I often get asked when interviewing people for marketing roles why I like working for IQPC, so I thought I should share some more insight.
I have worked for IQPC for the past 8 years in numerous marketing and production roles, I consider it a great company, dynamic and full of inspirational, hard working, highly motivated young people working on some great global event brands. It’s never boring!
IQPC employs over 1000 very talented young executives and organizes over 1500 events a year from 8 different offices around the world. In my role I am lucky enough to work with many of these talented people, all from very different backgrounds, and all committed to delivering the best results for customers. The people are key.
Our business is not easy, trying to research, produce and market a conference with 16+ top level speakers, the best sponsors and a 12-20 week lead time is no easy task. We don’t always get it right, we try, but our intent is to always create an event that exceeds the expectations of delegates, sponsors and speakers and I like to think in most case we achieve this target. The tight timelines and any number of external challenges means it can be a pressure cooker environment and not for everyone. But the satisfaction of meeting happy customers and seeing a good event come together is worth it.
The business is also built on innovation. New ideas on format, topics, speakers, locations and many other areas drive the business. I find the constant innovation and entrepreneurial creative process to be very rewarding. I also like challenges!
We have also invested in an outstanding CRM system, solid training programs, and new emarketing initiatives. We have also recently launched a number of online community initiatives that have helped us add more value to our key industries than just our conferences. We believe these communities will help create a deeper advocacy ladder and help introduce more people to the power of the information they will obtain and connections they will make at our events. Our net promoter score continues to improve each quarter and our customer retention is one of the highest in the industry. It could always be better, so we continue to push for improvement.
In addition to the entrepreneurial environment, All IQPC positions/roles are performance based. If you work hard, rewards will come in the form of monetary rewards or experience that can be leveraged at IQPC or elsewhere. Many former employees speak of the sound commercial skills they learnt at IQPC and have gone on to hold senior positions in larger companies and government organizations, we have an active IQPC Alumni that illustrates this profile. Others have put these experiences and rewards to work by developing long term careers at IQPC or within other companies in the events industry.
IQPC has a strong culture of promotion from within. Over 90% of senior staff at IQPC have been developed internally creating an energy that drives IQPC forward. It’s always rewarding to see a person move up within the organization.
There are career paths and training plans for all positions and many examples throughout the company of people who have moved through these career paths. I personally have worked my from a conference producer to a marketing manager in New York, to Marketing Director in Dubai and then Global Head of Marketing.
We also encourage international transfers and many employees have taken advantage of these opportunities to fast track their careers. The IQPC Academy also regularly runs international courses for high performers across the group and we invest significantly in external trainers. While this has been cut back during the recession; our global training budget remains substantial and sets the benchmark in our industry.
Work life balance is difficult in the information age. Our performance based culture definitely encourages people to work longer hours around deadlines but this is a choice that each individual employee makes. I personally have two children, who I try to spend as much time with as possible, but being a dad, husband, friend and marketing manager is always a balancing act. But in my opinion IQPC does what it can to offer the flexibility needed to maintain that balance.
From a corporate social responsibility stand point we often work with non-profit industry associations helping them spread their message by working with us on special events or attending existing events. We are also committed to improving our environmental footprint by reducing paper waste at our events and offices. We also run numerous internships that give students an insight into business and we also offer free delegate passes to post graduate students on numerous events.
I encourage prospective employees to visit our careers site (http://careers.iqpc.com) and watch the videos from some of our employees. They also have some very interesting stories!
Personally, the combination of the product, the people, the innovation, the pace and the entrepreneurial nature of IQPC make it a very rewarding place to work. I’m not going to lie, some days are harder than others, that’s why they call it work, but it’s never boring, and I enjoy the challenges.
Do any other IQPC Marketing Managers care to add their thoughts?
Nomad Marketer @ IQPC 
I work in the new online communities and portal division. I can definitely attest to the entrepreneurial, performance based culture, and innovation within IQPC. We started almost two years ago with nothing more than a concept. The senior team saw an opportunity to enter into a new business and invested tremendously in our group. Today we are attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to our sites and have a team of over 20 talented employees. Growth and investment that has taken place during difficult times in our economy.
I work at IQPC because it provides me the opportunity to lead a great team of sales and marketing, both in NY and London. Each member of the team owns their product and is committed to it’s success. We are constantly challenging ourselves to find new marketing vehicles and strategies like social media. The best part is that we’ve been able to take an idea and turn it into something tangible, with clear benefit across the entire organization. This happens all the time at IQPC, and it is refreshing to see an organization embrace innovation and ideas as part of their culture.
I can’t agree more with Jaime and the author of this blog. The last 6 years have been the most rewarding out of my 12 year career experience. I started out as an academic and after 4 years felt the need to seek challenges outside the education and training industry. With a marketing & finance qualification, I tried out various roles in marketing, finance, sales and even started my own training business when I just could not get enough satisfaction from the small businesses to the multinational corporations I’ve worked at. Whilst on holiday six years ago, I stumbled on a conference marketing position and since then have never regretted the decision to join IQPC. I started out marketing events based in Singapore. In just three short years, I became a manager and started to manage five marketers in the Singapore team, then took on a global training role – a newly created role at that time – working with the marketing teams in NY, Berlin, Sydney, Madrid and Stockholm before settle in my current role as Marketing Director of the London office. Despite cultural differences across IQPC offices globally, the one thing that strikes me as consistent, is the attitude of the people. IQPC people – from fresh graduates to very experienced members of staff – demonstrate a strong desire to succeed. IQPC people are very driven, hardworking and resilient. IQPC people recognise that their hard work will be paid off.
There are plenty of opportunities for progression – some of the marketers I hired three years ago are now Marketing Director of other IQPC offices or other marketing teams in the conference industry.
Working in IQPC is by no means a ‘walk in the park’, but most people I’ve worked with share my sentiments – it is truly rewarding. Yes, it has been six years, but I know there are a lot more opportunities for me. The one thing that I am grateful for – IQPC listens. My managers make conscientious effort to always check in and see if what I’m getting out of my current role is fulfilling. In return, I endeavour to do the same with my staff.
At IQPC, there are opportunities for job expansion if that is what you desire. There are plenty development opportunities and all you have to do is speak up, make recommendations and discuss with your managers how you want to be developed. That is the one thing that I personally find truly unique at IQPC.
So why is it I have been working for IQPC for almost 7 years?
I thought about it and its recently dawned on me that it’s because I’m not doing the same job I did 7 years ago… its still a marketing role but its evolved as the corporate world has evolved, from direct mail, to online marketing to social networking. And in doing so my skills and experience has grown along the way.
Also, I love a challenge and that’s excatly what I get every day, no day is the same. Its an extremely varied job in a fast paced environment… so fast that I have blinked and 7 years seems to have gone by in a nano-second!
I manage an ever expanding team of sales, marketing and research professionals, who like me, love it! We’re a nice bunch and so Its a great team atmosphere.
I’ve also had the opportunity to travel from London to Dubai and all around the States with work, glamorous places like Miami, New York and Vegas.
Can’t complain really!
Marketing Director of IQPC Middle East
Ever wandered into the nursery in a much-loved hospital?
You’re surrounded by proud fathers, inquisitive aunts, noisy cousins and every single one of them is looking at the babies in the nursery, thinking ‘he’s going to be an astronaut’ or ‘she’ll be Obama’s replacement’.
The psychology is simple: they are projecting the potential of the newbie.
That’s what IQPC does when you join: they show you where you can go with your career, and then help you get there.
I joined IQPC 3 years ago, and since then its been a joyride. Starting out as a Marketing Manager, I now handle the LSEs for the Middle East and Central Asia, had a transfer to Singapore in 2008 for 8 months, been trained and mentored by the best in the business, then had the opportunity to grow as a trainer myself for marketing personnel in my teams.
In the one year I was away from IQPC, I had taken up a senior marketing role at a competitor managing a team of 6 people, which then grew to 10. It was IQPC that gave me the knowledge, experience and spirit to tackle that challenge.
Over the past 5 years, I’ve worked for 2 of the world’s largest conference companies, and one niche conference company, and IQPC comes up trumps, not least because it knows how to do things right, but because it learns from its mistakes. And allows you to learn from them too.
If I could notch up a list of reasons I wouldn’t leave IQPC, here’s the top 5 in no particular order, which I think is a good way to sum up my comment:
1. There’s regular training for staff, ensuring we’re always on top of our game
2. Constantly upping the ante on successful events to drive passion and excellence
3. Timely and deserving rewards (monetary or otherwise) for good performance. IQPC never spares any expense in letting its staff know they doing a good job
4. Always opportunities to move to any IQPC office in the world
5. An awesome CRM system that’s constantly evolving. Its the ultimate dream for every good direct marketer.
Cheers
[…] In February, Nomad Marketer blogged about why he works at IQPC. You can see the entire post here. I was recently at our Marketing Director’s meeting in London and it made me reflect on why I […]