Events & Internal Communications Manager

At Concordia Plans we care for those who serve by providing excellent retirement, healthcare, and benefit services. Our Events & Internal Communications Manager is responsible for event execution engage our target audience and deliver memorable experiences and create impactful communication materials fostering a culture of transparency and connection aligned with Concordia Plans mission and values.

Concordia Plans has a reputation for outstanding culture, most recently winning the 2024 Top Workplaces USA award, with additional special awards for Work-Life Flexibility, Compensation & Benefits and Purpose & Values. This honor goes to the country’s best employers with high performing people-first cultures. Our recent history of employment excellence also includes being awarded the 2023 Top Workplaces USA award, the Top Workplaces 2021 - 2024 St. Louis Post-Dispatch awards and the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition’s 2020 Business Health Culture Award. Established more than 50 years ago providing service in 6,000 communities throughout the United States, we are mission focused professionals united to care for those caring for our community.

At Concordia Plans we are focused and flexible. Embracing the new normal, pioneering ways to continue to support work life balance in our family first culture. We offer competitive compensation with a benefit package, including a pension plan, 403(b), health insurance at no cost to the employee, and much more. We offer a hybrid environment with three days on-site for leadership positions. With this exciting opportunity you can combine experience, talent, and passion as part of our team at Concordia Plans serving the workers of The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod.

General Summary

The Events & Internal Communications Manager is responsible for event strategy and execution across various LCMS events to include brand alignment and messaging, contract negotiation and material coordination to engage our target audience and deliver memorable experiences. Additionally, the manager will create content to ensure employees are informed, collaborating internally to create impactful communication materials fostering a culture of transparency and connection aligned with Concordia Plans mission and values.

Essential Job Functions

• Manages events from strategy to execution, partnering with stakeholders across the organization to ensure intentional, consistent and cohesive experience and messaging at all Concordia Plans event touchpoints.
• Develop and manage comprehensive event plans, including timelines, budgets, and logistics. Coordinate with vendors, venues, and other stakeholders to ensure all aspects of the event are set-up and executed effectively.
• Tracks expenditures to ensure that available resources are used efficiently and effectively, including vendor negotiation.
• Responsible for venue selection and management to include securing appropriate venues for events, conducting site visits or evaluation and liaise with venue staff to coordinate setup, breakdown, and all event-related activities.
• Ensure smooth on-site operations and partner with internal staff, venue and vendors to promptly resolve any issues.
• Set-up and oversee event registration processes, including setting up registration systems, handling inquiries, and coordinating attendee communications.
• Conduct post-event evaluations to assess the success of each event. Gather feedback from stakeholders and team members to identify impact and recommend future engagement.
• Responsible for aligning internal and external messaging; developing and managing internal talking points.
• Oversees channel, content, strategy and alignment with communication strategy for internal communications, events and ad hoc corporate requests as needed.
• Collaborates on development of organization-wide internal communications strategies and implements programs to improve employee understanding and commitment.
• Helps staff understand the mission and vision of Concordia Plans and how our value proposition relates to their work.
• Manages internal communication platforms and resources; collaborates on content for various internal communications channels, including facilitating internal training as appropriate.
  
  

Education and Experience

• BA/BS degree in marketing, communications or related field or equivalent working experience.
• 3 experience in event strategy, planning and management
• Experience with speaker outreach and vendor relationships preferred.
• Experience in corporate communications preferred
  
  

Competencies

• Model Resilience: Leads with optimism and composure, setting the tone for others. Is self-aware, humble, and open to alternatives when challenged.
• Outcomes Oriented: Brings a bias for action and achieves meaningful, timely, and measurable results. Lives continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Consultive: Strong active-listening and problem-solving skills to identify opportunities, facilitating open dialogue and engaging others to recommend solutions.
• Influence Others: Is a positive influence across and outside the organization. Paints a compelling picture and gains commitment for forward momentum.
• Collaboration: Builds authentic relationships and harnesses the energy of others. Adapts interpersonal style and models productive dialogue and debate.
• Customer orientation: The ability and willingness to show care and concern while finding out what the customer wants and needs and to act accordingly in a timely manner, making the customer feel valued.
• Problem solving: Uses rigorous logic, systematic methods and analysis to solve difficult problems, able to exercise discretion and make decisions to resolve issues and questions, anticipates the implications and consequences of situations and takes appropriate action, is excellent at objective analysis, and asks questions, seeks answers and engages others in analyzing and developing solutions.
• Project Management: Manages resources, time, money and scope of a project; plans, organizes, motivates, and controls resources to achieve project goals effectively and efficiently.
• Communications: Ability to articulate information simply and concisely in person, over the phone and in writing, and to reflect Concordia Plans values in all internal and external communications.
• Presentation: Has the ability to effectively communicate and share information in a variety of speaking situations, Develops engaging and creative formal presentations; skilled with a variety of presentation and communication formats.
• Trustworthy: Acting with integrity, being honest and credible, reliable, having positive intent, able to present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent him/herself for personal gain.