Director of Conference & Events - InterContinental Brisbane

As the world's largest family of luxury hotels, we all take great pride in being genuine ambassadors of the InterContinental® brand.

Shaped by decades of international know-how and local insights, our passion for luxury travel spans cultures and customs. Inspiring us to create warm and sophisticated experiences for those seeking a richer perspective on the world.

If you’d like to embrace a world of opportunities, we’d like to welcome you to the world’s most international luxury hotel brand.

Nestled in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, InterContinental Hotel Brisbane will open to guests this winter, offering 321 spacious hotel rooms and suites, all day dining restaurant and lobby bar, outdoor pool, fitness centre and Club Lounge, all in a prime location above Queen Street Mall, perfect for exploring the city’s top attractions. With over 1800 square metres of meeting and events spaces, InterContinental Brisbane offers versatile function rooms and a Grand Ballroom catering for up to 1000 guests, making it a great choice for business and leisure events alike.

As the Director of Conference & Events, you're in charge of the strategic direction, management, and top-line revenues for all hotel events. You'll be responsible for working directly with the Culinary team and Event Operations team in building a clear and credible vision for the department. You'll align with Director of Sales & Marketing and Director of Food & Beverage to achieve strategic goals and maximize revenues while being the liaison between the event space, restaurant and hotel rooms.

A little taste of your day-to-day

Every day is different, but as part of our team, you will play a key role in:

• Being the key link between teams and departments to drive collaboration, plan activity and create an environment where everyone can thrive
• Working with Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage to create and maintaining Banquet menus and other Marketing collaterals.
• Interacting effectively with internal stakeholders and vendors in order to ensure guest satisfaction
• Ensuring the implementation of a seamless turnover from sales to operations and back to sales while consistently delivering high level of service
• Knowledgeable of restaurant/hotel competitive set and recommends sales/pricing strategies, service and product improvements/up sell strategies to stay competitive.
• Conducting pre-event and post-event meetings to continually improve the client experience
• Developing and implementing strategic marketing initiatives and creative events to meet annual sales goals. 
• Implementing action plan to meet and exceed the budgeted sales goals.
• Actively participating in the sales lead/revenue generating process for the department.
• Ensuring that accurate and detailed notes/traces of accounts are maintained via system and database.
• Working closely with conference and event planners to build strong working relationships and ensuring successful and memorable client experiences as their key point of contact
• Providing mentorship, coaching, training and performance management to the Conference & Events Sales team.

What we need from you

• 5-8+ years’ experience in a hotel meetings and events setting, with at least 3 years of direct supervisory experience over a sales/events team
• Demonstrated of effective planning and executing high-profile events, including corporate, social, and private events
• Creativity and innovation to provide a unique and memorable event experiences for the clients.
• Problem-solving and crisis management skills to handle unexpected challenges during events
• Good business acumen and well versed of market trends
• Excellent negotiation, communication, flexible, creative and problem-solving skills 
• Good leadership, training and coaching skills
• Tertiary studies in event management, hospitality management or related field
• Fluent in the English language
• Impeccable grooming standards and good personal hygiene
• Full working rights in Australia without restrictions 

What you can expect from us

Join us and you’ll become part of the global IHG family – and like all families, all our individual team members share some winning characteristics. As a team, we work better together – we trust and support each other, we do the right thing, and we welcome different perspectives. You need to show us you care - that you notice the little things that make a difference to guests as well as always looking for ways to improve – in return we’ll reward all your hard work with a great salary and benefits – including accommodation, package benefits, great room discount and superb training. 

We are proud to be IHG and we know you will be too.  Visit http://careers.ihg.com/ to find out more about us.