Events Director

If you know how to bring people together for meaningful conversations that advance journalism and build community engagement, you might be the new Events Director at CalMatters. 

We seek someone who combines a mastery of event logistics with the editorial savvy to make sure the right people are on the stage, the topics are compelling, the audience eats up every word and the sponsors feel well loved. We’ll hold several dozen events in 2020, ranging from small donor briefings to lunch-hour, half-day and full-day public convenings across California about topics like health care, housing, income inequality, education and the environment. 

If you’re the right fit, you’ll share our belief that great events make great journalism. You’ll bring ideas about how to make events unique, interactive, engaging and productive. You’ll be passionate about increasing the audience and impact through live streaming and turning the event proceedings into content we can share in multiple ways afterward. You’ll be someone who makes sure that speakers and attendees have great experiences. And you’ll know how to involve corporate partners in ways that meet their needs without affecting the editorial integrity of the event. 

In four years, CalMatters has become the largest newsroom covering California policy and politics. We’re a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, and we give our coverage at no cost to more than 180 media outlets in California. As the leader of our events strategy, you’ll take on the challenge of creating new ways for people to engage with our journalism while building our revenue, reach and impact.  

This position requires some evening and weekend work as well as travel throughout California. The position is ideally based in Sacramento but may be done from elsewhere in the state. 

Responsibilities include: 

• Arrange and manage venues, catering, staging, audio/visual support, registration, signage, handouts, streaming, run-of-show and other logistics for our events. 
• Work closely with the editorial team to identify participants and plan topics and content. 
• Work with co-hosting partners to coordinate tasks, goals, content and promotion.
• Manage speaker relations for event participants including invitation letters, phone calls, logistics memos and on-site direction. 
• Develop audience strategies including target groups and lists, invitation platforms and management of attendee data.
• Oversee some events in person and coordinate staffers or contractors or others. 
• Promote events through our channels, partner relationships and paid marketing.  
• Manage the revenue and expenses for individual events and our annual events budget. 
• Propose and develop new kinds of events to broaden our reach. 
• Work with our revenue team to create sponsorship programs and with the sponsors before, during and after events to execute those programs.

We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We’re committed to diversity and especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. If you’re interested, please provide a resume, a cover letter that outlines how you would approach the job and links to at least six online samples of your work. Write to [email protected] with the job title in the subject line. You can view the posting on our website: https://calmatters.org/about/jobs/events-director/