Coventry is the ninth biggest city in England and has ambitious plans to grow its economy, profile and quality of life. Culture, sport, and events are at the heart of city life and our growing visitor economy.
We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.
The Culture, Sport, Events and Destination Service is part of the Council’s Regeneration and Economy Directorate. The team supports the development of the culture, creative economy, heritage, sport, events, and visitor economy sectors in the city – through partnerships, strategies, investment, and programmes.
The Events team takes a lead role in planning and delivering the Council’s own events such as the annual Godiva Festival, festive events, The Peace Festival, Holocaust Memorial Day and co-ordinating Heritage Open Days. The team also manages public open space in the city centre, as well as assisting other Council Services. We also work collaboratively with third party organisers such as Motofest. We also support colleagues with their events such as Remembrance Sunday and Armed Forces Day and act as a source of expertise within the Council for outdoor events.
The Events team also works with third party and community event organisers to facilitate and help them deliver their events such as Pride and the recent Reggae Fever and Caribbean Carnival, we produce guidance on event planning.
Our ValuesIn line with our One Coventry Values, we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equity and respect remains at the heart of everything we do.
Our Values are:
Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.
What is the job role?The Events Officer role is an exciting role within the public Events team as part of the Council’s Culture, Sport and Events Service. Specifically, this role will report to the Senior Producer, and you will initiate, respond to and manage relationships with national, regional, and local partners in support of local priorities. The role will also support the management and delivery of community events in city centre public spaces and of developing third party attractive, safe, functional and sustainable events in spaces in the city. You will also be focused on supporting the Council’s own events programme and the producing elements of event planning and delivery.
The role will be varied, challenging, and rewarding, as we develop a new Events Strategy for the city. As an Events Officer you will be a skilled manager, an excellent communicator with demonstrable commitment to public events. You will be part of the team delivering annual flagship events for the city such as The Godiva Festival. Equally you will also be supporting the Events team and wider Culture, Sport, and Events Service events and activities, from our partnership with the City Half Marathon and Motofest, through to supporting third party event organisers hold attractive, safe, functional and sustainable events in spaces across the city.
Who are we looking for?We are looking for an experienced events professional, community facilitator and a great communicator who has experience of planning a range of outdoor public events but who can also build and nurture inclusive partnerships and identify and work with communities to enable, share knowledge of event production with community event organisers to maximise the impact of those community led events and seek synergies with City council events. You will also help source external funding for public events.
You will be a team player as the role and the events rely on inter-service working with colleagues across the council. Motivated, enthusiastic and digitally literate. You will take responsibility for specific large scale event operations and whole event end-to-end management from concept to delivery and post event evaluation. You will share your expertise with other colleagues, external organisations and community groups. You will help devise policy and strategy.
This role will demand weekend and anti-social hours working but it will be great fun!
You should have:
Experience of developing, delivering a comprehensive annual program of Council and community events, developing objectives and measuring KPI’s.
Experience of producing content for events with community groups, arts and cultural and community organisations, volunteers and artists
Ability to work cohesively with and coordinate volunteers and community groups to deliver events and experience of volunteer recruitment.
Knowledge and successful experience of generating third party funding for community events and programmes. Budgeting, forecasting and budget management experience, evaluation and reporting.
Understanding and knowledge of legislation, regulations and health & safety good practise as applied to events, and experience of writing and working with risk assessments and method statements
experience of writing and contributing to event safety management plans, production schedules, briefing documents and advancing information
practical knowledge and can-do attitude in devising solutions to deliver event briefs, adapting venues, and a consistent focus on customer experience
knowledge of the public outdoor event planning processes including evaluating outcomes against the objectives
Experience of successful management of logistics: Coordinating logistics for events, including event set-up and take-down plans, communications, public information and stakeholder liaison.
A keen eye for detail when working with contracts with artists and suppliers
Knowledge of sustainability issues in producing events as we strive to become more sustainable in terms of impact and public messaging
This is not an exhaustive list of expectations, roles and responsibilities and as an Events Team all staff will be expected to support reach others work.
If this sounds like the perfect next step in your career, then we would love to hear from you.
Working Patterns and Posts
This is a full-time post based in the Council’s One Friargate office, 37 hours per week, with a requirement to work flexibly in relation to hours, including unsociable hours, evenings, weekends and occasional overnight stays. As an Events team we plan to work in the office on set days otherwise the role can be hybrid. The role involves attending meetings and events in the Coventry area, with occasional travel within the region and nationally. Event delivery is often outdoors in all weather.
For an informal conversation about this challenging and rewarding role, please contact Jon Hogan, Head of Events, Culture, Sport & Events at Jon.Hogan@coventry.gov.uk
If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.
Guaranteed Interview Scheme - As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role and identify with one of the below criteria:
Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
Are currently in care or have previously been in care
If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition
For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'. If there is any evidence of a candidate using AI to complete their application, then the application will be rejected unless the candidate can provide a justification which the Council considers to be reasonable.
Interview date: Friday 1st November 2024
About CoventryCoventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.
We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.
At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.
To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.
If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies
