Event Coordinator / Virtual Event Specialist

The role of Event Coordinator / Virtual Event Specialist involves supporting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Acquisitions in planning and executing large-scale virtual, hybrid, and in-person events. The primary focus is on HHS’s inaugural two-day Industry Day/Summit in the Washington, DC metro area, with approximately 500 on-site attendees and 1,200 virtual attendees. This position may also support other events like the Acquisition Workforce Training Conference, leadership forums, and town halls.

The ideal candidate has hands-on experience managing large virtual audiences and remains composed during technical issues in real time.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage the Stova (formerly Aventri) event platform for virtual, hybrid, and in-person attendees, including branded event sites, iOS/Android mobile apps, and email campaigns.
• Handle registration for attendees, speakers, staff, and volunteers, ensuring accurate tracking of registrations, session interest, and attendance.
• Oversee speaker and session submissions, reviews, and approvals within the platform.
• Set up and execute live streaming of plenary and breakout sessions for virtual attendees in real time.
• Configure and monitor two-way engagement tools like polls, chat, and Q&A sessions.
• Coordinate in-room cameras, microphones, virtual meeting links, and bandwidth with AV/production vendors and Government IT.
• Ensure all plenary sessions are recorded and delivered to the Government.
• Deploy post-event surveys and evaluations, tracking engagement hours for continuous learning documentation.

Pre-Event Planning and Readiness:

• Contribute to the integrated event plan, run-of-show, and operations plan, focusing on virtual and hybrid workstreams, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
• Participate in kickoff and planning meetings, maintaining action-item and decision logs.
• Plan and lead technical rehearsals, dry runs, platform tests, and speaker tech checks.
• Develop contingency procedures for platform or AV outages, speaker changes, registration issues, and schedule changes.
• Coordinate with Government event leads, facilities, security, AV/IT staff, speakers, and vendors on technical and logistical readiness.
• Ensure virtual event materials and communications comply with Section 508 accessibility standards.

Day-of Event Execution:

• Serve as the primary virtual and hybrid operations lead during live events, managing platform operations, participant access, breakout sessions, screen sharing, presentation sequencing, and session timing.
• Troubleshoot technical issues for virtual attendees and speakers in real time.
• Support on-site coordination, including registration, check-in, badge troubleshooting, speaker transitions, room readiness, and attendee flow.
• Act as a liaison between HHS staff, speakers, emcees, and AV/production teams to synchronize in-room and virtual experiences.
• Escalate decisions, changes, security concerns, and Government direction requests to the designated point of contact.

Post-Event Support:

• Compile attendance, registration, engagement, and survey data for post-event summaries and briefings.
• Contribute to lessons learned and after-action reports, focusing on virtual and hybrid performance and recommendations.
• Organize final event files, recordings, and records for Government use and transfer to designated repositories.