Assistant Director, Program Development & Event Planning

ABOUT STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND RESIDENTIAL & DINING ENTERPRISES:

Stanford University, located between San Francisco and San Jose in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, is one of the world's leading teaching and research universities. Since its opening in 1891, Stanford has been dedicated to finding solutions to big challenges and to preparing students for leadership in a complex world.

Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), the largest auxiliary organization at Stanford University, supports the academic mission of the University by providing high-quality services to students and other members of the university community. The department has an annual operating budget of over $350M, operates 24/7/365, and oversees a $3B asset portfolio comprising a 7 million sq. ft. physical plant across the campus. In autumn quarter of the 2021-22 academic year, R&DE will return to providing housing for over 13,000 students and dependents, serving meals at 17 dining halls, 12 retail locations, and operating athletic concessions and conference operations. Additionally, R&DE comprises 900 FTE staff in the following divisions: Student Housing Operations, Stanford Dining, Stanford Hospitality & Auxiliaries, Stanford Conferences, Maintenance Operations and Capital Projects, and a team of R&DE strategic business partners: Finance & Administration, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Strategic Communications.

“Students (Customers) First” is the mantra of R&DE and our strategic goals reflect our commitment to delivering quality and excellence to our constituents every day.  In R&DE,“Excellence is defined by aligning our strategic goals and performance with our vision.”

About Stanford Conferences

Stanford Conferences, one of four major business divisions within Residential & Dining Enterprises at Stanford University, is responsible for overall coordination and management of hospitality services for academically sponsored conferences, educational programs and youth camps held on the Stanford campus. The division is driven by a business service infrastructure which includes a robust summer conference operation, meeting planning and conference registration services, policy and program development, sales and marketing, customer satisfaction and continuous quality improvement activities relevant to conferences, and management of required risk mitigation documentation for all adult and youth residential programs.

Stanford Conferences, working in partnership with Student Housing, Stanford Dining and Stanford Hospitality & Auxiliaries and other key business partners and leveraging on resources on the Stanford campus, successfully hosts 125 plus residential conference groups during the summers and an additional 50 plus educational programs throughout the year through meeting planning and special event management. The division consists of (12) twelve full-time staff who have expertise in conference and event management and planning, customer service, administration, operations, financial management, sales and marketing. Students and temporary staff provide additional support to the Stanford Conferences Staff on an as needed basis.

Summary of Position

The Assistant Director, Program Development & Event Planning is responsible for developing and growing strategic programs to generate revenue across R&DE and plan events that advance R&DE business objectives and initiatives. The position will recommend for approval by the Director, Program Development & Risk Mitigation and/or be assigned programs and events for which the incumbent is responsible for providing, often in partnership with key collaborators, all levels of development, planning and execution, including program content, budget development, contracts, site selection, logistics planning and coordination, marketing and collateral development, on-site management, post-event follow-up, and billing.  The general purpose of this job is to advance the objectives and initiatives of R&DE through the development, planning, and execution of strategic events and programs. The Assistant Director, Program Development & Event Planning reports to the Director, Program Development & Risk Mitigation and partners with key positions at all levels, internal and external to R&DE, to strategically align with the mission and vision of Stanford Conferences and R&DE.

In addition to regular Program Development responsibilities, the Assistant Director, Program Development & Event Planning serves as the Meeting Planner for key R&DE events, including All-Hands meetings, holiday and recognition events, retreats, and events to advance important business and educational initiatives.  This role provides expertise in event and meeting planning to lead key stakeholders in R&DE events through best practices during the planning and execution of events.  Additional duties assigned to the Assistant Director, Program Development & Event Planning include overseeing prospective client inquiry processes for potential meeting planning business, supervision of staff, distribution of project assignments, assessing staff workloads and aligning support for staff as needed.

This role is currently designated as hybrid and may provide incumbents with flexibility for partial telecommuting.

CORE DUTIES:

·       Conceptualize, develop, plan, and execute programs and events that generate revenue for R&DE businesses through strategic use of resources.

·       Identify and recommend new business opportunities to enhance current and/or capture new revenue streams, and strategically plan, implement and execute new business operations and service offerings as directed.

·       Oversee the selection, hiring, training, and placement of SHOSC summer student staff. Determine and develop appropriate staffing for developed programs. Supervise program staff.

·       Provide meeting planning services and serve as team lead for R&DE hosted events, University-hosted events requiring R&DE coordination, and residential summer programs.

·       Work with the Director, Program Development & Risk Mitigation to formulate and implement business strategies and plans that provide comprehensive event planning packages to university departments, R&DE, Stanford Medical Center and other target markets (including business strategies and plans for program development for those and other strategic markets).

·       Manage staff in the day-to-day operations for functional area(s) of responsibility. Responsible for hiring and retaining staff, career coaching, personal development for direct reports and accountable for the performance of employees. Ensure work completion within schedule and constraints.

·       Provide strategic leadership for the creation, development, and execution of events.

·       Build effective and focused event planning teams; create strong morale and team spirit.

·       Oversee the management of event teams and/or production consultants to produce quality, multi-faceted events and productions.

·       Work cross-departmentally to prepare and manage complex program budgets and ROI proposals.

·       Delegate both routine and important tasks and decisions, while assuming final responsibility for event logistics through effective team management.

·       Frequently interact with subordinate supervisors, customers, and/or functional peer group managers, normally involving matters between functional areas or other schools, departments/units.

·       Analyze successes and failures and implement improvements; marshal resources to accomplish goals.

·       Scope the length and difficulty of tasks, projects, and events; help team break down work into process steps. Identify opportunities for synergy and integration.

·       Develop on-going relationships with internal and external partners.