Blackbird is looking to hire an Events Specialist to elevate our in-person and virtual experiences. We are big believers in Danny Meyer’s concept of ‘enlightened hospitality’ - so much so that it’s become one of our core Blackbird operating principles. Having hospitality at the heart of everything we do includes an obsession with creating great customer experiences. We are looking for someone who treats our founders, our investors and our team as customers and enjoys crafting peak moments and delightful experiences for them at each Blackbird event.

We are looking for someone who is an execution machine, and who thrives on the energy and the chaos of organising and hosting events. Someone who can pull the bigger picture into focus with events project management and creative direction, but also be deep in the weeds when it comes to the on-the-ground execution of each event. 

About the Role

The Events Specialist will work with both the Building Blackbird Team hosting internal events, and the Founder Success Team hosting external events. This will include:

• Sunrise Australia and Sunrise Aotearoa.
  Blackbird’s annual Sunrise festival is our love letter to Founders. The point of Sunrise isn’t to create just another tech conference, it’s a chance to create a meaningful shared experience, one that sticks with our audience and influences them to do great things in the world. You will support our Sunrise team on executing two annual events, in Sydney and Auckland. 

• Founder and Operator Events.
  We believe founders are the best people to help other founders and so we’re always looking to drive founder-to-founder connection through our events, including quarterly founder dinners and operator dinners across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. The Founder Success Team will provide you with the calendar and budget and you’ll make these happen in a uniquely Blackbird way.

• Blackbird’s Team Offsites.
  As a remote-first team, our Quarterly Blackbird Offsites are more important than ever. You’ll help book venues, organise catering, organise activities and manage the run sheet on the day, making each of our offsites more epic than the last.

• Blackbird’s Annual Investor Day.
  Without our investors, none of the magic at Blackbird can happen. We host an annual Investor Day to showcase the wild hearts of our portfolio, with hundreds of attendees. You will bring your creativity and ideas to elevating this event beyond what is expected, turning it into something truly memorable. 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the above events have been hosted virtually in recent years due to COVID. We’ll need you to pivot in person events into high octane, engaging virtual events when necessary.

You’ll also be responsible for crafting a Blackbird Events Playbook - a knowledge-sharing platform to empower our broader team to run smaller events in the Blackbird style.

Position Requirements

Your background is less important than the key skills, which include:

• Superhost. You don’t just love organising events, you love attending them. You’re the first to arrive and the last to leave, and are happy to be the go-to person throughout.

• Execution-focused, detail-oriented. An event is the sum of many parts, and you take pride in perfecting each of those little parts. You are a checklister and love the satisfaction of executing events with precision.

• Ownership mentality. You’ll have experience owning events from ideation to packing up the venue. No job is too big or too small for you to execute. You have experience owning event budgets of all sizes and running multiple events at a time. 

• Hustle. You know your way around a vendor negotiation and can create an impactful event on any budget.

• Production know-how. You have a minimum of 3 years experience as an events manager, having run small events (10 pax) and large events (1,500 pax). You can plan and execute all aspects of an event including bump in, bump out, production management, catering, documentation, evaluation and more. . You have good general technical knowledge including audio, lighting and visuals.

Eyes up mentality. You’ll listen with all senses and customise experiences - always hearing, looking, listening to see what's going on.

Working at Blackbird:

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home or leaving early to pick up the kids from daycare or school.

• Generous parental leave: We know family comes first and we are proud to offer generous parental leave - 16 weeks for primary carer and 6 weeks for a secondary carer, subject to a 12-month minimum tenure. This includes a continuation of superannuation payments while on unpaid parental leave and a supportive return-to-work policy.

• Learning & Development Budget: Our team is hungry to continuously learn and you’ll receive a budget to spend on whatever you’d like to learn - from coding courses to meditation, to enable your continued learning & self-development.

• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.

• A share of Blackbird’s success: We think it is important to share successes with the whole team. All Blackbird employees receive carry in our funds and are owners in the management company.

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member — we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community, with a focus on greater gender diversity in STEM education.