Senior Events and Sponsorship Manager (12 month FTC) in London

We are Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we are looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do.

Practice Group / Department
Communications Management - EMEA

The Role
A superb opportunity for a talented events professional and experienced leader to join an international law firm. Based in London and working as part of an established wider marketing and business development (MBD) team, the focus of this role is to define, develop and deliver the firm’s client events strategy and operations, lead the events team and deliver a varied and distinctive portfolio of events with maximum ROI.

The events team work with both lawyers and business development teams across EMEA; advising on creative and differentiating ways to connect with clients, ensuring best practice and high quality of delivery, supporting onsite when necessary. The team also manages hospitality requests, together with corporate sponsorships and memberships.

This senior manager role will lead the events function with two direct reports; an events and sponsorship manager and an executive. Operational support is also provided through our MBD colleagues and our marketing services hub in Newcastle. The role is part of the senior marketing leadership team and reports into the Director of Communications, EMEA. This role is a 12-month fixed-term contract.

Key Responsibilities

• Engage with lawyers and business development teams across our key practice areas to understand business strategy and how this needs to be underpinned with an interesting and impactful program of client events and engagement touchpoints.
• Work closely with the business and client development teams and employee network groups in the strategic scoping, planning and delivery of events to support business plans and initiatives.
• Preparation of event scoping, budgets, briefings and site visits to ensure success.
• Develop a coordinated program of cross-practice events, to encourage networking, referrals and the growth of key relationships.
• Manage key, strategically important, internal events such as partner off-sites and conferences.
• Manage the firm’s online event platform for EMEA, including training colleagues to set up and run their own online events ensuring best practice is followed.
• Provide management information to support our client events activity, reviewing performance and demonstrating return on investment and continuous improvement.
• Brief and select external suppliers where necessary.
• Support client teams with the development of the C-Suite event program.
• Work collaboratively with the events teams in the other regional member firms to develop global best practice.
• Ensure an exceptional standard of delivery, service and attention to detail across all events, including comprehensive follow-up, including client leads.
• Advise on sponsorship arrangements, including the process and criteria for selection and activation strategy, setting success metrics and ROI.
• Ensure full utilisation of benefits of corporate sponsorships.
• Manage relationships with speaker agencies, ticket suppliers and other third-party suppliers. Actively research and seek out new and innovative client offerings.
• Develop a high-quality range of corporate merchandise that fits with the firm’s sustainability guidelines and managing the online store.
• Manage and develop the team’s pages on the intranet, ensuring they are up to date at all times.
• Manage event budgets.

Skills And Experience Required

• Experience of managing a range of large and small events and sponsorships in a fast-paced international environment. Previous experience in professional services desirable. Alternatively, significant agency experience of working with large corporate accounts.
• Proven track record of leading an events team.
• Understanding and experience of working within a marketing and business development team supporting EMEA regions, with demonstrable experience of integrated marketing and business development activities.
• Experience delivering online events and conferences, both face to face and across a variety of platforms including ON24, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
• Ability to build relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including with partners and business development peers.
• An excellent communicator, with strong inter-personal skills.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail, capable of developing detailed project plans and ensuring messaging is clear, consistent and correctly branded.
• Ability to work effectively and calmly under pressure.
• Excellent multi-tasking and analytical skills with the ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Ability to initiate action and work both independently and in a team environment.
• Excellent organisational skills, and good at solving problems.
• Positive attitude and approach to each task.
• Proactive, creative and confident.
• Flexible in both dealing with ad hoc requests and scheduling work hours to accommodate the timing of client events, which may include working early mornings, evenings and weekends.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know.