Events Co-coordinator / Marketing Assistant
An exciting opportunity for a full time Events Coordinator / Public Opening Manager with experience in Social Media on a maternity cover basis.
Highclere castle has become well known as the location of the successful TV series Downton Abbey and attracts thousands of visitors and many events throughout the year. Highclere is also a working estate with its own farming and property management businesses.
This is a varied role with the main responsibilities including and not limited to: working alongside the Public Opening Assistant, updating risk assessments, data inputting into our CMS system and invoicing when required, diary management, visitor bookings, telephone and written enquiries and customer support. The Events Coordinator/Public Opening Manager is also responsible for compiling annual public opening figures and dates for the years ahead through to the marketing and sale of the tickets. This will include website testing and overseeing the smooth running of tickets sales.
The ideal candidate will be an enthusiastic, well organised, and self-motivated person who will work well as part of a team in a busy office environment. It is essential that the candidate has good communication skills, both written and verbal, and is confident and competent working with a variety of computer software. They will be required to work public holidays and weekends during the busy public opening season which runs through the Spring and Summer months.
Applicants should enjoy working in an environment where no two days are the same.
The successful candidate will be joining a wonderful team that are enthusiastic and passionate about the beautiful place and heritage of the Castle.
Duties include:
- Working alongside the Public Opening Assistant
- The ongoing updating of risk assessments
- Currently responsible for overseeing events such as the Winter Castle Opening, Literature & Landscape week in May and The Easter Egg Hunt
- Liaising with London Hotels with the sale of tickets for guests, providing vouchers and invoicing.
- The main port of call for tours, organising their group allocations for the year ahead and any advertising/promotional materials. This includes book signing and shipping.
- Good knowledge of invoicing for visitors, clients.
- Liaising with marketing on any website changes and organising any training required.
- Updating the main Castle website wording/images as and when required
- Good knowledge of the CMS/Database systems for data inputting and dealing with IT issues and invoicing
- Diary Management
- Managing Visitor and Coach Bookings via the CMS booking system
- Dealing with telephone and written enquiries
- Overseeing any complaints efficiently and professionally
- Compiling and composing public opening and related event figures and dates for the years ahead using Excel.
- Marketing and overseeing the sale of tickets
- Providing the IT department with the marketing materials such as event and ticket wording, pricing and figures to include testing before going live.
- Managing Facebook messages and posts daily.
- Liaising alongside the public opening assistant with the design and printing of the Spring and Summer leaflets.
- Assists with organising the fire drills for the Castle guides
- Liaising with the head guide on any public opening concerns that may need addressing to ensure smooth running.
- Overseeing the ‘walk around’ prior to opening to visitors to ensure the Castle and Garden routes are safe and looking good for visitors.
- Being the first port of call for first aid when open to visitors to include use of radios
- Overseeing the sale of Afternoon Tea and dealing with enquiries
Qualifications and experience required for this role:
- Previous experience in a similar role essential
- Ability to learn quickly
- Attention to detail and highly numerate
- Ability to prioritise, manage own workload and work under pressure
- “Can Do” attitude
- Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
- Able to work to deadlines and to be adaptable to change
- Enthusiasm to provide the highest quality service at all times
- Computer literate with sound knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word and Excel to perform required tasks.