Events, Exhibitions & Meetings Manager

What you will do

Role Overview
Volvo Penta is seeking an exceptionally organized, self-sufficient, and proactive Events, Exhibitions & Meetings Manager to lead the end-to-end strategy, planning, and execution of trade shows, customer experiences, dealer meetings, and events across North America. 

This role requires a highly systematic project manager who excels at coordinating multiple workstreams, deadlines, and stakeholders. You will partner closely with Sales to define the strategy, goals, audience, and KPIs for each event and then lead the full process to bring each experience to life. From promotions to communications to graphics to logistics, you will keep the entire cross-functional team aligned, on track to deliver an exceptional customer experience. The ideal candidate thrives in fast-paced environments, is exceptionally structured in their approach, and delivers flawless execution backed by measurable results.

End to End Event, Exhibition & Meeting Management

• Lead the full lifecycle of event delivery from strategy definition through post-show analysis
• Partner with sales and business leaders, along with the marketing team, to define the event purpose, audience, messaging, and KPIs
• Translate objectives into detailed processes and deliverables including event briefs, timelines and checklists
• Manage all cross-functional deliverables including: 
  o    Promotions and pre-event communications
  o    Graphic and asset deadlines
  o    Content and messaging needs
  o    Booth/experience design decisions
  o    Logistics, freight, travel, and vendor coordination
  o    Staffing plans and schedules
• Work closely with the Brand Manager to ensure a seamless, compelling brand experience and the Communications Manager to secure message consistency across touch points
• Be the central project manager ensuring every stakeholder knows what needs to be done, by whom, and by when
• Maintain a disciplined process for status tracking, deadline enforcement, issue escalation, and documentation
• Serve as the primary on-site leader during setup, execution, and teardown at events, meetings & exhibitions
  
  
  Operational Excellence & Experience Delivery
• Manage booth assets, demos, signage, technology, and experience elements.
• Oversee vendor and agency partners, ensuring clarity of requirements and accountability to timelines and budgets
• Ensure all deliverables align with Volvo Group brand standards and safety/compliance requirements.
  Strategic Planning & KPI Alignment
• Conduct event evaluations and recommend the right shows, activations, and sponsorships based on strategic value and ROI
• Collaborate with Sales to define lead-capture plans, meeting targets, and follow-up actions
• Develop systematic processes to ensure consistency across events
  
  
  Measurement, Insights & Continuous Improvement
• Build a performance measurement framework tracking: 
  o    Lead scans and lead quality
  o    Meetings set and completed
  o    Demo interactions
  o    Visitor engagement
• Deliver post-event debriefs with insights, opportunities, and clear recommendations
  
  
  Cross Functional Coordination
• Serve as the primary point of contact for all event-related communication
• Align product, sales, brand, and leadership stakeholders on expectations, timelines, and deliverables
• Facilitate direction check-ins, distribute status updates, and proactively identify and resolve risks
• Provide clear direction to agencies, designers, and production partners

Who are you?

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Event Management, Business, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 5+ years of experience in event management, trade shows, or experiential marketing (B2B preferred)
• Demonstrated success managing large-scale, complex events
• Experience in marine, industrial, or transportation industries is a plus
• Intermediate daily experience using Microsoft products (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, etc.)
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills and ability to interface with all levels of employees, leaders, customers, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders
• Can read, write, understand and speak English. Bilingual (English plus Spanish, Swedish, etc.) a plus

Required Skills

Project Management Mastery

• Extremely organized, disciplined, and process-driven to establish consistent scalable routines
• Able to manage complex workflows and follow up with various stakeholders for accountability
• Skilled at juggling multiple events, milestones, and deadlines simultaneously

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Strong collaborator able to influence across organizations
• Excellent communicator who brings clarity and alignment to diverse teams.

Insight-Driven Approach

• Comfortable setting KPIs and translating performance data into recommendations.
• Constantly seeking opportunities to improve efficiency and impact.

Hands-On, Independent Workstyle

• Self-starter who anticipates needs and moves work forward with minimal oversight.
• Calm under pressure with strong problem-solving instincts

Expected Competence at Work: Employees in Volvo Penta are required to meet and/or develop to the following competencies:

• Respect: You trust, respect and provide equal attention to those around you.
• Collaborative: You build partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet objectives
• Trust: You gain the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity and authenticity
• Stakeholder Management: You can engage with others effectively no matter their role
• Self-Development: You seek new ways to grow and be challenged using different ways of learning
• Change Management: You know others respond to change differently and you support with empathy
• Influencing: You help colleagues by sharing your ideas and ensure that your message is clear
• Strategic mindset: You see future possibilities ahead and can translate them into new strategies
• Networking: You build formal and informal relationships across the organization proactively
• Accountability: You take responsibility and own up to commitments.
• Manage ambiguity: You can operate effectively even when things are not certain or clear
• Customer focus: You deliver customer-centric solutions
   

Ready for the next move?

Other Considerations:
To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States, and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status. 

This job is an on-site position along with flexibility based on Volvo Group work principles and coordination with your manager. 

Frequent domestic and international travel (minimum 30-50%)

Physical Requirements:

• Sustained periods of sitting, standing, walking
• Stooping, kneeling, bending, and crouching
• Lifting and/or moving up to 25 pounds
• Can sustain occasional long and/or irregular hours and weekend work
• Occasional exposure to heat, cold, wind, rain and other weather elements when working in certain environments