The Associate Director, Event Experience leads a designated segment of the Event Experience team and/or Managers in Event Experience under the guidance of the Sr. Director, driving operational excellence, team development, and alignment with organizational goals. This role contributes to the creation and execution of strategic initiatives, supports comprehensive P&L management, and informs financial strategy to ensure fiscal accountability and high-impact decision-making across the Event Experience function. Additionally, the Associate Director ensures that training programs are effectively designed, delivered, and aligned with company objectives to strengthen team capability and consistency. With deep expertise in high-end incentive programs, creative experiential elements, and large-scale complex programs, this role helps shape exceptional client experiences from concept through execution.
What you will do here:
Team Management and Individual Mentoring and Coaching:
- Manage and mentor Managers, and Event Experience Managers, fostering their professional growth
- Support team members with coaching and timely feedback
- Monitor and optimize individual workload utilization
- Conduct regular performance evaluations and set SMART goals, giving team members clear direction and alignment with department goals.
- Foster a positive, collaborative, and inclusive team culture through recognition and engagement initiatives
- Participate in hiring, onboarding and training of new team members
Strategic Development & Consultation:
- Champion best practices in service delivery and team leadership
- Represent Event Experience in client meetings and internal forums
- Drive collaboration and communication across the organization
- Lead strategic change initiatives and ensure smooth adoption across the team
- Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to drive strategic initiatives
Financial Accountability:
- Establish and maintain financial standards for Event Managers across the organization
- Offer a full understanding and be a clear leader of M&IW’s full Financial Process including but not limited to: Budget creation/management, Check request processing, credit card processing and reconciliation, Reconciliation of the hotel invoice, Reconciliation of all other 3rd party suppliers, Final invoice, reconciliation process, Cash flow management, Cost savings
- Mentor team members on financial acumen and compliance standards
- If applicable, have a full understanding of pharmaceutical clinical meeting compliance and reporting requirements
Training:
- Coordinate and deliver training programs, including creating content, materials, and interactive presentations
- Partner with internal teams (Operations, Customer Success) to ensure team members have the tools and skills to meet expectations
- Facilitate periodic training sessions and leverage external vendors/partners for specialized industry topics
- Stay current on industry trends and training best practices through webinars, courses, and networking opportunities
- Ensure proficiency in company and client systems
- Support development and delivery of messaging for team
Client Services & Onsite Execution:
- Build and maintain strong client relationships to foster trust and repeat business
- Collaborate with internal teams to ensure client goals are met across all event components
- Support sales initiatives through RFP review, identifying key talking points, updating PPT decks and presenting to existing or prospective clients
- Travel domestically and internationally as needed (approximately 1-2x per quarter)
What we expect:
Details of these areas are shared during interviews and monthly reviews:
- Cultural Excellence
- Role Level Function
- Emotional Intelligence
What you will bring:
- College Degree or equivalent
- Minimum 12 years of experience in the Meeting Industry Preferred
- Minimum 4 years of experience in a managerial role of direct reports
- Experience of high-end Incentives with ideation of creative experiential elements
- Experience in large-scale, complex programs (1,000-8,000 attendees)
- Knowledge of Cvent is preferred
- Proven ability to manage and coach project-based team members
- Leadership experience with direct reports and/or team coordination
- Demonstrated success in leading multi-disciplinary teams
- Executive presence and ability to influence senior stakeholders
- Strong client communication and consulting skills
- Strategic thinking and the ability to implement large-scale improvements
- Background in strategy development and implementation
- Familiarity with various event types
- Ability to balance operational execution with people development
- Strong presentation, facilitation, and client advisory skills
- Proven ability to manage budgets, forecasts, and resources
- Proven ability to champion and lead change management initiatives, driving adoption
- Depth in client relationship management and service innovation
- Customer-focused self-starter with high levels of initiative, flexibility and organization
- Effective manager of people with strong team-building and personal development goals
- Thrives managing multiple complex projects, people and resources in a fast-paced, deadline oriented, dynamic environment
- Experience working in a virtual office environment
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally
- Proven excellent oral and written communication skills in both internal and client-facing environments
What we provide:
- Competitive salary
- Health, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance options
- 401K plan
- Paid holidays
- Accrued personal time off for vacation and sick leave
- Laptop, additional monitor, and mobile phone
- Global Giveback program for volunteer service
- Remote Office / Work from home, or option to work in our corporate headquarters located near Milwaukee
Physical Job Requirements:
This role requires a combination of administrative expertise and physical activity. The physical demands described below represent those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While much of the work involves planning and coordination, successful execution of meetings and events often requires active, hands-on support.
Physical activities include, but are not limited to the following:
- Standing and Walking: Frequent standing and walking are required, particularly during event setup, registration, and onsite administration. Extended periods on one’s feet are common throughout an event, often up to 4 hours without a rest break. A typical onsite day may last 8 to 14 hours, depending on client needs and agreements.
- Sitting: Occasional sitting is required during planning meetings, travel to and from event sites, computer-based work, or registration duties.
- Lifting and Carrying: Frequently required to lift, carry, push, or pull event materials, supplies, signage, or equipment weighing up to 25 pounds; occasionally up to 40 pounds. Items over 25 pounds require assistance from another M&IW team member.
- Reaching and Grasping: Event setup and breakdown may involve reaching overhead and handling tools or materials.
- Bending/Kneeling/Crouching: Occasionally required during event setup and breakdown.
- Repetitive Motions: Repeated hand and arm movements may occur during tasks such as preparing registration, arranging event spaces, or setting up displays.
- Travel Requirements: Frequent travel to event sites, venues, and client locations, often involving overnight stays. This may include navigating airports, train stations, hotels, and conference centers.
- Operating Vehicles: Occasional driving may be required to transport materials or travel to off-site event locations. This applies only to approved drivers with prior authorization from the Onsite Lead.
- Working in Varying Environments: Events occur in diverse settings, including indoor venues (conference centers, hotels) and outdoor spaces. Planners may encounter fluctuating temperatures, weather conditions, crowded or noisy environments, and varying lighting levels.
Who we are:
M&IW is a global event management firm specializing in virtual, hybrid, and in-person experiences of all shapes and sizes as well as consulting and enterprise strategies. As an entrepreneurial organization, we place customers at the center of everything we do and prioritize their needs through our core values of quality, agility, flexibility, and innovation. M&IW is a third generation, privately held, certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) in business for more than 50 years. Headquartered in Wisconsin, USA, and supported by a remote workforce across the US and in the UK, China, and Brazil.
M&IW provides a portfolio of management services for meetings, events, incentives, conferences, and tradeshows. Those services include Event Management and Design, Event Sourcing, Attendee Registration and Reporting, Event Technology and Production, Creative Services, Event Marketing and Communications, Gifting and Engagement Strategies, Incentive and Recognition Solutions, Group Air Travel, On-Site Execution and Staffing, and Event Analytics. Our consulting and enterprise services include Technology Implementation and Administration, Meeting Policy, Process and Optimization, Third-party Governance, Executive Dashboards and Analytics, and Sustainability Best Practices and Tracking.
GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS:
10520 7 Mile Road, P.O. Box 65, Caledonia, WI 53108 | Phone +1 262-835-3553
www.meetings-incentives.com
M&IW associates are located throughout the US, UK, Latin America and Asia Pacific Regions