Events Senior Manager

We are looking for an Events Senior Manager to serve as operational lead for assigned events, partnering closely with Sales, Marketing, Content, Registration, and other cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality experiences that achieve revenue, margin, attendee, and sponsor objectives.

About the role

The Senior Manager will manage events from initial strategy and budgeting through onsite execution and post-event analysis, with a strong focus on operational excellence, financial discipline, consistency, and continuous improvement. This role will also play an important part in evolving events from stand-alone moments in time into integrated components of the broader business—connecting live experiences with audience, content, community, and revenue strategies.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and execution of conferences and trade shows, specifically year 1 event launches.
• Develop event strategies aligned with overall business, brand, audience, and revenue objectives.
• Establish event goals, timelines, operating plans, and key milestones in partnership with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Evaluate event performance and recommend opportunities for growth, optimization, or repositioning.
• Own event expense budgets and partner with leadership and sales on revenue and margin goals.
• Develop accurate event forecasts and proactively manage expenses throughout the planning lifecycle.
• Identify opportunities to improve event profitability through strategic sourcing, volume purchasing, vendor consolidation, and right-sizing of spend.
• Evaluate investments based on measurable impact to attendee experience, sponsor value, revenue, and overall event performance.
• Track budget performance and communicate risks, opportunities, and variances to leadership.
• Lead end-to-end event operations from initial planning through onsite execution and post-event reconciliation.
• Manage venue selection, hotel contracting, room blocks, meeting space, floorplans, food and beverage, production, signage, transportation, staffing, and other operational requirements.
• Develop and maintain detailed event timelines, production schedules, floorplans, agendas, and operational documentation.
• Ensure events are delivered consistently against established brand and operational standards.
• Serve as a senior onsite leader, proactively identifying and resolving operational issues.
• Serve as the central operational point of contact for assigned events.
• Lead regular cross-functional event planning meetings with Sales, Marketing, Content, Registration, and other stakeholders.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, deadlines, and accountability across event teams.
• Build strong relationships across the organization and proactively resolve competing priorities.

Requirements

• 7+ years of progressive experience in event management, including extensive experience with conferences and trade shows.
• Demonstrated experience independently managing complex, multi-stakeholder events.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing event budgets, forecasts, and profitability.
• Experience managing hotels, venues, production partners, general service contractors, and other event vendors.
• Strong understanding of sponsorship and exhibitor operations.
• Experience with event technology and registration platforms; Cvent experience strongly preferred.
• Experience managing multiple events simultaneously across different stages of the planning lifecycle.
• Strong project management, organization, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to translate business objectives into actionable event strategies.
• Advanced Excel skills and finance-level budget discipline.
• Comfortable with extensive travel to attend events across the portfolios.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to travel regularly and work extended hours during event execution as required.

About Arrowfly

Arrowfly is a live and digital B2B destination serving professionals across the engineering, healthcare, food, retail and hospitality sectors. The company delivers trusted journalism and editorial content, industry-defining events, and digital measurement tools, all backed by an established reputation for independence and credibility in the markets it serves. This is an opportunity to join a company in active transformation, with a portfolio of 40+ events, a growing team, and the ambition to build something that sets the standard for B2B events marketing.

Our values are simple: The Audience Comes First, Raise the Bar, Unite the Community, Surface What Matters Most, and Track What Works. If those resonate with how you work, you'll fit right in.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Premium medical, dental, vision and other health plans – you choose what fits your needs
• Full vested 401(k) match to help you prepare for your future
• Generous paid time off, including vacation, sick, float, bereavement, 12 office holidays and flexible working hours
• Supportive work/life balance and paid parental leave
• Dynamic, dedicated, fun and hard-working environment
• A collaborative work environment in a growing market
• Consistently ranked as a Top Workplace and included on the Forbes 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for 5+ years

Pay

$75,000 - $85,000 DOE