2016 was a tough year for venue duties. The single venue liaison officer was working with a new venue, and largely with the unknown. We hope that 2017 and the run-up will be easier, now that we have a good working relationship with the Novotel London West (which we hope will be our 2017 venue). However, we have a new contract to negotiate, and lots of (mostly small) issues to fix. In the best interests of the convention, we also consider each year whether an alternative venue would be more appropriate.
We would like to have a team of two to take responsibility for venue, to build in some redundancy, share the workload, and spread the valuable experience to be gained from organising venue from end to end. Our 2016 Venue Liaison will continue in post for 2017, with a view to sharing tasks with and training a deputy, who could perhaps take over in future years if things work out. All the venue-related tasks will be shared between the Venue Liaison and Deputy as appropriate.
Necessary
You will need:
- An interest in events management - whether from a fandom or a career perspective.
- To be a confident and competent communicator - in writing and in person.
- To be willing to work as part of a team - Nine Worlds is built on teamwork. You need to be ready to work closely with the Venue Liaison, the venue events team, the Nine Worlds management team, and the rest of the organisation as required.
- Basic spreadsheet skills - Many of the venue records are kept and updated in spreadsheets.
- The capacity to read a venue contract end to end - Training on the legal and commercial aspects of contract negotiation and management is available, but you need to be able to read basic contractual documents without fear.
- Daily access to an internet-connected computer - All of our organising is carried out on-line, partly from necessity as it's difficult to get everyone in one place. We may be able to loan laptops or Chromebooks to volunteers for the duration of their role in organising the 2017 event. You will need to have daily access to the internet, and be prepared to keep in close touch with the Venue Liaison and the management team. Daily communication isn’t always necessary, but we do need to know that you’re still engaged and working on things. Weekly check-ins are likely to be expected, although we can of course accommodate breaks if you let us know in advance. We don’t expect you to log in to Slack from your beach lounger!
- The time and capacity to carry out allocated tasks - See below for details
We anticipate that the two busiest periods for this role will be October and November 2016 (venue consideration, finance planning, contract negotiations, and communications following contract finalisation), and from around May to August 2017 (the run-up and convention itself). The first few weeks in role are likely to be fairly intense, with 5-6 hours of most weeks to be spent on the above tasks.
Between November and May there will still be some involvement, particularly arranging and possibly attending site visits, recording findings, and liaising with content, tech and the rest of the management team on everything related to venue. 3-4 hours most weeks should be enough during this period, although it’s wise to allocate a full afternoon for any site visits you are able to attend. These usually take place at weekends.
Pre-con tasks begin to ramp up around May. They are likely to include managing the organiser accommodation arrangements; agreeing and communicating programme room layouts and changeovers with the hotel events team, tech, and content; working with the designer on hotel maps; clarifying and communicating management team queries with the hotel; providing venue content for publications; answering venue-related queries on social media; and any other venue-related tasks. The time commitment will increase accordingly; beginning with 3-4 hours of most weeks in May and going up to around 8-10 hours per week in late July.
Your role at the convention will mean long hours (up to 10 hours per day) but is likely to be a lot of fun. Ideally we would like you to arrive on Thursday morning and leave on Monday afternoon, but cover for these periods can be discussed with the Venue Liaison if this is not possible. You will be expected to take shifts to be agreed with the Venue Liaison, to liaise extensively with the hotel event team; check room setups and assist the access officer and ops team with any adjustments; assist with any accommodation-related queries (e.g. any issues with organisers or attendees check-in); deal with any venue issues; help cover the information desk; cover the ops and/or tech channels on the organiser radio and carry out any other tasks that become necessary. We try to accommodate any volunteer who has a desire to attend particular programme items at the convention, and work their shifts accordingly. So you don’t have to miss your favourite(s).
Although you need to be aware of the time requirements of this role, the Venue Liaison will be able to assist with balancing the workload and ensuring that you can meet your other commitments.
We expect to have several meetings with the hotel over the course of the year. In-person attendance at these is not absolutely necessary, but you are likely to gain the most experience by attending if at all possible. Venue meetings normally last an hour, although you should expect to be on site for up to an hour either side of that. Sometimes it is unavoidable that these meetings take place during weekday working hours. We try not to ask you to give up your vacation time unless absolutely necessary (e.g. for the convention itself), so if this happens you may not need to attend.
The Nine Worlds management team also meets up regularly, although this can be done via Skype or Google Hangouts rather than in person. Management meetings usually last up to 3 hours, and take place in London during a weekday evening (likely Monday) approximately monthly between now and around March next year; then weekly until the convention begins. You would not be required to attend every meeting, but some presence would be expected; (whether on-line or in person).
Desirable
- Events management experience - Voluntary or paid work both count. This experience would be very valuable, but it can certainly be gained or extended by volunteering in this role
- Understanding of barriers to inclusion faced by marginalised groups - Membership of a marginalised or disadvantaged group counts as lived experience.
- Experience with Slack, Trello and Google Apps - Introductory training can be provided if necessary.
Reimbursement and justification
We expect this voluntary role to be taken up by people who are not professional event organisers in their day jobs, who would find volunteering for this interesting, personally rewarding and valuable for the Nine Worlds community. This role brings you into contact with almost everyone involved in the convention. It’s hard work, but also extremely rewarding, and you are likely to make friends for life.
In order to accommodate the requirements of this role, we expect to offer the deputy venue liaison a weekend membership to the convention, and a space in shared accommodation either at or near the convention hotel, from Thursday night until Monday morning. We may also be able to reimburse travel expenses. We are also happy to write appropriate references for our volunteers.
If you'd like to ask about or apply for this role, get in touch at jobs@nineworlds.co.uk. There's more information on applying on the main vacancies page.