ABOUT US

Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Since its founding in 1949, the Institute has been driving change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most critical challenges facing communities in the United States and around the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

To achieve our mission of a more free, just, and equitable society, we commit to working proactively to advance the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our myriad endeavors such as the recruitment, compensation, training, and advancement of staff. The best people-serving institutions make this commitment, and we seek to be a leader in the ways that we do so and learn from others. Visit our website to learn more about our commitment and recent actions taken toward building and nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment.

Energy & Environment Program

The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program (EEP) is a 54-year-old program that works with people, organizations, and governments to act on climate change. In doing so, EEP seeks to:

• Provide a space for “impossible” dialogues to thrive, encouraging leaders across industries and sectors to recast what they think is achievable in terms of how policy, economics, technology, and above all, relationships can be brought to bear in furtherance of a sustainable future.
• Advance equity and justice by elevating and amplifying diverse voices across energy and environmental issues, encourage those who hold greater agency and responsibility to change the course of the climate crisis to listen and act; and focus dialogues around community engagement in climate solutions.
• Connect our collaborators with one another and inspire different spheres of influence to take greater climate action together, and to better connect the dots between efforts, organizations, and communities.

The Energy & Environment team works with the Public Programs team at the Aspen Institute to produce Aspen Ideas: Climate, a large-scale event that is open to the general public. This position will support Aspen Ideas: Climate, to be held July 21-22, 2025 in Chicago.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The Aspen Institute seeks a Speaker Coordinator within the Energy & Environment team to help support the team with speaker management for Aspen Ideas: Climate Chicago, including logistics, travel, and lodging. The Speaker Coordinator will work closely with the speaker management team and other staff members to ensure a seamless process and experience for our event speakers and their teams. Travel to Chicago for the event in July, 2025 is required.

Please note that this is a full-time temporary position from February through the end of July 2025. The annualized salary for this role is $60,000. Long hours and working on weekends is expected during the months of June and July leading up to and during the event.

This position reports to the lead who oversees the speaker team. In accordance with our Reimagining Work policy, the coordinator should be willing to be in-person with colleagues a minimum of 40% of the time while having the flexibility to work remotely for the balance. In-person consists of meaningful connections with colleagues in an office, traveling to a different office or location to meet fellow staff members, at an Aspen event, at a meeting outside the office or other opportunities to meet in person with teammates and colleagues.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Programmatic Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of approximately 75 speakers, overseeing the coordination of their travel and other logistics as assigned and in coordination with key Institute staff; and
• Support speaker reimbursements and vendor invoices as needed;

Event and Speaker Management Responsibilities:

• Administration of invitations to presenters on behalf of Aspen Ideas: Climate, management of responses, support speakers’ travel and accommodations;
• Solicit biographies and headshots of program presenters;
• Work with Communications staff on marketing, web content, social, and program materials related to speakers;
• Database management, including researching presenter’s work and background, contact information
• Drafting email correspondence, speaker invitations, session descriptions.
• Willingness to step into other event-related projects as they arise

Administrative Responsibilities:

• Program billing as appropriate.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO THRIVE

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent of 2+Â years of work experience in event planning;
• Exceptional organizational skills, self-motivated, detail-oriented and has an eye for the big picture;
• Thrives in optimizing processes, workflows, tracking information, and general improvement of event planning and management;
• Excellent written and oral communications skills;
• A "Yes, and" attitude
• Superb customer service skills;
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite especially Word, Excel and other programs preferred such as Google Docs, Outlook, Cvent, ArtsVision;
• Intellectual curiosity a plus; and
• Candidates should be located in Chicago or Washington, DC or nearby. Travel to Chicago for the event in July, 2025 is required.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

The Aspen Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all District and federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected veteran or disabled status and will not be discriminated against.

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