Senior Director of Audience & Community (Contract)
Bully Pulpit International
United StatesPosted about 1 month agoDiscoveredMatch locked
RemoteContractor8+ years exp
Remote with Required On-Site Presence in Los Angeles (April 4th - 6th, 2026)
Bully Pulpit International is an outcomes agency made up of strategists, data scientists, and artists. We come from politics, brands, and government and we communicate without barriers and measure what matters. We have more than 400 team members in six countries and thirteen offices - Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, D.C., London, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, San Francisco, and Zürich. We apply our unique expertise across strategic communications, public affairs, research, and digital marketing to create sophisticated and customized strategies that make change possible for both American and European clients.
About the Convening:
A Day of Unreasonable Conversation (UC) is an invitation-only annual summit which serves as a
trusted, curated space designed to foster honest, nuanced, and critical discourse on the most urgent
issues of our time. The gathering bridges the gap between the entertainment industry and social
impact sectors. It connects "culture shapers" - influential television writers, showrunners, producers,
executives, and digital storytellers who are literally writing the script for the world - with frontline
changemakers, advocates, philanthropists, and issue experts.
The core mission of UC is to "unlock progress through the power of stories". In a deeply polarized
moment where trust in traditional media is at a record low, the event aims to spark writers' rooms with
new ideas and give creators the tools to drive meaningful change. UC challenges storytellers to
complicate the narrative by moving beyond flat tropes and oversimplified binaries to explore the
systemic complexities of our time. Ultimately, the goal is to bring greater nuance, empathy, and truth to
the stories that shape public perception.
UC is grounded in the belief that culture is the multiplier for change at scale. Because culture sits
upstream of policy and politics, it is where people already are. Even in times of deep fracture when
people stop listening to experts or political parties, they still listen to stories. By bringing storytellers and
problem-solvers together, UC seeks to turn stage-side insights into long-term creative collaborations
that shift culture on screen and beyond.
A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is founded and produced by the social impact agency Propper
Daley x Bully Pulpit International (BPI). The event relies on cross-sector collaboration and is fully funded
Requirements
We're hiring a
Senior Director of Audience & Community
, reporting directly to the Executive Director, to build and steward the community at the heart of A Day of Unreasonable Conversation. This person will own the full audience function - from strategy and curation through CRM, outreach, guest experience, day-of execution, and long-term relationship building. We're looking for someone who sees the audience as a strategic asset and a living network, not a static guest list, and who can build and run this function with real authority and minimal oversight.
While the Day of Unreasonable Conversation is the community's annual gathering, this role is also responsible for activating that community throughout the year through small convenings (Evenings of Unreasonable Conversations), fellowships, editorial touchpoints, and ongoing relationship stewardship that keeps people connected between convenings.
Curation matters as much as headcount. We want a room with genuine diversity across perspectives, creative backgrounds, and positions in the industry. That means thinking carefully about what each person's pr
Strategy & Curation
•
Own the audience composition strategy.
Curate a room of approximately 500 guests that brings together the entertainment industry and the social impact sector. The audience should reflect both the trusted relationships UC has built over time and the creators, executives, organizations, and changemakers whose work is most relevant to the cultural conversation in the year of the convening. Every year's room should feel intentional, current, and additive.
- Lead the audience strategy for three Evenings of Unreasonable Conversations, curating intimate gatherings that introduce new voices, deepen relationships within the existing community, and intentionally funnel participants into the annual Day of Unreasonable Conversation.
•
Entertainment side
Writers and showrunners, producers and directors, network and studio executives who greenlight content, digital creators and online storytellers reflecting how culture is created and distributed today, and industry gatekeepers including agents, managers, and publicists - who shape which stories and talent reach audiences.
•
Social impact side
Frontline activists, researchers, policy experts, nonprofit and foundation leaders, and people with lived experience who bring subject-matter expertise and real-world perspective into the room.
•
Own audience strategy beyond “filling the room.”
Build a year-round community, not a one-day guest list. Define the audience function as a pipeline into fellowships, future convenings, and ongoing engagement, with clear goals for room composition, ideological and sector diversity, cultural influence, and long-term relationship building.
•
Build and maintain the ecosystem map.
Create and steward a living map of aligned organizations (studios, networks, production companies, nonprofits, advocacy groups, foundations, agencies, etc.), maintaining relationships throughout the year so UC is continuously expanding and strengthening its community rather than rebuilding it each event cycle.
•
Develop audience engagement strategies
for different community segments, including returning attendees, fellows, funders, creative leaders, first-time participants, and strategic partners, ensuring each group has meaningful opportunities to engage with UC throughout the year.
•
Run a tiered outreach and room-design strategy.
Execute a Tier 1/2/3 invitation rollout against defined room-mix targets by sector, geography, ideology, influence, and creative discipline. Identify hub connectors at major studios, agencies, platforms, and organizations to help recruit attendees, and track progress against those targets throughout the invitation period, not just at the finish line.
Systems & Reporting
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Own the CRM and audience database as a strategic system.
Move the function off ad hoc tools and onto an integrated platform that supports registration, segmentation, and year-round relationship tracking, and tag attendees by role, influence, funder relationship, fellowship potential, dietary restrictions, and special needs so the data serves more than one event cycle.
•
Design a multi-stakeholder reporting structure.
Build dashboards and metrics that translate raw audience data into clear, digestible insights for the Executive Director, funders, and cross-functional teams, so different stakeholders can see exactly what they need without you rebuilding the reporting each time.
•
Maintain live tracking and report progress on a set cadence.
Keep a single master tracker covering RSVP health, room mix, VIP allocation, and flake rates, and report against goals in a weekly check-in with the Executive Director and cross-functional partners (Talent, Editorial, Fellowships, Fundraising) so the room is built deliberately over time, not assembled in a last-minute push.
•
Serve as the senior owner of cross-functional audience alignment.
Define how the Audience & Community function interfaces with Talent, Editorial, Fundraising, Fellowships, and Production so audience decisions are explicitly tied to broader program goals, operating within clear guardrails and decision rights rather than relying on constant escalation.
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Define and track outcome KPIs, not just operational metrics.
Set targets for guest satisfaction, repeat engagement, and year-over-year retention, and report progress against them alongside room mix and RSVP data.
•
Track year-round community health.
You are measuring participation across Evenings, fellowships, editorial engagement, repeat attendance, introductions made, and other indicators of long-term relationship growth - not just annual event attendance.
•
Run structured, proactive workflows.
Build and manage the outreach calendar, invitation workflows, and templates for each audience segment, including the review and approval timeline across key stakeholders so materials move through sign-off without stalling, and independently hit deadlines and turnaround times without needing to be chased or have work taken over.
•
Own the working relationship with the graphic designer for audience-facing communications.
Brief the designer directly on invitations, templates, and outreach materials, manage revisions and turnaround, and bring finished assets to the Executive Director for approval rather than routing every step through her.
Guest Experience & Day-of Operations
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Bridge audience development and the day-of guest experience.
Design the full guest journey from first invitation through on-site arrival, seating, and departure, working directly with production and logistics so the invitation process and hospitality experience feel like one seamless continuum rather than separate tracks.
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Develop the audience logistics packet and manage partner fulfillment.
Ensure funders, speakers, co-chairs, and key partners have their guests properly accommodated, from invitations and registration through on-site hospitality and special requests.
•
Own day-of audience operations.
Lead registration and check-in protocols, VIP and priority guest handling, real-time seating and room-fill management, and serve as the final decision maker on live audience issues throughout the event.
Post-Event & Cross-Functional Leadership
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Lead post-event learning and long-term relationship building.
Manage the distribution and analysis of post-event audience surveys, capture structured feedback and impact data, report key insights to leadership and funders, and build a thoughtful, tiered follow-up strategy that connects attendees to fellowships, Evenings, future convenings, and other opportunities for continued engagement.
•
Develop and execute a year-round audience engagement calendar
that includes editorial updates, digital briefings, community check-ins, and opportunities for members to contribute to UC research, storytelling, fellowships, and future programming.
•
Build and steward a curated network of "UC Friendlies"
trusted writers, creators, executives, researchers, philanthropists, and cultural leaders who can be activated throughout the year as contributors, moderators, hosts, advisors, speakers, fellowship participants, or connectors into new communities.
What You Bring
- 8-10+ years in audience development, community strategy, membership, partnerships, or relationship-driven leadership roles in media, entertainment, philanthropy, or live experiences, with a demonstrated track record of building and stewarding communities and networks over time.
- Demonstrated success building and activating communities over time - not simply managing audiences for individual events with the ability to turn participants into long-term collaborators, contributors, and ambassadors.
- Senior enough to hold real decision-making authority across both audience development (strategy, curation, invitations) and audience management (hospitality, guest experience), managing them as one cohesive function rather than two disconnected tracks.
- Deep knowledge of the entertainment and social-impact ecosystem, with genuine relationships across television, film, digital media, agencies, studios, philanthropy, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and other culture-shaping communities.
- Excellent judgment and creative instincts for audience curation. You know how to preserve trusted relationships while continually bringing new voices into the community, finding unconventional paths to the right room instead of relying on the same invite list every year.
- Experience integrating relationship management with hospitality operations, including VIP travel, guest communications, registration, seating, and on-site experience, so every interaction feels like part of one cohesive guest journey.
- Hands-on experience building and owning a CRM or audience platform (such as Whova, Cvent, Swapcard, or Swoogo) as a year-round relationship management system, not simply an event registration tool.
- Comfortable directing and briefing creative execution. You can brief a designer clearly, give useful feedback on drafts, and bring polished, on-brand materials forward for final approval rather than requiring hands-on creative direction from leadership at every step.
- Exceptional systems thinker with strong project management instincts. You naturally build scalable workflows, trackers, reporting structures, and operating systems that make teams more effective.
- Rigorous attention to detail and reporting discipline. You build and maintain accurate, structured tracking and reporting systems as a matter of habit, not an afterthought.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and proactively. You hit deadlines, manage your own communications cadence, and drive work forward without needing to be pushed or having projects taken over.
- Comfortable owning ambiguity and defining scope. You can build a new function and establish its guardrails rather than waiting for detailed direction.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills for funder-facing reporting, VIP correspondence, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Able to work in an intensive event environment. The weeks leading into the convening require significant focus and availability, and major personal travel should be planned outside this period.
- Must be able to be on-site in Los Angeles for event pre-production and the convening (April 4-6).
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