University of California Los Angeles
Requisition Number: 35656
Salary: $4,600 – $11,183 monthly
Position Description:
Conference & Catering Event Managers (CCEM) primary responsibility is to support the UCLA Campus Community by providing professional meeting and planning guidance and execution of events, conferences and catering within the Housing & campus event venues. CCEM are responsible for generating and coordinating approximately $2M to $5M in annual revenues that roll into the $30M+ total revenue generated by the department for Housing & Hospitality. Business Volume for the department consists of executing year-round residential conferences in the Luskin hotel, handling of summer conference group bookings with varying arrival/departure patterns, and myriad of meetings, events and catering deliveries to the campus. The revenue generated within the 100,000+ square feet of meeting space and yield of 15,000+ bed space inventory along with venues across the campus supports the overall mission of being a resource to campus and supporting business continuity of Housing & Hospitality. The annual revenue assist in off-setting student housing costs, provides additional income for facility improvements, ensures year-round business continuity, and furthermore helping Housing and Hospitality to maintain a consistent year round workforce. In addition, ancillary revenue generated goes to supports many other revenue generating UCLA Departments, UCLA’s academic missions, as well as the broader UCLA Campus Community.
The CCEM, also plans and supports sales initiatives on behalf of UCLA Hospitality, which includes domestic and international travel to attend industry trade shows, distinguished industry networking events, participate in lead generation efforts, follow up on leads and execute other sales activities as necessary to sustain annual growth projections. The CCEM will collaborate with managers from other Housing & Hospitality units to support the efforts of revenue generation with other sister properties such as Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, Luskin Conference Center along with other UCLA campus entities and the University of California. The CCEM will be expected to set up and lead on-site visits with future and prospective clients, develop proposals that include theme delineation, decor, menu and service requirements, sleeping room blocks and other detailed budget projections, negotiate contracts, act as day of manager along with Banquet Captains for catered events/group check-ins and maintain regular communication with all clients.
The CCEM will service both existing accounts and new clients. Maintain organized detailed records of accounts within physical and digital files, as well as coordinating group needs while on-site. Ensuring data regarding all conference, catering and event details are entered into the Salesforce Sales and Catering software application to include the merger of contracts, tracking due dates and deadlines, producing group resumes and recording all client communications. The CCEM is expected to distribute all pertinent client details to on-campus partners, accounting, vendors, campus service providers and any third party vendors that support the group’s conference or event.
Finally, the CCEM will be expected to assist the Accounting Department with billing and collections to include purchasing, managing internal/external vendor charges and account reconciliation.
The CCEM is directly supervised by the Director and will assist in the hiring and assigning of work to student coordinators as needed. The incumbents’ performance is reviewed on a weekly basis, as well as in a formal written evaluation annually. The CCEM will provide weekly reports for review with the Director. Additional metrics include Salesforce activity reports and customer service survey results.