Senior Events Manager

What We Do: We live in a time of great transformations. Our institutions are faltering, from capitalism, to democracy, to the global order. The very meaning of what it is to be human is becoming fragmented. The mission of the Berggruen Institute is to ask questions and develop foundational ideas about how to reshape the political and social institutions in the face of these great transformations. We work across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries to engage great thinkers in developing and promoting long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.

Our Values:

Pursue excellence.
Cultivate future-oriented solutions.
Inquire with an open mind.
Build a collaborative environment.
Invest in people and relationships.
Respect the human dignity of all.

Events, meetings, and workshops play an essential role in the mission of the Berggruen Institute. Events provide the platform by which questions can be asked and ideas can be explored. The Senior Events Manager, with minimal supervision, will be responsible for leading a team in developing, managing, and producing high-quality in-person and virtual events/meetings/workshops for the Berggruen Institute. This position will report directly to the EVP.

Please note, only candidates living in Los Angeles will be considered.

Responsibilities:

  • Work with EVP, department directors and leads to understand requirements of any in-person or virtual event, including budget, timing, technology needs, attendance, concepts, security, contract/contract negotiation, and transportation needs
  • In partnership with EVP, design event approval process to ensure appropriate resources are available for events/workshops
  • Identifies venues and makes reservations, coordinates contracts, and determines appropriate technology based on course requirements
  • Generate the departmental events calendar and facilitate communication with other project leads in charge of events and programming across the Institute
  • During both virtual and in-person events be very hands-on in executing whatever needs to get done
  • Collaborate with key stakeholders on event branding, target personas, speaker selection, event messaging, and content development
  • Oversee and participate in the administrative processes associated with the pre-event and post-event
  • Collaborate with creative and communication teams on pre and post event marketing and communications
  • Manage events budget and provide closed-loop communication about spending and planned allocations
  • Leads discussions to review event complexity to proactively avoid possible challenges
  • Drive all pre and post event marketing and communications
  • Build strong relationships across project/program areas and cross-functional teams to ensure the achievement of Berggruen Institute’s objectives and mission.
  • Mentor team members ensuring growth and opportunity

Skills:

  • Experience and ability in planning and implementing high profile in-person and virtual events for both large (100 + attendees) and small (10 or fewer attendees) events/workshops and meetings
  • Able to work closely with multiple internal and external partners and stakeholders to produce and manage each event
  • Strong people management and emotional intelligence skills
  • Background in both national and international event planning and execution
  • Expertise in both virtual and live event best practices and event platforms and tools landscape
  • Ability to collaborate well with others and take direction while also being able to work well independently
  • Ability to manage last-minute changes and troubleshoot urgent situations
  • Ability to think creatively and use new technologies to expand outreach and program impact
  • Strong negotiation and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to manage and report updates on several projects to EVP
  • Strong copywriting skills
  • Strong presentation skills
  • Excellent budget and financial management skills
  • Strong project management and time management skills with a high degree of flexibility
  • Experienced in establishing efficient processes and systems
  • Ability to be flexible with travel, and work additional hours as needed

Work Perks:

  • We offer an exceptional 401k plan
  • Health, dental, and vision
  • Paid vacation, sick, and holiday pay
  • Phone reimbursement
  • Dog-friendly workplace
  • Hybrid office work model with flexibility
  • Snacks and gourmet coffee!

Requirement
All employees must be fully-vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as a condition of employment. Exemptions from this requirement as a reasonable accommodation due to medical contraindication, disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice will be considered.

Please send a resume and cover letter to careers@berggruen.org. No phone calls please.

Berggruen Institute is a proud equal opportunities workplace. We firmly believe employing a diverse workforce is important regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Berggruen Institute is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.

RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE