Lead, Regional Events, Event Strategy and Engagement

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation.

The Forum engages the foremost political, business, and other societal leaders to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.

Why we are recruiting

The Global Programming Group is the team responsible for stewardship of the Forum’s events. It leads on the programming, the architecture and the operations of the Forum’s institutional events.

Reporting Lines & Interactions

This role will report to the Head of Event Strategy and Engagement within the Global Programming Group, with dotted lines to Deputy Head of Event Editorial. 

Working closely with the Forum’s Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics, the successful candidate will be responsible of defining the strategy for regional events, building their programme and coordinating operational steps from invitation to delivery in collaboration with relevant colleagues.

This role requires excellent writing skills, a good understanding of regional geopolitical and economic landscape, strong collaboration skills to allow for regular engagement with Forum Leadership to align editorial priorities across platforms and institutional communities and to diplomatically balance competing requests.

The role involves working with the regional teams from Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics, alongside other thematic Centres, providing exposure to all core areas of the Forum’s work.

Breakdown of Main Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for regional events, ensuring alignment with the Forum's overall goals and objectives.

• In collaboration with Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics, as well as relevant Centres, identify key themes, emerging issues, leading experts, and shape a programme that delivers on Forum’s strategic priorities.

• Lead programme design and development, including drafting the overview of the thematic focus of the event.

• Oversee the planning, the budget, and the execution of regional events, in collaboration with Events Management and Operations.

• Lead on speaker selection process for regional events, balancing impact priorities, partnership goals, inclusion targets, and audience interests.

• Ensure that all Forum events meet a uniform standard of excellence, by developing and socializing programme design frameworks, structures, processes, and tools to support the next era of the Forum’s strategic direction.

The Successful Candidate will be assessed on

• Providing consistent thematic architecture and event processes to regional events and ensuring that all events meet a uniform standard of excellence.

• Close collaboration with colleagues within Global Programming Group, Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics as well as other thematic Centres, Global Communications Group, and business engagement functions.

• Developing a strong understanding of the Forum’s mission and aligning event content with impact priorities

• Conducting thorough post-event debriefs, demonstrating a keen interest for innovation and improvement

• Effective interpersonal and negotiation skills, including verbal and written communications and presentations to internal and external audiences.

• Close collaboration with the broader Forum ecosystem, and ability to navigate the complexity of a matrix organization.

• Developing a strong understanding of the Forum’s mission and regularly monitoring the landscape to engage foremost experts in a specific field.

Preferred Requirements and Experience

• 8+ years of relevant professional experience, including hands-on experience with programme development for large events with a global audience, ideally engaging business, government, and non-profit audiences in international environments.

• Strong writing skills and demonstrated ability to identify, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate complex issues to diverse audiences.

• Advanced university degree in business, media, communications, economics, journalism, or other relevant fields.

• Proven track record of outstanding project management and coordination, and negotiation skills.

• A problem-solving mindset and proven experience at identifying the strategically salient questions and marshalling the data required to answer them.

• Excellent team collaboration, relationship development, and operational skills.

• Proven experience thriving in a multicultural work setting that is highly collaborative, and fast-paced; flexibility and the ability to embrace ambiguity is a must.

• Fluency in English, with excellent written, digital and verbal communication skills; knowledge of other languages would be an asset.

• Mastery of Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Excel, Word); experience with Salesforce a significant plus

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!