Special Events Consultant

Job Summary

Position Summary: 

Special Olympics Inc. (SOI) is an international NGO providing sports training and competition to more than 4.9 million people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in 172 countries. With the support of almost 1.2 million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics delivers 33 Olympic-type sports and more than 108,000 games and competitions throughout the year. In addition to sports programming, Special Olympics offers a number of supporting health initiatives and programs, including Special Olympics Healthy Athletes and Healthy Communities. The 2016-2020 strategic priorities for the health program focus on growing an inclusive health movement and creating a tipping point across the country where government funding and policies, medical and allied health professions training program curricula, funding for health care services, and health care and wellness services become inclusive for people with ID.

To this end, building on the efforts started in 2016, Special Olympics is planning to take the inclusive health movement to the next stage with the goal of demonstrating the feasibility of inclusion and mobilizing other organizations around inclusion. In July 2018, during the Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Special Olympics will host a high visibility Inclusive Health award ceremony to recognize organizations that made the biggest strides and most impact since the start of the inclusive health initiative.  In addition, other health activities, including post-award ceremony workshops, will be designed and implemented to be synergistic with the Games, both to raise awareness of the critical issue of the connection of health and sport performance of our athletes as well as, in the case of the Inclusive Health Event, and draw an even bigger, high profile audience – and potential support base - to the Games, and ultimately the movement.

This consultant will provide critical event planning services and related support leading up to the health activities at the USA Games, as well as day-of on-the-ground support in coordinating with Seattle Games Organizing Committee (GOC) and vendors in executing the SOI Inclusive Health award ceremony and related activities.

This consultant position will require flexible hours dependent on activity needs until July 15, 2018.

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Planning support leading up to the USA Games health events/activities – work collaboratively with and/or support SOI Health team, SOI Marketing and Communications team, and other partners to
  • Craft Inclusive Health event agenda and the production of the event to achieve the overall inclusive health vision and raise awareness
  • Coordinate with local vendors to ensure that the necessary logistics are in place and provide the functionalities needed by the event
  • Craft event invitation and targeted invitation list
  • Follow up with invitees, including some cold invites where SOI has no existing relationships
  • Provide customized talking points to event planning working group on high level invitees
  • Manage RSVP process
  • Provide pre-event communications and support to event attendees, as needed
• Support SOI team to coordinate with the Special Olympics USA Games Organizing Committee to integrate guests and activities of this event into the overall Games experience, including credentialing, registration, access to additional events, transportation, and other needs.
• Work collaboratively with SOI Health, GOC, and its partners to execute health events and activities, such as:
  • Provide onsite, day-of event management support
  • Provide support as needed to VIP guests
  • Provide support to coordinate with Special Olympics (SO) Program delegations, including SO Program staff, athletes, and coaches, to collect and report health data related to training for USA Games
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications: 

• 4-year degree preferred, in relevant field.
• 3-5 years of event planning, project management, health, administrative, or related experience;
• Capable of high levels of consistency, accuracy, confidentiality, and excellent attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with individuals from a range of cultures and professional backgrounds.
• Must be comfortable speaking with prospective event attendees and event vendors with a high level of professionalism
• Experience in customer service or other people-oriented fields desired
• Ability to exercise judgment to identify solutions and strategies for novel situations, ability to anticipate needs, and initiative to tackle problems.
• Strong ability to reliably and independently manage and coordinate projects to completion.
• Quick learner.
• Ability to work within short deadlines.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, and fluent in written and verbal English.
• Skilled at drafting business correspondence, presentations, and assisting with proposal/report development.
• Advanced knowledge in MS Office, particularly Word, Excel, and Power Point.

Desired Qualifications: 

• Experience working with people with intellectual disabilities