Live Events Technician - Conferences & Events - 97790 - Band 500

Position Details 

Conference & Events - Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK 

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £23,699 to £25,458, with potential progression once in post to £26,603  

Band - 500

Full Time Permanent

Closing date – 7th November 2021

PREVIOUS APPLICANTS NEED NOT APPLY

Our offer to you 

People are at the heart of what we are and do. 

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.  We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. 

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.  With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. 

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.  We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. 

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.  In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. 

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.  On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. 

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham   

Job context

Campus Services is responsible for a very large range of services within the University including student accommodation, catering, Sport and Fitness, cleaning and waste management, conferences and events, delivering the University’s post, day nurseries, security and emergency response, Winterbourne House & Garden. 

The Event Technician post is part of the Event Management team that sits within Conferences & events (C&e).  C&e sells and delivers a vast number of conferences and events to underpin academic work, support the student experience and drive additional income. As with any commercial revenue generating department within a university, C&e seeks to strike a balance between enhancing the student and staff experience and ensuring a financial return to the University.

Job summary

The Bramall Music Building is the home for the Department of Music and is also the centre for university musical performance. The technician role is responsible for the delivery of a range of event technical production services to support musical, conference and other events within the Bramall and the wider university including the Exchange. 

The Technical Event Co-ordinator, working under the Senior Events Technician will ensure the smooth running of all technical event services. They will provide proactive assistance and support to incoming artistes and external production companies from technical and stagecraft aspects.  Other activities that require technical support will include rehearsals, commercial events, lectures, conferences etc.  The postholder will also oversee health and safety aspects to ensure that current regulations and legislation are adhered to and alert the senior technician of maintenance issues.  Supervision of casual part time staff will also be part of the role. The successful applicant will be able to work weekends, late nights and bank holidays where required.

Main duties

• Work with clients to understand the objectives for the event, making recommendations for the technical requirements for their event, identifying the most appropriate services and maximising opportunities to upsell as appropriate.

• Plan and organise the preparation, get-in, fit-up, derig, and removal of all in house technical services including virtual and hybrid offering alongside lighting, sound, staging, flying/rigging and AV/projection for each event.  This will require you to work across a number of events concurrently and effectively.

• Responsible for setting up, operating a range of specialist technical systems, eg virtual software platforms, AV hardware and software and projection or mixing live sound for music performances and concerts. 

• Troubleshooting problems, some of which may require in-depth knowledge, and developing and implementing solutions on own initiative.  You will need the skills and experience to work on your own initiative, to assess problems and judge the appropriate solution, referring to more senior team members for in-depth specialist advice as you judge necessary.

• Management of the venue’s stock of audio-visual equipment including ensuring stock inventories are carried out and kept up to date, identifying issues and flagging as appropriate.

• In conjunction with the Senior Events Technician, develop long term plans for maintaining and upgrading all technical systems in line with current technical developments and standards.  You may specify and make recommendation on the purchase of equipment. 

• Provide first line maintenance of installations and all technical equipment to ensure it is in working order at all times, identifying when further maintenance requirements are required. 

• Ensuring all health and safety related processes, regulations and working practices are adhered to;

 - Support in ensuring facilities and equipment comply with the requirements of relevant legislation.

 - Support in the updating of documentation in line with legislation and the communication to relevant parties

• Ensure that the configuration and layout of the Elgar Concert Hall is set up for each user, as discussed and agreed with the user.

• Support the Technical Events Manager in both technical and non-technical day to day operations within the venues where required, including the setup of non-technical items and facilities, e.g. furniture and signage.

• Act as first point of contact on customer queries, resolving issues and ensuring positive outcomes.

• Giving excellent customer service to all building users.

• Undertake training on non-technical systems where required.

• Ensure all event details are listed correctly and in a timely fashion on our event management system Kx.

• Provide support for other technical equipment in the Bramall along with other Campus Services commitments and interests such as the Exchange and the CPD facility within MDS.

• Any other duties as outlined by line manager and/or the Head of Event Management.

• Support equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.

• Minimum of grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualifications.

• Professional experience in an Events and/or Marketing role, specifically in relation to providing specialist technical support.

• Ability to analyse numerical and financial data.

• Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office and website editing software. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required as in-house systems are used for procurement. 

• Proven ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines.

• Excellent interpersonal skills. You must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.

• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.

• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.

• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.

• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.

• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.

• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

• Ability to proactively recognise possible challenges and provide innovative solutions before they become an issue

• Ability to work well under pressure and to deadlines and targets

• Go about duties in a resource efficient way, minimising impacts to the environment wherever possible.

Informal enquires to Arron Croston, email: [email protected]

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment 

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.