Project Manager Customer Service

VIRAL SHAH

Jersey City, NJ | 917-***-**** | *******@********.***

EVENT PLANNER

Effective planner with extensive experience planning, marketing and organizing top-tier Bollywood concerts with primary focus on audience satisfaction and entertainment. Event coordination has been my passion for the last fifteen years. Beginning in College where I organized charity events, to building on my analytical and organizational skills as a Business Analyst, to the last five years where I have been formally working as an Event Manager it's been the single thread that's driven me. My experience has proven that I have strong social and communication skills, experience with public speaking, and dealing with a variety of people and building relationships, and that I am quick on my feet for those times when things don't go exactly as planned.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

BIBI MAGAZINE, New York, NY 2007 to Present

Sr. Event Planner

Primary point of contact for event-day activities, including coordination between cross functional and operational teams.

Success includes:

• Managed a wide variety of South Asian events including, White Parties, Fashion Show, Charity events, Bridal show, New Year’s Eve party

• Handled talent from briefings to creating presentation materials and managing PR opportunities.

• Supervise logistics to ensure success of event in its entirety.

• Manage internal and external teams on the day of the event, including talent, music, red-carpet and media to ensure successful execution.

• Media and PR liaison for press-conferences, interviews and post-event opportunities.

ARIZ INC. 2007 to 2010

Managing Events Specialist

Main focus was on South Asian and Bollywood concert management. Oversee operational aspects of event management including venue selection, contract negotiations, transportation arrangements coordination between teams.

Success includes:

• Responsible for planning and executing events with up to 5,000 people.

• Establish events policies and best practices with a focus on contracting, logistics, and execution.

• Significant comprehension of online applications as tools for production of meeting materials, scheduling, and on-site management.

• Forecast long-term event goals to meet demand in the most cost-effective manner.

• Developed scripts and conducted training for customer service team to handle customer support and enquiries for event information and ticket sales.

• Handled talent from briefings to creating presentation materials and managing PR opportunities.

• Evaluated media opportunities for all events including print, TV, radio and digital.

• Handle all on-site event day management of staff, vendors and property managers.

• Responsible for generating revenue via ticket sales and sponsorships as needed to meet monthly budget goals.

British Petroleum North Region

Technology Project Manager August 2004 – Jan 2006

As a Project Manager in charge of hardware rollouts for all Northeast and Midwest regions, I travel to various client sites for technology assessments of locations that are scheduled for hardware rollout. The challenge faced is completing hardware rollouts that are transparent to the end user, with minimal to no issues, in the allocated time on a daily basis. Coordinate multi level training and provide level 1 and level 2 support to ensure nominal downtime for users.

Under my leadership, the team of 10-15 IT professionals, composed of trainers, migrations specialist and post migration support team, completed projects ahead of schedule and under budget while exceeding SLAs (Service Level Agreements) defined by client and vendor; thereby increasing profit margin.

• Managed aggressive schedules and competitive budgets for more than 40 BP terminal sites and remediation projects with total revenue in excess of $2,000,000.

• Led cross-functional teams composed of trainers, migrations specialist and post migration support team in the development, implementation and support processes of deployment procedures.

• Ordered equipment based on predeployment findings from vendors.

• Deployed IT professionals to conduct physical system migrations.

• Coordinated multi-level training for company personnel in upgraded technology platforms.

• Provided seamless migrations and proven track record of minimal post migrations issues.

• Responsible for facilitating post-system migration support.

• Daily follow-ups with clients on progress and customer service

• Improved turn around time for migrations processes based on technical updates and findings.

• Revamped procedures based on client feedback.

• Submitted daily progress reports for client billing purposes.

UsaIndia Outsourcing Solutions (BPO), Jersey City, NJ

Outsourcing Account Manager Feb 2001 – May 2004

Oversee all new business development and maintained customer relations including change requirements.

• Involved in complete spectrum of business development right from procurement of new business to the presentation, negotiation and closing of the sale.

• Act as liaison between client and BPO center; maintain customer relations.

• Involved in improving scripts, staffing, training, call monitoring for quality assurance.

• Developed and executed client presentations, focused on outsourcing benefits.

• Requirement analysis - Designing personalized sourcing plans for company specific needs, solutions focused on company budgetary restrictions and maximizing profits.

• Formed alliances with existing overseas BPO operations to fulfill or exceed clients expectations and goals.

News Corporation, New York, NY May 1998 – Sept2000

Meeting Support Lead

Liaison between various cross teams (Creative, Technology, and HR) to deliver awareness and learning tools to employees.

• Support to the HR/Events team.

• Designed and developed an intranet to bridge gap between HR offices worldwide.

• Internal HR campaigns thru the web and brown bag lunch and learn.

• Launched new IT and HR applications awareness programs.

• Y2K education campaign for internal users.

• Designed, published and solicited content for the monthly ‘What’s new in IT’ newsletter.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Education:

B.S., Psychology and Management, Rutgers University ‘94

M.S, Management Information Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology ‘98

Find me on the web:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/viral-shah/a/b37/294

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