Operations (Ops, or Experience if they work for Terrapinn)
Book the venue, liaise with suppliers, (sometimes they book photographers, but sometimes that’s done by Marketing) The best ones are glacially calm and unflappable problem solvers, the others don’t last long. Ranked third most stressful job in the world in a 2023 study.
Conference Producer
In charge of the contents of the conference agenda, actually have to understand the industry sector and its issues, unlike the other roles who simply have to understand who sells to whom and why. Usually to be found in the conference room. Good shots of their opening remarks always go down well, and that’s important as they’re often the next MD.
Marketing
Get people to come to the event, and/or sponsor it, often via bulk email campaigns. (tho things get funkier for consumer shows.) Usually borderline exploited in terms of in-office workload.
May well be on-site running a social media feed or similar, whilst also building a website for a different event and putting together a confprom campaign for a third.
Delegate Sales
Get people to come to the event. Also known as Audience Development or some such if the people come for free. Might be onsite if they’re fulfilling some kind of other role, other than that should be in the office, where they are never on the phone enough for anyone’s liking.
Spex Sales/Sponsorship Manager
Get people to sponsor or exhibit at the event. Will be at the event to make sure their clients are happy and meeting the right people, i.e. to make sure the promises they made about the audience are fulfilled and seen to be fulfilled.
Have a sort of buddy-cop-movie relationship with Marketing “Of course, y’know, I do all the work…” “F*ck you man, I do all the work…” etc etc.1
- Marketing do all the work ↩︎
