Ian Christopher Email & Phone Number

Cardiff, Gb

Clydach Vale, Rhondda Cynon Taff, United Kingdom

Duties include:• Leadership responsibility for RCT Council’s Tourism, Events, Marketing/Communications, Design and Business Support Services (TEMD), including the income generating roundabout advertisement signage scheme, ID card scheme, and in-house photography function. • Strategic project management responsibilities, including setting up and leading multi-disciplinary working groups, for large scale projects such as the National Eisteddfod of Wales (175,000 spectator and 6,000 participant Welsh language/cultural festival).• Lead for the planning, formulation, implementation, consultation, delivery and monitoring of RCT’s Tourism Strategy ensuring it delivers upon the vision of positioning RCT as a premier destination in the UK for experience-based visits and vacations and drives forward and improves a visitor economy that is already worth approx £179million.• Ownership and management responsibilities of the TEMD budgets (totalling over £1.3million) with a key requirement to regularly monitor, review and evaluate service resource allocations and future requirements.• Identify and implement creative and innovative solutions to bring about change management, and Service wide efficiency savings. I.e. enabling efficiency savings of approx £60k when Service marketing budgets were centralised. • Lead a service wide approach focused on income generation and commercialisation. I.e. development of annual events sponsorship package bringing in £60k over three years. • Communicating the Council’s vision and the wider strategic goals to staff in a timely and effective manner and formulate clear delivery objectives and targets.• Positively contribute to strategic plans and policies.• Foster and maintain wider networks and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, all of differing levels, and facilitate positive engagement and communication on behalf of the Council across these collaborative partnerships and relationships.

Tonypandy, Rct

Duties included:• Coordination, management and supervision of all activities in relation to the Council’s Communication/Marketing and Events Services, to ensure effective and efficient provision of high quality services and ensure that performance targets and objectives were met.• Budget management involving regular review and evaluation of the financial resource requirements of both Services, in terms of both maintaining essential service delivery and bringing about necessary improvements and developments.• Advising Council on best practice in relation to Council Marketing and Communications strategies/campaigns, ensuring the monitoring, interpreting and reacting to performance information for each campaign, as well as acting as project lead for all major campaigns.• Implementation and coordination of the Council’s Strategic Events Programme, ranging from key flagship events such as Big Welsh Bite Food Festival (www.bigwelshbite.co.uk) and the Nos Galan Road Races (www.nosgalan.co.uk) attracting thousands, through to smaller more localised Mayoral fundraising events such as sponsored walks, charity balls and brass band/choir led concerts. • Acting as direct point of contact for both communications/marketing and events, with both internal and external stakeholders, providing guidance and advice on best practice in terms of marketing requirements/plans and health and safety and event delivery.• Development and review of Service policies and procedures.

Tonypandy, Rct

Duties included:• Supporting the Public Relations Manager in the delivery of effective and positive marketing campaigns and assisting in the delivery of the Council’s Strategic Events Programme.• Leading on and driving forward specific Public Relations, Marketing and Strategic Events projects.• Working alongside the Marketing Team to deliver effective marketing campaigns on behalf of the Council.• Assisting in coordination and delivery of the Council’s Strategic Events programme, including Ponty’s Big Weekend (10,000 visitors) and a Symphony of Sound & Song held at the Wales Millennium Centre.• Developing new and innovative ways of communicating and marketing the policies, services, news and achievements of the Council.• Development and delivery of the Council’s International Links and Civic Town Twinning functions.• Projects – updating of Council’s Corporate Identity Guidelines, identification of potential improvements to Internal Communications, and in-depth audits into Service website functionality and content.

Tonypandy, Rct

Duties included:• Undertaking of various learning and development programmes (in-house and external) such as MERCURY and ILM designed to prepare and position myself for future management roles. • Individual efficiency saving projects in the following Service areas:(i) Human Resources – discontinuation of the Internal Job Circular process, finding alternative communication methods for a range of Council staff saving approximately £19,640 per annum.- Harmonisation of all learning and development provision across the Council to bring about added value and potential efficiency savings. - Review of Community Centre facilities to determine whether current capacity meets existing demand levels and identification of operational efficiency savings.(ii) Transport – report identifying improvement efficiencies to develop possible synergies with Community Care and Home to School Transport services, Public Transport services and the Council’s fleet of people carrying vehicles. An annual efficiency saving of approximately £462,981 was projected across just three example sites by better use of current fleet to reduce contracted transport requirements. (iii) Marketing – working closely with event/entertainment provider Orchard, to lead on the marketing efforts, utilising new and emerging innovative tactics to promote the return of Ponty’s Big Weekend.

Tonypandy, Rct

Duties included:• Responsibility for all public facing communications to disabled clients and carers. I.e. production and distribution of a monthly Newsletter (Index News). • Controller/Administrator of the Council’s SWIFT system for the Disabled Children’s Team. As this was a new system I was one of the first to utilise and so also provided training to others. • Creation of documentation and information for Social Workers to take along to visits.• Administration style work, such as the word processing of sensitive Social Worker client visit notes, scheduling of meetings/visits, research, presentations, etc. • Fire Warden for the site, ensuring fire alarms were routinely tested, fire drills implemented and any issues reported.

Porth, Rct

Duties included:• General office based administration work – data entry, document production, email, organisation and filing of paper documentation, scheduling of meetings, etc.• Contributing to the Council priority of becoming ‘paperless’ by the scanning of confidential documents and then discarding of the sensitive waste.

Postgraduate Diploma, Marketing

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Business Administration, 2:1

Activities and Societies: Played football for the Irish Society for 3 years, winning our division during the second. Became an avid gym.

Education record

Studied A Level: Mathematics (A Grade), Biology (A) and Information Technology (A). GCSE Level: Science Double Award (A* x 2), Information.