Job Description

Conference & Catering Event Managers (CCEM) support the UCLA Campus Community by providing professional meeting and planning guidance and execution of events, conferences and catering within the Housing & campus event venues. CCEM are responsible for generating and coordinating approximately $2M to $5M in annual revenues that roll into the $30M+ total revenue generated by the department for Housing & Hospitality. Business Volume for the department consists of 100 summer contracts of 400 conference group bookings with varying arrival/departure patterns, approximately 3,000 catering delivery orders to the campus and 1,500 venue events. The revenue generated within the 80,000+ square feet of meeting space and yield of 12,000+ bed space inventory along with venues across the campus supports the overall mission of being a resource to campus and supporting business continuity of Housing & Hospitality. The annual revenue assist in off-setting student housing costs, provides additional income for facility improvements, ensures year-round business continuity, and furthermore helping Housing and Hospitality to maintain a consistent year round workforce. In addition, ancillary revenue generated goes to supports many other revenue generating UCLA Departments, UCLA’s academic missions, as well as the broader UCLA Campus Community.

The CCEM, plans and supports sales initiatives on behalf of UCLA Conferences & Catering, which includes domestic and international travel to attend industry trade shows, distinguished industry networking events, participate in lead generation efforts, follow up on leads and execute other sales activities as necessary to sustain annual growth projections. Additionally, the CCEM will collaborate with managers from other Housing & Hospitality units to support the efforts of revenue generation with other sister properties such as Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, Luskin Conference Center along with other UCLA campus entities and the University of California. The CCEM will be expected to set up and lead on-site visits with future and prospective clients, develop proposals that include theme delineation, décor, menu and service requirements, sleeping room blocks and other detailed budget projections, negotiate contracts, act as day of manager along with Banquet Captains for catered events/group check-ins and maintain regular communication with all clients.

The CCEM will service both existing accounts and new clients. Maintain organized detailed records of accounts within physical and digital files, as well as coordinating group needs while on-site. Ensuring data regarding all conference, catering and event details are entered into the Delphi Sales and Catering software application to include the merger of contracts, tracking due dates and deadlines, producing group resumes and recording all client communications. The CCEM is expected to distribute all pertinent client details to on-campus partners, accounting, vendors, campus service providers and any third party vendors that support the group’s conference or event.

Finally, the CCEM will be expected to assist the Accounting Department (Housing Services) with billing and collections to include purchasing, managing internal/external vendor charges and account reconciliation.

Job Qualifications

Ability to close sales and negotiate large dollar
volume financial contracts.
Required

Ability to read documents and orders written in
standard English text, such as conference
contracts.
Required

Skills in writing grammatically correct business correspondence such as conference proposals, routine correspondence and memorandums.
Required

Skills to speak in public to conduct sales presentations and site inspections.
Required

Skill in prioritizing and organizing assignments when faced with a heavy workload, deadlines and compelling requests for service.
Required

Highly developed interpersonal skills to work diplomatically and effectively with a diverse public clientele, University officials and students.
Required

Typing skills to prepare business correspondence with speed and accuracy.
Required

Accounting and arithmetical skills need to prepare cost estimates and bills.
Required

Delphi Hospitality skills or comparable software skills to input conference room blocks, prices and service requests.
Required

Working knowledge of standard business software (e.g. Microsoft Office).
Required

Skill in supervising, including delegating responsibility and training.
Required

Working knowledge of University accounting forms and procedures sufficient to accomplish standard departmental accounting transactions.
Can be trained

Working knowledge of Operational Units such as Rooms and Food & Beverage’s policies and procedures.
Can be trained

Ability to develop easy rapport with customers in order to facilitate planning efforts.
Required

Ability to analyze situations and separate them into components in order to organize a heavy and diverse workload.
Required

5-10 years of professional hospitality experience in hotels group or catering sales, convention services or collegiate conference and events industry.
Required

Ability to drive licensed electric carts and UCLA vehicles at times for meetings, site inspections, etc. Valid driver’s license required, DMV records will be reviewed annually to ensure current validity.
Preferred

Must be able to lift up to 25 lbs.
Required