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Position Summary

The Director of Programs is responsible for the Chamber’s events and speaker programming.  Management of designated Chamber partners is also a key role.  Management of the Chamber’s events include planning and execution of two major awards programs (ranging in size from 100 to 1,000 attendees) and approximately 15 signature and C-Suite events (ranging in size from 40 to 200 attendees.) In addition, the Chamber holds approximately 35-40 virtual meetings the Director plans and executes at a variety of levels.

To be successful in this role, the candidate will need to learn the issues of the membership and aligned expert speakers.  The role requires attention to detail and simultaneous work on multiple programs. Candidates must be comfortable working in a small-staff environment, at a fast pace, well in advance of program deliverables and dates.  In addition, the role also supervises a program coordinator.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Awards Program Management
  • Act as principal liaison to all Awards Program planning and nominating committees
    • Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards
    • Distinguished Service Awards
    • Annual Members Meeting
  • Plan, schedule, facilitate and organize all tasks related to the Awards Programs including:
    • Planning the timeline of tasks.
    • Managing the nominations process.
    • Managing the judging process.
    • Ensuring all sponsor deliverables are met.
    • Writing, editing, and coordinating all elements of the event script and run-of-show.
    • Vendor management.
    • Award acquisition.
    • Experience with OpenWater a plus.

• Program Development and Events
  • Develop events and programs for the Chamber, identifying relevant and timely topics.
  • Speaker management to include:
    • Identification of knowledgeable and diverse speakers.
    • Invitation and acceptance tracking.
    • Question development and speaker preparation.
    • Strategic goals are in place around speaker diversity.
  • Work with Chamber partners as the liaison on Chamber partnered programming. Current Partners include:
    • Professional Services Council (PSC)
    • Northern Virginia Community College
    • Northern Virginia Community Foundation
    • Others to be determined for Foundation activities (GWAN, Workforce Network).
    • Establish agreements with assistance as needed from VP, Finance and Administration.
  • Facilitating meetings with volunteer planning committees and liaisons as required.
  • Management and execution of event production tasks, primarily in-person and occasionally virtual events.
  • Day-of event production.
  • Responsible for drafting of scripts and run-of-show.
  • Writing compelling event summaries and event titles for use in marketing of events.

• Other
  • Expense management and budget responsibility for all events.
  • Vendor management (when appropriate).
  • Site visits to know what inventory or locations is available to hold events including restaurants for C-Suite Roundtables.
  • Responsible for holding and conducting weekly production meetings.
  • Other duties as assigned.

Essential Skills:

• The ideal candidate will be a deadline driven systems thinker who sees the big picture of how the Chamber’s activities and programs fit together to support the member ecosystem.
• The ability to understand the purpose of each event and to write clear, concise, and compelling event titles and descriptions is essential.
• Keen attention to detail.
• Project management.

Additional valued experience:

• Experience working a in small-staff, fast-paced environments is a plus
• Prior Chamber experience a plus
• Experience hosting virtual events via Zoom a plus
• CMP Preferred

About Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce

The Northern Virginia Chamber is a small-staff nonprofit organization consisting of 9 full-time staff serving the diverse business community of Northern Virginia with over 15,000 local business leaders actively participating in the events and activities of the chamber over the course of a year. We are the largest Chamber in the region by both annual revenue and number of corporate members.  We are a regional chamber with significant member segments in technology, government contractors, nonprofit organizations, banking, and professional services across Northern Virginia.  

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