Overview

Ottawa Tourism’s vision is to be one of Canada’s most visited, sustainable, vibrant, and valued urban destinations and the tourism authority for key economic development and city-building decisions in Ottawa. Ottawa Tourism's mission is to market and sell Ottawa as a compelling leisure and business destination and lead or participate in initiatives that improve Ottawa’s visitor experience. We contribute to the broader economic development objectives of the city and the success of our stakeholders and, by doing so, enrich the quality of life for all Ottawa residents.

Reporting to the Assistant Director, Sales, Business & Major Events, the Business & Major Events Research Specialist supports and contributes to the team’s research and lead generation function in support of business development objectives.

The incumbent acts as a liaison between external stakeholders including event planners, industry partners, local champions and meetings and BE & ME sales managers. The incumbent is also responsible for identifying and qualifying prospective sources of business and major events and managing the transition of each qualified lead from the research phase to the bid phase. The incumbent searches for and qualifies Local Organizing Committee (LOC) members from the local community and/or across Canada that are in favor of supporting an Ottawa bid for their respective association’s meeting(s). The incumbent also maintains responsibility for ensuring database integrity within the organization’s CRM system.

The incumbent will also support the Think Ottawa Program. The program’s goal is to identify and recruit local leaders to support our bids in hosting worldwide congresses. This position will use their knowledge and experience to conduct standard research, cold-calling, emailing, and leverage online social media channels to reach potential local leaders.

This position is based out of the Ottawa Tourism offices in beautiful downtown Ottawa. Ottawa Tourism employs a hybrid work model, with some ability for all employees to work remotely. In some cases, certain positions will have an ongoing requirement to maintain a physical presence in the office. Such details will be discussed during the application process.

Key Competencies

• Understanding of and appreciation for the general scope of the sales professional role
• Managerial-level communication and analysis skills
• Strong ability to prioritize, manage projects, and think strategically
• Willingness to act as a key contributor in a fast-paced organization
• Ability to accept direct responsibility for initiatives and concerns that are vital to the organizational success of the Business & Major Events Team
• Ability to build and maintain external relationships; high level of competence in stakeholder management
• Broad flexibility in outlook, task orientation, working style, and approach
• Strong commitment to continuous self-improvement and to the improvement of the position requirements

Primary Areas of Responsibility

• Support the identification of local leaders in Ottawa, Ontario and Canada that specialize in various fields of expertise that can be attributed to a specific opportunity
• Support ad hoc industry partnerships (i.e. Ottawa Unlimited)
• Lead generation and prospecting eligible hosting BE & ME opportunities for Ottawa
• Conducting ongoing follow up with prospective clients and debriefing Sales Managers on research findings
• Maintain an accurate and detailed database of the Local Leaders and their link to specific congresses and sectors
• Local community outreach to serve BE business development – maintaining relationships with prosperous networks of local Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) including but not limited to Academics, Physicians, Scientists, Industry Professionals, and students
• Local community outreach to serve ME business development – developing prosperous networks of local Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) including but not limited to National Sport Organizations (NSO), Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO), Local Sport Organizations (LSO) and Cultural Event Industry Professionals, Event and Competition venues/spaces
• Prepare for industry events and sales missions by conducting research, prospecting registration lists, and including but not limited to direct outreach and inviting.
• Attend industry events, sales missions and tradeshows where deemed appropriate
• Support and leverage our suite of services that Ottawa Tourism, the Rogers Centre Ottawa, Invest Ottawa and OBOT can offer to help support local leaders in their quest to host international and US based congresses and events in Ottawa
• Conduct meetings and presentations to potential stakeholders and local leaders to explain the benefits of hosting and supporting events in Ottawa
• Maintain relationships with existing network of external contacts with people such as Vice Presidents of Research at Universities, scientists, doctors, CEOs of Businesses and Canadian Associations, local academia and government
• Monitor all available medical, university and research institute newsletters to keep up to date with the latest news and trends
• Create information workshops for local leaders
• Leverage existing promotional, marketing and communications for the Think Ottawa program, including events to promote loyalty in the program
• Report on industry hot topics and general market intelligence
• Execute touch points with local leaders to include receptions, planning of an annual awards gala and other events as needed.

Desired Qualifications

• Post-secondary degree or diploma in Business, Commerce, Marketing, Communications or other related program
• 3 years of relevant experience
• Proficient use of Microsoft Office Suite including Excel
• Expert use of web search tools and LinkedIn
• Strong communication – verbal and written – in English; a second language would be considered an asset
• Outstanding people skills – confident communicator, listener, and networker
• Significant experience in being fun and awesome
• Understanding of relational databases; experience working with CRMs and/or sales database management systems (i.e. IDSS, Simpleview, Salesforce)
• Hospitality and Tourism industry experience; in a DMO/CVB or otherwise
• Knowledge of the Meeting Planning and/or Major Events/Sport Event hosting industries
• Business development, lead generation, and/or sales experience
• Account management or sales coordination experience
• Demonstrated success in generating qualified leads and closing sales
• Demonstrated success in developing a portfolio of varied clientele

Assets

• Fully bilingual in both of Canada’s official languages, both written and verbal.
• Previous experience working in tourism, hospitality, or destination management/marketing.

The Hiring Process

• Initial Phone Screen
• In-Depth Interview
• Peer Interview
• Reference checks
• Offer

How we Hire

The decisions throughout the hiring process are made by Ottawa Tourism’s hiring team; Ottawa Tourism does not include any use of AI through the hiring process. This process complies with privacy and employment laws across Canada.

Vacancy Reasoning

This role has become vacant due to parental leave.

Compensation Range

The expected salary for this position is $57,115.

***Please note this is a 14-month contract position with an anticipated end date of November 2027

Land Acknowledgement

Ottawa Tourism is located and operates on the traditional and unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin people, who have travelled and inhabited these lands for millennia.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement

We place great value on the importance of diversity in our workforce, and we value inclusivity, trust, innovation and encourage applications from individuals who are members of under-represented or marginalized communities. We foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization. We connect with Indigenous communities; we care about the planet our people and our industry, and we want our city to be accessible to all. To that end, we are committed to an objective hiring process which is free from discrimination based on any of the protected grounds as stated in Ontario's Human Rights Code. In an effort to ensure that the selection process is as objective as possible, applicants are invited to consider removing any indications on their application that might suggest age, place of origin, ethnic origin, disability, race, or any other protected ground. For example, applicants might choose to include the names and classification of degrees granted (i.e. Diploma in Project Management, with Honours), while excluding the name or location of the school.

Accessibility Statement

All applications will be considered as long as the applicant can demonstrate that they meet the essential qualifications as described in the job posting. Further to this, if you would like to request any additional accommodations based on one of the Code's protected grounds, we will be happy to help accommodate you.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: Friday July 3rd at 4pm