Description

Defense Conference & Event Coordinator - Marketing & Sponsorships

Location: Candidate must be within 1 hour drive to Dayton, Ohio; Remote work from private home office with some travel required.

Employment Type: Full-Time

Employment: Target hourly pay range: $25–$30 per hour, depending on experience, qualifications, clearance status, and work arrangement.  Benefits include a 401(k) retirement plan, health care coverage, general leave, and paid holidays, subject to eligibility.

We are seeking an experienced Defense Event Manager & Marketing Specialist to support the planning, marketing, coordination, and execution of multi-day professional conferences supporting the defense community.  The ideal candidate has hands-on defense-sector experience and an active security clearance.  

This position supports company leadership by managing specific conference projects, coordinating deadlines, maintaining tracking systems, assisting with marketing, sponsor and exhibitor recruitment, data management, and ensuring assigned tasks are completed accurately and on time.

Candidate must have exceptional attention to detail, be proactive, able to anticipate challenges and create contingency plans, take ownership of assigned tasks from planning through completion, and manage tight deadlines and a broad variety of tasks simultaneously.

 This position requires working independently on assigned responsibilities while collaborating closely with team members, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, vendors, and other stakeholders.  Timely responses to email, text messages, and calls are expected.

Requirements

• Department of War experience: Demonstrated professional experience supporting DoW organizations, military commands, defense agencies, defense contractors, or related government programs.
• Security clearance: Active Secret security clearance or higher.
• Conference management: Demonstrated experience managing the different aspects of professional, technical, government, military, or defense-related conferences or events.  
  - Maintain and update the conference milestone schedule, task trackers, and project timelines.
  - Coordinate assigned arrangements for venues, hotels, catering, audiovisual services, printing, signage, supplies, and vendors.
  - Track speaker invitations, abstract submissions, presentation deadlines, session assignments, and program materials.
  - Assist with registration setup and processing, attendee communications, conference materials, and on-site logistics.
  - Provide on-site support during conference setup and execution.
  - Follow up with stakeholders to obtain information and ensure deadlines are met.
  - Coordinate with government and military stakeholders while respecting applicable protocol, security, and information-handling requirements.
  - Develop contingency plans and resolve issues before they affect conference delivery.
  - Prepare post-event reports, financial reconciliations, proceedings, and lessons-learned documentation.
  - Assist with additional conference-related tasks as priorities change.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel: Strong skills with spreadsheet and workbooks, formulas, sorting, filtering, tracking systems, and reporting.
  - Create and maintain detailed Excel spreadsheets for conference milestones, task tracking, budgets, sponsor prospects, mailing lists, and reporting.
  - Use formulas, sorting, filtering, data validation, conditional formatting, and other Excel functions to maintain accurate records.
  - Maintain organized project documentation and version control.
• Event technology: Hands-on experience with Cvent or a comparable event registration and management platform.
• Marketing and communications: Experience developing and implementing marketing strategies, promotional campaigns, and attendee communications.
  - Help build marketing and promotional plans designed to increase awareness, registration, participation, and engagement.
  - Develop targeted messaging for attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and other stakeholders and distribute announcements, promotional material, registration reminders, email campaigns, and other event communications as appropriate.
  - Track campaign performance and recommend improvements using measurable results to increase outreach, attendance, and engagement.
  - Sponsorship and exhibitor development: Experience in identifying prospects, conducting outreach, cultivating relationships, and managing sponsorship or exhibitor commitments.
  - Research potential sponsors, exhibitors, and industry partners and help maintain prospect lists and outreach trackers.
  - Assist with sponsor and exhibitor recruitment through email outreach, follow-up, and relationship coordination.
  - Help with preparation of sponsorship packages, correspondence, and supporting materials.
  - Assist in tracking sponsor commitments, payments, deliverables, and exhibitor requirements.
  - Recommend strategies to increase sponsorship revenue and exhibitor participation.
• Database and mailing list management: Experience building, maintaining, cleaning, deduplicating, and segmenting contact lists for targeted communications.
  - Help increase the quantity and improve the quality of contacts in our database.  Research prospective contacts and identify missing information.
  - Identify and resolve duplicate records, inconsistent information, and missing contact details.
  - Segment contacts to support targeted marketing, sponsor outreach, and attendee communications.
  - Follow applicable privacy, consent, email opt-out, and information-handling requirements.
   
  Application Requirements: Please submit a resume detailing:
• Department of War / Department of Defense experience and relevant organizations supported.
• Current security clearance level and status, to be verified through appropriate channels.
• Conferences managed, including event size, complexity, responsibilities, and outcomes.
• Cvent and advanced Excel experience.
• Marketing campaigns, sponsorship recruitment, and exhibitor development accomplishments.
• Examples of complex project schedules, databases, or reporting systems developed.

Applicants should not include classified information or sensitive details about government programs in their application materials.