Head of Event Planning and Delivery – LTA

The LTA’s vision is “Tennis Opened Up” and its mission is to make tennis Relevant, Accessible, Welcoming and Enjoyable. The Major Events and Digital Transformation team are responsible for delivering the LTA’s programme of events, driving visibility and engagement to new and existing audiences. The Head of Event Planning and Delivery will be accountable for the successful delivery of all LTA Major Events, and will be responsible for implementing a new event operating model and integrated planning process across all LTA Major Events.

Event Planning

• Responsible for developing and implementing a consistent planning process across all the LTA’s major events, taking into account the different levels of events (i.e. ATP500/WTA500 vs ATP250/WTA250 vs ITF World Tennis Tour / ATP Challenger events), the associated minimum standards and service levels required. 
• The planning process to be implemented needs to operate on an annual basis, encompassing a two-month debriefing phase of the previous year’s tournaments and then starting with a Model Venue Exercise or equivalent process to align on a singular concept of operations. A six-month event planning phase followed by a three-month event readiness phase needs to lead into a month-long event delivery phase. 
• The six-month planning phase needs to encompass all aspects of preparing for the event, including space/site planning, workforce planning, dot planning, function/service planning and customer group planning – culminating in a robust Event Operating Plan for every tournament.
• Oversee the procurement all goods and services required for the events, ensuring c. £10m of annual event-related costs deliver value for money for the LTA through a structured cross-tournament programme of rolling tenders.
• Implement an optimal workforce model across the events that blends full-time LTA staff, venue and/or LTA secondees, short-term freelance contractors, outsourced suppliers (eg. catering, security etc), stewards and volunteers.
• Oversee a more consistent and strategic approach to the lifecycle of building our annual event workforce, including the standardisation of how our tournament teams attract, recruit, induct, accredit, uniform and then debrief (and engage year-round) our short-term workforce teams, including in particular volunteers, marshals and stewards.

Event Readiness

• Lead the implementation of an annual structured event readiness phase, encompassing the scaling up of event teams, the delivery of overlay build programmes, appropriate desktop and other readiness exercises and the transition from event planning to event operations teams.
• Ensure that processes to standardise the event workforce model are implemented consistently across all venues during the readiness phase, including accrediting, uniforming and training the event workforce.
• Oversee the implementation of robust build programmes so that all temporary event overlay is built on time, to budget and to quality, with a focus on the Health and Safety of all site workforce. Ensure appropriate focus on the cinch Championships overlay build programme at the Queens Club which is complex, space-constrained and time-constrained.
• Support Tournament Directors in building relationships with key local licensing authorities / individuals, such as the Chairs of Safety Advisory Groups, and with the Leaders of Local Councils to influence them to provide more in-kind support for our Major Events.
• Develop appropriate readiness plans – including contingency plans and crisis communication plans – and oversee desktop exercises that allow the event operations teams to be fully prepared for all events.
• Given that rain delays/rain cancellations consistently have the biggest impact on the success of the LTA’s events, further develop wet weather contingency plans to improve the experience for impacted customer groups during our Tournaments.

Event Delivery

• Implement consistent Tournament policies and procedures.
• Implement consistent event operations processes, including Daily Run Sheets, Event Control Room meetings and introduce a common event reporting framework to allow key event information to be shared with the Director of Major Events & Digital. Consider the roll-out of digital solutions across all events to improve in-tournament issue identification and resolution (eg. Halo, WeTrack).
• Act as the Gold Commander for all events, providing effective strategic decision making in the event of any emergency situations.
• Build relationships with the ATP, WTA and/or ITF Supervisors and with key strategic partners (eg. BBC, Amazon Prime) and – where necessary – help the Tournament Directors resolve scheduling / order of play related issues.
• Support the Event teams during the events as required.

Event Transformation

• Conduct a thorough annual event debriefing process that captures all key lessons learned from a venue perspective, from a customer perspective and from a service/function perspective.
• Implement initiatives that help “Open Tennis Up” such as further developing activation plans that create “Tennis Festivals” in our venues/cities during the tournaments that enable our events to act as a catalyst for reaching new audiences and delivering on our broader organisational objectives.
• Consider strategic optimisations needed to our venues, such as the North Area of the Queens Club site or improvements to player flows/journeys at Eastbourne. 
• Drive operational efficiencies across all tournaments and implement new Event Operating Models that improve the quality and consistency of tournament delivery whilst lowering the cost of delivering tournaments (eg. through procurement savings).
• Take a more customer-centric approach to event planning and delivery and improve year-on-year the experience of players (and their support staff), the media, spectators, commercial partners and the event workforce.
• Support the Director of Major Events & Digital and the Head of Tennis Relations & Event Development with projects to further develop the LTA’s Major Event portfolio, such as bids for Major Events (eg. Billie Jean Cup Finals), strategic reviews of the Grass Court Season and as a result of any strategic changes being made by the ATP and WTA to the Tour Calendars, Tournament standards etc.
• Bring together key internal and external stakeholders to improve the way we work with technical/hardware partners (Hawkeye, Crionet, Flightscope etc) and broadcast partners (eg. BBC, Amazon Prime)

Team Leadership and Relationship Management

• Lead a team of Tournament Directors to deliver the year-round calendar of LTA Major Events, and foster a culture of more integrated operational planning across the major events department and all other LTA departments that support the delivery of Major Events
• Work closely with the Finance team to manage the delivery of events to budget, and closely with the Head of Ticketing & Hospitality to help achieve all revenue targets that are set for our events.
• Support the Director of Major Events and Digital in building relationships with key tennis stakeholders, such as with the AELTC, ATP, WTA and ITF.
• Lead internal relationships with key departments that support the delivery of our events, such as our Commercial team, Marketing team, Customer Engagement team, Corporate Affairs team, Regional Delivery team.
• Work closely with the Commercial and Marketing Director and the Head of Ticketing and Hospitality to support the development of new commercial assets/rights and the on-boarding of new commercial and/or broadcast partners.
• Manage the strategic relationships with our largest cross-Tournament suppliers, for example, our Seating and Structures suppliers, Catering suppliers and/or our security contractors.
• Build and develop relationships with our key Venue partners, such as at the Queen’s Club, Edgbaston Priory Club and Eastbourne Borough Council.
• Working with the Director of Major Events and Digital and with the Finance team, develop budgets for all our major events as part of the annual business planning process.
• Define personal development plans and personal objectives for team members; effectively manage, mentor and guide direct reports to ensure their work standards continually improve, knowledge increases and motivation remains high.

Other

• Drive innovation at our Major Events, for example through enhanced Sport Presentation at our events or through the use of digital solutions/services.
• Implement new initiatives to “Open Up Tennis” to new audiences, for example through the introduction of new LTA Tennis Foundation charity exhibition matches over the Qualifying weekends, or through enhanced event activation plans. 
• Ensure there is equal focus and resource allocated to our programme of wheelchair and other disability tennis events as with our able-bodied events.
• Deliver LTA commitments in relation to sustainability, including working with suppliers to reduce single-use plastic, reduce waste, de-carbon temporary power and find solutions to increase the electric-car fleet, and champion our event sustainability plans across internal teams and our network of suppliers and contractors.
• Ensure that all relevant aspects of the LTA’s Inclusion strategy are delivered, including Accessible seating, brand imagery reflective of Tennis Opened Up, and that our recruitment processes attract a wide cross-section of society.

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