HOSPITALITY DIRECTOR

Job Summary

The Hospitality Director is responsible for managing the Conferencing and Coordination of a Conference Center.  This position will oversee professional and frontline employees. The Director will ensure all services are being delivered to the Client in a timely, efficient and professional manner. The Director strives to achieve a consistently outstanding level of quality through the effective utilization of available facilities and services as well sets service excellence standards through leading by example. They also set the tone for a positive and inclusive work environment. This is a high-level senior position, and the applicant will need to have a minimum of 5 years Event planning and execution and the highest level. CMP degree or MPI affiliation is a plus.

Key Responsibilities:

• Direct the actions and work side by side with event planners on organizing, directing and executing daily/evening functions
• Oversee the strategic booking of space within the reservation system, to ensure maximum utilization of the facilities
• Resolve booking challenges relating to space, timing, seniority issues, etc.
• Developing and constantly updating forecasts of meeting room occupancy and utilization, providing information upon which key budget and staffing decisions are made for various members of the staff. 
• Perform succession associate development, planning, coaching and counseling
• Ensures that appropriate standard operating procedures are in place for all conference center functions
• Ensuring the timely preparation, by self and event planners, of complete documentation for large/complex events
• Conducting daily and weekly Planning Meetings attended by the operations staff, reviewing the details of events scheduled for the following day and next week, ensuring correct interpretation by staff members of clients’ requirements and anticipating any possible operational challenges.
• Scheduling the event planners and front-line team on a weekly basis, so as to best meet the needs of the business.  Similarly, coordinating vacations and personal time off for all team members.
• Provide progressive counseling to team members with guidance from senior directors.
• Accountable for benchmarking customer service, customer interface including meet and greets, and overall performance of conference services.
• Carrying out and or overseeing the implementation of necessary administrative duties as required.
• Works very closely with client co-vendors to ensure that all requests are entered into the reservation system and executed successfully
• Maintains customer service training content and constantly looks for ways to improve guides, manuals and training procedures.
• Participating in daily and weekly planning meetings, reviewing the details of events which he or she has been working on, answering questions from staff members, and discussing relevant logistical matters
• Participating in pre-and-post event meetings involving key stakeholders, as well as relevant members of the operations staff, when plans for complex and/or large-scale events are being finalized to ensure a complete understanding of everyone’s part of the requirements
• Quickly identifying booking conflicts or potential booking conflicts and suggesting solutions.
• Develop positive relationships with all clients and co-vendors
• Providing the senior directors with occupancy and utilization statistics regarding meetings held and guests in attendance, on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. 
• Monitoring and ensuring the accuracy of catering and other charges, including cancellation charges, entered into the Reservation System.
• Responsible for staffing activities for frontline employees, professional staff and management. These activities include sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates, as well as maintaining a candidate pipeline
• Responsible for effective onboarding/orientation and associate file management including state and federal logs
• Responsible for providing data points and presenting findings in Quarterly Business Review

Key Competencies:

• Must have a minimum of five years of events management work experience (planning and execution)
• Excellent organizational and administrative skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks
• Ability to carry out responsibilities with little supervision, as well as juggle many tasks simultaneously
• A consistently professional approach, including a strong sense of self- respect and integrity, as well as respect for and interest in others.
• Ability to manage and mentor a diverse work force, providing associates with ongoing training and other opportunities for career development
• Team mindset and ability to work with wide variety of personality types
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Strong computer skills and knowledge of office technology/equipment
• Proficient with conference room reservation/space management systems
• Punctual, dependable and dedicated to achieving operational excellence, down to the smallest of details
• Discreet, ethical and committed to maintaining a high degree of confidentiality
• Ability to think strategically in terms of both short-term and long-term objectives and challenges
• A mindset to take responsibility within and outside one’s job domain. Relevant competencies would include self-confidence, willingness to learn and feeling comfortable with change and coordinating change.
• Basic knowledge of Human Resources principles
• Relevant competencies would include self-confidence, willingness to learn and feeling comfortable with change and coordinating change
• Demonstrating an appropriate level of assertiveness, with an ability to drive the business forward on an ongoing basis
• Three to five years of supervisory experience