Job ad: Hacks/Hackers London is looking for an event producer/programme manager
Hacks/Hackers London is looking to hire a part-time organiser
As we announced last week, Hacks/Hackers London, best known for a popular monthly meet up for journalists and technologists, is growing.
At present, the event has been run by volunteer directors who have built up a lively and active community of over 2,500 members focussed on the intersection of news media and technology. Having received funding from Google, we are looking to employ a part-time, dedicated event producer/ programme manager who will build out our existing events programme and work with the directors to expand the impact of the organisation through additional programming and ensuring that the organisation grows to become a sustainable non-profit.
We anticipate the role being around 15 hours a week initially, but hours may increase. As we don’t have an office, this requires homeworking.
Funding, and therefore the employment contract, is for one year. The successful applicant will have ideas for generating new revenue to streams to ensure the continuation of the role beyond the initial funded period.
Hacks/Hackers is a global network of hacks (journalists) and hackers (technologists) with groups — or ‘chapters’ — in around 40 cities around the world. London is one of the largest and most active communities. Current activities focus on a monthly evening meetup for around 150 people. Our usual home is Twitter HQ (Piccadilly), but have been hosted by Google, Facebook, the BBC, Bloomberg, The Times, LBi (now Digitas) and WeWork within the past couple of years.
Duties and responsibilities
The event producer/programme manager will:
- Take ownership of scaling the operations and impact of Journalism Futures Community Interest Company, which runs the Hacks/Hackers London programme.
- Establish and maintain streamlined systems and processes for the successful running of a small non-profit.
- Manage every aspect of the monthly event. The directors will guide speaker ideas and the event producer will manage invitations, book venues, secure sponsorship, manage the necessary comms to advertise the events and manage ticket releases (tickets usually go in a matter of minutes so we look to make the release as fair as possible).
- Lead the development of a website, create new workflows and systems, and manage the accounts, all with minimal input from the directors.
- Bring new ideas in revenue-generating initiatives that will help make the organisation self-funding and sustainable.
- Attend the evening monthly meetups (in London) and other ad hoc events.
Essential skills and requirements
- An experienced event producer who enjoys working from home and managing his/her own time.
- A self-starter who can run the meetups and any new activities with minimal oversight from the directors.
- A disciplined, organised producer with experience of initiating systems and workflows.
- Sound judgement when screening speakers.
- A track record of launching new initiatives.
- Excellent written English that ensures communications are all word perfect.
- Experience in securing sponsorship for events.
- An interest in digital journalism and the news industry.
- Desirable but not essential: A current member of the Hacks/Hackers community
This is a new role and takes on much of the responsibility that has until now been undertaken by volunteer organisers of the Hacks/Hackers community. We are looking for someone committed to keeping the spirit of community strong. We welcome applications from people of diverse backgrounds, and are keen to create a flexible, family-friendly working culture for our first employee.
To apply, send a CV (maximum one page) and cover letter (max one page) to directors @hhldn.co.uk. Pick one of the following three questions and answer it in no more than 300 words:
- What new revenue stream would you explore for Hacks/Hackers London?
- How can our info on events / the sign-up process be improved (it’s pretty bad, we know!)
- How would you ensure the 4 x volunteer directors had oversight of your work?
