Project Manager – Hospitality

What You'll Do

We’re looking for someone who gets excited about making large-scale gaming events happen smoothly. In this role, you’ll manage travel logistics, hotel accommodations, catering, and VIP experiences for staff and attendees at international trading card game (TCG) and tabletop events. You’ll be the person finding awesome venues, negotiating hotel deals, and making sure everyone gets where they need to be for events such as MagicCon, Disney Lorcana Challenges, Riftbound Regionals, Gen Con, PAX, and our own standalone tournaments.

If you love the satisfaction of juggling multiple moving pieces, negotiating great contracts, and seeing thousands of happy gamers enjoying events you helped create, this could be a great fit.

Your Day-to-Day

Finding and Booking Venues

Scout out convention centers and event spaces across the country that can handle our events
Negotiate contracts that work for both sides (you’ll get good at this!)
Visit potential venues to make sure they’ll actually work for what we need
Work with venue and internal teams on floor plans, power needs, internet setup, and all those critical details

Managing Hotels and Travel

Negotiate room blocks for our staff, special guests, and VIPs
Handle hotel contracts and make sure we’re not getting stuck with bad terms
Coordinate flights, hotels, and ground transportation for everyone who needs it
Keep track of who’s staying where and make sure check-ins go smoothly

Coordinating Catering and VIP Experiences

Arrange catering for staff, special guests, and VIP attendees at events
Create and manage VIP hospitality experiences that make guests feel valued
Work with vendors to ensure quality food service that fits our budget and schedule

Working with Vendors

Build relationships with AV companies, caterers, transportation providers, and other vendors
Get quotes, compare options, and negotiate pricing that makes sense
Make sure everyone delivers what they promised, when they promised it

Keeping Track of the Budget

Create and manage budgets for each event’s venue, hotel, and travel costs
Track deposits, payments, and final invoices (someone’s gotta do it!)
Keep management in the loop on how we’re doing against budget

Staying Organized

Juggle timelines for multiple events happening at the same time
Work with our operations, marketing, and event teams to make sure nothing falls through the cracks
Keep all your contracts, agreements, floor plans, and logistics organized (future you will thank present you)
Be the go-to person when venues, hotels, or vendors need answers

What You'll Need

Must-Haves

2-5 years doing event project management, conference planning, or venue management
You’ve negotiated venue and hotel contracts before
Strong organizational skills because you’ll be managing several events at once
Great communication skills, both written and in person
Comfortable with project management tools and spreadsheets
Proficiency with online communication tools (Discord, Slack, Teams)
Willing to travel about 25% of the time for site visits and events
Detail-oriented and reliable with deadlines (no “I’ll get to it eventually” types, please)

Nice-to-Haves

Experience with gaming conventions, comic cons, or similar fan events
Existing relationships with convention centers or hotels in major cities
Experience managing budgets over $100K

What We Offer

Salary: $40,000 – $55,000 depending on your experience
Bonuses based on event performance
The chance to work on events that thousands of people genuinely love
Travel to cool convention cities (we cover all your expenses)
A team that actually works together and cares about what we’re building
Room to grow your skills in event management and negotiation
401K with match, company discounts and more
Relocation assistance available

Where You'll Work

Location: We’d love to have you in our Elk Grove Village, IL office, but we’re open to flexibility for someone who’s the right fit.

Travel: Expect to travel about 25% of the time for site visits and events. Convention travel is part of the deal (but again, we cover everything).

Schedule: Normal business hours most of the time, with flexibility needed during events..

How to Apply

Send us your resume and a cover letter that tells us about your event management experience and why you want to work with us.

In your cover letter, please touch on:

Your experience negotiating venue and hotel contracts
The biggest events you’ve worked on (how many people? what was the budget?)
Whether you have any connection to gaming or convention culture
How you feel about 25% travel and some weekend work

Send these items to careers@pastimes.net

Pastimes provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States.