General Manager – Bradford Live

Some opportunities don’t come up very often. This is one of them. If you’re a General Manager with the passion and drive to open a new entertainment and events venue, please read on!

The Venue

An exciting transformation is underway to breathe life back into a 1930s art-deco 3,900 capacity theatre, re-opening as Bradford Live to bring music, comedy, conference and banqueting to a newly refurbished building under the approving gaze of City Hall and City Park. Filling a gap between West Yorkshire’s small and large event spaces, Bradford Live will also welcome 500+ people in to the magnificent, fully restored Ballroom.

The development is being managed by the Bradford Live team and the NEC Group (the UK’s leading live events business) and when open is expected to attract 300,000 visitors each year. The venue will host a calendar of 200+ world class music, comedy and family entertainment events as well as providing the city with great conference, meeting and banqueting spaces.

You

To the person with the right amount of passion for and experience in the live events business, this is an exciting opportunity to build and lead a team towards Bradford Live’s launch. You’ll be joining us well in advance of opening the doors to the public, so from the very beginning you’ll be taking the lead role in planning and mobilising the venue and our teams. You will have the autonomy of starting up and running a stand-alone venue, with the luxury of support from the NEC Ticketing & Arenas Management team and the combined experience of the NEC Group.

We are looking for an inspirational and innovative leader, someone with the strategic vision and drive to work anything but 9-5 Monday to Friday. Knowledge of booking, promoting and leading a live events team in a high-volume venue will be needed alongside experience of managing a large team, a large budget and city stakeholder expectations.

The fine balance of venue P&L, customer experience, safety, diversity and sustainability must excite you, as it is the one act you will need to perform yourself.

Key Responsibilities (full role profile available on request)

• To be responsible and accountable for the day to day running of the business in its entirety by leading and managing the venue’s in-house teams and service providers to ensure a safe, secure and welcoming environment for customers and clients and for the successful operation and delivery of all events through effective people, financial and event processes.
• To agree and implement strategic objectives for the growth and development of the venue that is designed to develop its position as a leading mid-sized, multi-purpose events venue.
• To continually expand viable venue content through event sales and venue marketing and realise the most effective commercial opportunity from all other event venue related income streams.
• Create and maintain the right venue and team culture to succeed.
• To be the key liaison point with city stakeholders.

 Key Skills and Experience

• Proven experience (ideally minimum of 5 years) of successfully leading a venue or consumer facing sales department, ideally from the leisure/hospitality environment who has worked at senior level within a highly pressured and target driven environment.
• Experience of developing and implementing strategic business plans for a venue, as well as establishing and effectively managing budgets, processes, performance and systems.
• Demonstrate ability to think and plan both laterally and strategically with a forward looking and creative approach to deliver events and promotions both in the short and long term.
• Resilient, tenacious and highly motivated, with the ability to understand the commercial and creative drivers of the business and to adapt to a constantly changing and growing business environment.
• Good up to date working knowledge of the event calendar and the competition in the event industry and technological advancements, as well as an established network in this area.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills: ability to prioritise and deliver to deadlines and to be able to work across several projects and manage time effectively, whilst maintaining a good attention to detail.
• Client focused to deliver a first-class customer experience with a venue that meets the unique needs of each event.

Benefits

• £55k salary + discretionary bonus scheme, payable on achieving Group targets
• 25 days annual leave rising to 26 after one year + bank holidays
• Potential home working options for part of the week
• Pension matching up to 7%
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance funded by the company
• Great Learning and Development
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Dental, Cash Health and Holiday Buy flexible options
• Exclusive Discounts and many more great benefits

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm, you will find a home within the NEC Group.

Closing Date: 15^th March 2023

Apply online here: https://recruitment.necgroup.co.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID%3d561337DJrM&WVID=7060624sST