Registration Specialist, Signature Events

How You’ll Contribute

The Advancement team cultivates, solicits, and stewards individuals, as well as foundation, government and corporate partners who invest in the Society to drive impact through science, technology, education, exploration, and storytelling. The team collaborates with Society teams – and often works closely with NGP/Disney – to build transformative and impact-driven strategic partnerships. The team also produces global events that deepen connections and leverage the Society’s power to convene, and directs robust annual, major and planned giving programs empowering the Society with a broad base of public support.

The Global Special Events team of the National Geographic Society is responsible for developing and producing high quality, impactful events that use the power of convening to drive programmatic outcomes, further visibility for our executives, programs, and talent, and build donor loyalty and philanthropic support. The Event Registration Specialist, Signature Events is accountable for spearheading all facets of the attendee registration experience for our Signature events, bringing our community together for large scale multi day experiences. The Specialist will collaborate across multiple departments to build complex registration websites and registration forms, generating and compiling invitation and RSVP lists, creating comprehensive data reporting, and coordinating attendee management while providing first-class customer service to stakeholders and attendees pre-event and on site. The specialist will also manage Explorer travel, working with the NGS finance team, travel agencies and hotels to arrange accommodations, per diem payments and relevant stipends for speakers and hosted grantees traveling to our events. The Specialist should have a deep understanding of how data can enhance a guest’s experience and provide analytics that help the team elevate future experiences of our attendees.

Your Impact

Responsibilities Include:

Event Registration and Data Management (50%)

• Act as Global Special Events subject matter expert for National Geographic Society Swoogo account.
• Responsible for working with Advancement Operations and program teams to compile invitation lists for events.
• Build and maintain complex registration sites and deploy invitations primarily using the Swoogo platform. Complex sites could include 30+ audience types, conditional logic, multiple versions of invitations, virtual events and complex session builds.
• Independently build and generate event website information pages, invitations, follow up emails, RSVP reports and event metric reports based on individual event needs to share with internal partners and hosts.
• Work with the team to build post event surveys and after action reports using qualitative and quantitative data that provide relevant insights for future projects.
• Manage onsite registration experience, overseeing staff and attendee check in, troubleshooting attendee needs, and acting as the primary point of contact for vendor support.
• Mange the name badge printing process with production agency.
• Collaborate regularly with the Advancement Operations team and Advancement Special Events Registration Specialist to ensure data collection is properly stored and relayed to Raiser's Edge.
• Explore new technologies and industry best practices to implement that will improve the team’s registration processes, engagement tactics and onsite experience for guests at events.

Marketing and Communications (25%)

• Ability to draft cross-departmental approval grids to review all copy related to the event and develop initial drafts, including initial invitations, promotional website pages and other event marketing content to promote event participation.
• Develop and route invitations and copy documents, compiling approved language for invitations and websites and ensuring all interested parties have signed off.
• Regularly and clearly communicate agreed upon planning updates and attendee data.
• Distribute regular reports internally to major stakeholders about progress against goals.
• Work enthusiastically and collaboratively with colleagues to ensure the strategic goals of each event and the Society are met.
• Provide all guests with clear communication from confirmation and plan-your-visit emails.
• Provide personalized travel and event itineraries for event attendees as needed.
• Communicate directly with attendees to answer questions and address special needs.

Travel Management (20%)

• Setup events with American Express Travel to book international travel for up to 150 Explorers per event.
• Approve flights and track costs for overall budget management.
• Manage hotel rooming list and communicate changes to hotel, reconcile bill and act as week of contact.
• Arrange travel per diems and relevant stipends for Explorers, collecting advance paperwork and working with finance to process requests before events.

Team Administration (5%)

• Managing invoice tracking and processing for signature events.
• Ensure signature events are accurate represented in the Global Special Events team calendars.
• Production support for events and team as needed.
• Manage the events team email inbox responding promptly to attendee inquiries.

Educational Background

Bachelor’s degree preferred.

Minimum Years and Type of Experience

3+ years of event marketing experience. Experience working in Event Management platforms leading complex builds for large (500+ attendee) events.

What You’ll Bring:

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• Experience working in Swoogo, Cvent or similar platforms for events
• Business writing and marketing experience
• Strong attention to detail and organizational skills with excellent follow through
• Ability to work independently and as part of a highly collaborative team
• Proactive, self-starter and active problem solver
• Some evening and weekend hours required in addition to some domestic and international travel (up to 10%)

Desired Qualifications

• Ability to prioritize workload proactively and expeditiously
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative, troubleshoot issues anticipate needs and exercise independent/sound judgment
• Strong interpersonal skills, able to build relationships with external and internal stakeholders
• Technology Fluency with basic office platforms (MS office, G suite, Adobe, Slack) and the ability to learn and evaluate new event technology platforms comfortably.
• A detailed and analytical mind, ability to read and understand how to present data to drive decision making
• Experience in an attendee or customer facing role with diverse audiences
• Experience in and knowledge of event marketing and registration systems
• Ability to deliver results with managing competing priorities under tight deadlines
• Project management skills

Supervision

No direct reports

Salary Information

The National Geographic Society offers a competitive and holistic total rewards package. Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry-specific market data for similar-sized nonprofit organizations.

The salary range for this position accounts for a wide range of factors including but not limited to organizational need; specific skill sets; experience and training; certifications; and more. At the National Geographic Society, individuals are typically hired at or near the starting point of the salary range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

The salary range for this position is $61,700 - $65,000.

In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, and vision insurance; engaging and comprehensive wellness program; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment; flexible paid time off benefits with up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated based on the number of pay periods remaining in the year) and 10 days of sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31; paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility benefits; learning and development opportunities; Lifestyle Spending Account; pet adoption assistance and insurance; pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy; employer-paid life insurance and disability benefit; and a variety of National Geographic discounts and perks.

Job Designation

Resident - Our Resident category recognizes that certain staff need to be physically present at Base Camp to do their work. Some Resident staff must be at Base Camp every day to do their jobs, while others may only need to be physically present onsite some of the time to meet looming deadlines or to get work done and may require a unique schedule. As such, this category has been revised to provide maximum flexibility depending on what’s required for each individual role. The days Resident staff come into the office will be determined by their teams and workflow, and they should work with their supervisors to determine their specific schedule. And throughout the year, their schedule may be adjusted based on cyclical work cycles, deadlines, and/or ebbs and flows of work.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

We encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.