B2B Event Programmer

News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.

Your Role: We are seeking a creative and commercially-minded B2B Event Programmer to help develop the content strategy and execution for the Times and Sunday Times business events programme.

The ideal candidate will have a passion for content creation, a knack for identifying compelling industry trends, and the ability to build and nurture relation ships with high-level speakers. This role is central to the success of our events, ensuring that our events programme is engaging, commercially viable, and a credible extension of our journalism.

Key Responsibilities:

Content Strategy & Development

• Lead on the programming for The Times’ business events calendar in collaboration with the Head of Programming, Times Media.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive content strategy for each event, ensuring alignment with editorial values, brand vision, and business objectives.
• Conduct market research and monitor industry trends to identify relevant topics and opportunities that resonate with our editorial content and target audience.
• Shape compelling event narratives, session formats, and themes that engage attendees and generate newsworthy content.
• Monitor top-performing business content from The Times to inform and inspire event programming.
• Continuously evaluate competitor events and broader industry trends to keep our offering competitive and innovative.

Agenda & Program Creation

• Build out detailed event agendas including keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions.
• Draft all session-related content, including descriptions, run-of-show documents, moderator notes, and speaker briefs.
• Collaborate with editorial, marketing, video, and the events delivery teams to ensure cohesion and consistency across all touchpoints.
• Work with event marketing to shape a ticketing and promotion strategy that drives attendance and engagement.

Speaker Recruitment & Management

• Identify, recruit, and secure high-impact speakers, including C-suite executives, policymakers, and thought leaders.
• Serve as the primary liaison for speakers, ensuring clear communication and a seamless experience from invitation to event delivery.
• Build and nurture a robust network of industry contacts to support current and future event programming.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Commercial Integration

• Work closely with the commercial team to develop event ideas that are both editorially strong and commercially viable.
• Partner with the marketing team to promote event content across all relevant channels.
• Collaborate with the commercial team to integrate sponsorship opportunities into the program without compromising editorial integrity.
• Liaise with the video and events delivery teams to ensure seamless execution and maximize the value of filmed content beyond basic highlight reels.

On-Site & Virtual Event Execution

• Attend and oversee the execution of live and virtual events, ensuring sessions run smoothly and maintain high production standards.
• Act as host or moderator when needed, representing The Times with professionalism and authority.
• Lead the strategic curation of event video content, including planning for future reuse and audience engagement.

Audience Development & Post-Event Analysis

• Identify opportunities to grow our audience and build a vibrant community of engaged event attendees.
• Gather and analyze post-event feedback and engagement metrics to evaluate performance and inform future improvements.
• Produce detailed post-event reports capturing key insights, speaker feedback, and attendee responses.

What We’re Looking for From You:

• Experience in conference production, event programming, or a similar content-focused role, preferably within a B2B media or events company.
• Demonstrated ability to research and develop engaging and commercially successful event agendas.
• Proven track record of recruiting and managing senior-level speakers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a talent for persuasive copywriting.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines.
• Commercially astute with an understanding of how to create content that drives revenue.
• A collaborative team player with the ability to work effectively across different departments.

Life at News: At News UK our people are our heartbeat – they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive. Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like. Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.

We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter most. To ensure these stories resonate with as broad an audience as possible, it is essential that our organisation reflects the diversity of the people we reach. Whether through age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social class or sexuality, we are committed to representing the rich variety of voices that make up our society. And we champion a culture where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive as we continue to innovate and drive long term sustainable growth. This is done through our Diversity Strategy.

At News UK, we take pride in our exceptional employee-led networks that bring together individuals with shared interests and create a vibrant sense of community. We believe our networks play a vital role in fostering a collaborative and supportive work culture at News UK. Groups that we support include the African & Caribbean Network, Parents and Carers, and LGBTQ+ group News Is Out, and the Apprentice Society.

We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes:

• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;
• 25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
• Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes
• ‘Bikes for Work’ scheme
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.

News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote a diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.

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