Senior Manager, Events Corp

About the position

The Senior Manager, Meetings & Events leads the planning, development, and execution of Vistar’s national meetings and events portfolio, including industry trade shows, customer events, internal meetings, leadership events, and other strategic experiences. This highly visible role represents Vistar and establishes the tone, professionalism, and attendee experience from planning through onsite execution.\n\nThe Senior Manager owns event strategy and logistics, budgets, vendor and hospitality relationships, contract negotiations, and the technology solutions needed to deliver successful events. The role partners closely with Marketing, Sales, leadership, suppliers, customers, and external partners to create engaging, brand-consistent experiences while maintaining financial and operational discipline. It also establishes repeatable processes, tools, standards, and post-event reporting to improve consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency.

Responsibilities

Lead the planning and execution of the national meetings and events calendar, including trade shows, customer events, internal meetings, leadership events, and other strategic gatherings.Manage events from concept development, venue selection, and contracting through planning, onsite execution, post-event evaluation, and financial reconciliation.Establish the tone and attendee experience, ensuring events are engaging, well organized, and representative of the Vistar brand.Serve as a primary onsite representative and point of contact for attendees, partners, vendors, and internal stakeholders.Coordinate programming, run-of-show, speakers, production, audiovisual services, food and beverage, transportation, accommodations, signage, and attendee experience.Develop and manage annual and event-specific budgets, forecasts, purchase commitments, approvals, expense tracking, and final reconciliations.Negotiate with hotels, venues, convention properties, production companies, technology providers, and other hospitality and event partners.Manage commercial terms such as room blocks, food and beverage commitments, meeting space, attrition, cancellation provisions, audiovisual services, and related event costs.Identify opportunities to improve event economics while maintaining attendee experience and financial controls.Evaluate and support technology for event registration, attendee communications, mobile experiences, event management, lead capture, and reporting.Partner with Marketing to connect events with brand, customer engagement, supplier, and lead-generation efforts.Support vendor selection, contracting, budgeting, implementation, and ongoing management of event-related technology solutions.Coordinate across Marketing, Sales, leadership, suppliers, customers, and external event partners.Lead planning meetings and communicate timelines, roles, decisions, deliverables, and expectations.Anticipate challenges, resolve issues independently, and maintain continuity before, during, and after events.Establish repeatable processes, tools, standards, and post-event reporting to improve event consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency.Perform other duties as assigned and comply with all policies and standards.Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management, Business, Communications, or a related field.5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in corporate meetings and events, hospitality, trade shows, experiential marketing, or a related field.Demonstrated experience leading complex corporate meetings, customer events, conferences, or trade shows from strategy through execution.Experience developing and managing event budgets, forecasts, reconciliations, and vendor-related expenses.Experience negotiating hotel, venue, production, technology, and event-service contracts.Strong presence and communication skills, including the ability to lead meetings, engage audiences, and represent Vistar with customers, suppliers, executives, and industry partners.Strong project-management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple events, deadlines, vendors, and stakeholders simultaneously.Ability to work independently, take ownership, anticipate needs, solve problems, and move projects forward with limited direction.Ability to travel approximately 25% for site visits, trade shows, customer events, internal meetings, and other company-sponsored events; occasional weekend travel for events is included.Physical capability to meet role demands, including lifting and handling objects weighing 20–30 lbs.Nice-to-haves

Direct experience negotiating hotel and venue agreements, including room blocks, food and beverage commitments, attrition, cancellation terms, meeting space, and audiovisual services.Experience presenting to and working directly with senior executive leaders, customers, suppliers, and industry partners in highly visible settings.Experience partnering with Marketing and Sales to connect event execution with brand, customer engagement, supplier, and lead-generation objectives.Working knowledge of event measurement, attendee feedback, post-event reporting, and continuous improvement practices.Experience leading cross-functional project teams and external agency, production, hospitality, or technology partners.2+ years of direct people management experience.Certified Meeting Professional.Benefits

Competitive pay and benefits.Day 1 Health & Wellness Benefits.Employee Stock Purchase Plan.401K Employer Matching.Education Assistance.Paid Time Off.Growth opportunities.Safe and inclusive working environment with rewards, recognition, and respect.