data

Salary, terms and conditions

• Salary will be competitive and dependent on experience
• 25 holiday days on top of normal public holidays
• Company contributory pension scheme
• Standard 35 hours 09:00 – 17:00 or as individually arranged
• June to August Friday ‘summer hours’
• Central London location

To apply

Please email chief executive, Nigel Roby nigel.roby@thebookseller.com attaching your CV and a covering letter explaining why you would be the perfect fit.

Please apply directly for this role via the email address provided.

About The Bookseller

The Bookseller has been the magazine of the book trade since 1858. In 2016 it is an integrated print, digital and events business; still serving the book trade but increasingly a well-known brand for readers through social media and its awards. The Bookseller is privately owned and based in London.

Each week, The Bookseller magazine is the book trade’s incisive, independent, source of business intelligence and analysis. For publishers, retailers, agents, libraries, national media and festivals, it is the trusted primary source. Subscriptions are the lifeblood of The Bookseller’s business from small independent bookshops taking a single sub to large publishers buying web access for all staff.

Online, thebookseller.com is the book trade’s most visited UK site with over 200,000 unique monthly users. It is where the book trade advertises its vacancies and where those in the trade look for their next role. On Twitter, @thebookseller has 144,000 followers. Our Morning Briefing email newsletter has over 20,000 daily recipients.

The Bookseller’s three conferences set the standard for helping the book trade understand today’s complex publishing market.

1.FutureBook is Europe’s largest, most significant, conference for the emergent, disruptive, digital publishing business. In 2016, Futurebook will run two new dedicated streams/sub-conferences – Audio Revolution and EdTech for Publishers

2.Marketing & Publicity is the UK’s largest dedicated conference for all those dealing with the new challenges in marketing, such as customer insight and D2C engagement. It had its ever attendance in 2016.

3.The Children's Books conference is a key annual date for those in the vibrant children’s publishing sector covering both physical books and the new opportunities for exploiting intellectual property in apps, TV and licensing.

The British Book Industry Awards is the arbiter of book trade success. The revamped Awards now reward everything from the UK & Ireland’s best Independent Bookshop to the highly coveted Book of the Year. Winning a British Book Industry Award is the ultimate accolade in the publishing and bookselling business.

The YA Book Prize is held annually to acknowledge the best writing by UK & Irish authors of young adult fiction. In 2016 the prize giving was held at the Hay Festival for the first time.

The Bookseller has a presence at the major international trade book fairs and produces a daily newspaper for London, Frankfurt and Bologna book fair and is for the first time producing a preview for the Beijing Book Fair.

There are 23 staff (22 in London) as well as a group of key associates – non-executive director; book previewers; conference programme directors. The office is in Southwark (moving January 2017).