Senior Manager, Events Corp - MUST BE LOCAL TO DENVER

Job description

We Deliver the Goods

• Competitive pay and benefits, including Day 1 Health & Wellness Benefits, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, 401K Employer Matching, Education Assistance, Paid Time Off, and much more
• Growth opportunities performing essential work to support America’s food distribution system
• Safe and inclusive working environment, including culture of rewards, recognition, and respect

Position Purpose

The Senior Manager, Meetings & Events will lead 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 role will serve as a highly visible representative of Vistar, helping establish the tone, professionalism, and overall attendee experience from planning through onsite execution.

The Senior Manager will own event strategy and logistics, budgets, vendor and hospitality relationships, contract negotiations, and the technology solutions required to execute successful events. The role will partner closely with Marketing, Sales, leadership, suppliers, customers, and external partners to deliver engaging, brand consistent experiences with strong financial and operational discipline.

Major Functional Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and execution of national meetings and events calendar, including industry trade shows, customer events, internal meetings, leadership events, and other strategic gatherings.
• Manage events from initial concepts, venue selection, and contracting through planning, onsite execution, post-event evaluation, and financial reconciliation.
• Establish the tone and overall experience for meetings and events, ensuring programs 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.
• Lead negotiations with hotels, venues, convention properties, production companies, technology providers, and other hospitality and event partners.
• Manage key commercial terms including 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 high-quality attendee experience and appropriate financial controls.
• Evaluate and support technology solutions used for event registration, attendee communications, mobile experiences, event management, lead capture, and reporting.
• Partner with Marketing to connect meetings and events with broader brand, customer engagement, supplier, and lead-generation efforts.
• Support vendor selection, contracting, budgeting, implementation, and ongoing management of event-related technology solutions.
• Serve as the central point of coordination across Marketing, Sales, leadership, suppliers, customers, and external event partners.
• Lead planning meetings and communicate clear 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 that improve event consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency.
• Performs other duties as assigned
• Complies with all policies and standards