Leadership Events Planner

**Job Purpose**:
The role will proactively lead all aspects of planning and organisation to support the leadership development programmes in the Performance & Development team. This is a varied role that involves planning and delivering all elements of residential and virtual leadership programmes and events.

**What you'll do**:
**Coordination & Administration**
- Proactively lead all leadership programme organisation, including but not limited to:

- Arranging meetings with National Grid stakeholders and programme partners (external suppliers).
- Arranging external partner group workshops.
- Arranging virtual development sessions and meetings.
- Preparing and delivering communications, including rapid responses and solutions to questions and queries arising from any communications.
- Build relationships with programme partners to understand how they are contributing to the programme, and what needs to be taken into consideration to land their programme elements effectively.
- Establish relationships with the key administration contacts for all partners to be able to effectively arrange meetings for all parties involved.
- Recognise the nuances around all aspects of the design, partners, stakeholders, measures and intentions around the leadership programmes to be able to plan and organise effectively.
- Map internal National Grid stakeholders and understand who all stakeholders and their PAs are (if appropriate) to organise meetings quickly and effectively across global time zones.
- Ensuring that programme coordination and administration makes clear reference to the specific programme, any programme branding, and that meetings/invites contain notes to ensure clarity for all involved.
- Ensuring any required collateral is fit for purpose, prepared/ordered, and ready to provide onsite or virtually across the leadership programmes.
- Creating a people directory for separate cohorts on leadership programmes.
- Collating, grouping and high level analysis of feedback e.g. Mentimeter and other feedback approaches.
- Reviewing LinkedIn Learning content that might be used to support content for programmes, shortlisting this for programme stakeholders to review.
- Keep aligned with the National Grid finance team throughout to ensure costs are as expected.
- Recharging programme costs to the relevant cost centres of the participants.
- Partnering with Accenture (National Grid’s Managed Service Provider) to ensure that leadership programmes are delivered against requirements. This involves:

- Supporting the set
- up of Scopes of Work and contracts.

**Venue Event Planning**
- Event management planning with potential to support delivery onsite at residential connect points where required.
- Partnering with National Grid’s venue booking agent Agiito, as well as venue-specific booking and planning teams.
- Ensuring dates and locations for residential elements of programmes work for programme partners and participants. Our programmes range in complexity - there are multiple venue requirements across global locations for each programme.
- Tracking finances and ensuring costs are aligned with programme projections. Noticing where there may be discrepancies and raising potential issues with P&D team stakeholders as required.
- Ensuring that the appropriate rooms are selected and secured for participants, partners and National Grid stakeholders for daytime and evening events at programmes.
- Coordinating accommodation for participants, partners and National Grid stakeholders.
- This will include; creating rooming lists, ensuring continuity of rooms for participants and highlighting any VIP’s
- Coordinating dining options for the residential elements of programmes
- This will include; booking lunches and liaising with any restaurants that we may be using for evening dining. Sending out menu choices and logging responses, chasing responses to meet deadlines, and checking allergy and dietary queries with the venues.
- Ensuring the venue will deliver against all our standard requirements as agreed with them, as well as confirming the venue has our requests for any additional requirements

**What you'll have**:

- Proactivity and tenacity. The Leadership Events Planner will often take the lead with decisions and hold others to account to ensure that all activities are completed in a way that makes sense across complex programmes, and evolving requirements.
- Strong attention to detail. For example, if ‘Teams’ meetings are set up for participants where the Leadership Events Planner is not anticipated to attend themselves, ensuring that in the ‘meeting options’, all attendees can bypass the lobby and get straight on the call.
- Accountability - holding self to account for the smooth running of leadership programmes and being available behind the scenes where required to ensure elements that have been set up and run as intended.
- Strong customer-service focus throughout all work activities, building credibility to be