Senior Manager, Event Activation & Execution

Carnival Corporation•Seattle, WA

5h•Remote

About The Position

Holland America Line has been exploring the world since 1873. Our ships offer innovative features and enriching experiences focused on destination exploration and personalized travel, inviting guests to savor the journey. We are looking for a Senior Manager, Event Activation & Execution. The Senior Manager, Event Activation & Execution is responsible for the strategic planning and execution of sales events and experiential initiatives across Holland America Line and Seabourn. This role owns the delivery of high ‑ impact sales events, industry conferences, and sales meetings that support trade engagement and commercial objectives, while providing leadership to a team responsible for execution and coordination. Here’s a summary of what Holland America Line is looking for. Is this you?

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Sales & Marketing, Business etc. Or Equivalent industry specific experience.
7–10 years of progressive experience in sales events, trade marketing, experiential activation, or commercial engagement roles, with at least 3 years in a leadership or manager ‑ of ‑ managers capacity.
Demonstrated experience leading strategy development for large ‑ scale, multi ‑ brand, or enterprise ‑ level events, conferences, or trade engagement programs.
Proven ability to translate commercial objectives into event strategies, including annual planning, prioritization, and ROI forecasting.
Experience managing complex cross ‑ functional workstreams across Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management, Operations, and external vendors.
Demonstrated success in budget ownership, financial planning, cost optimization, vendor negotiation, and contract oversight.
Strong track record of team leadership, including mentoring, coaching, and building high ‑ performance teams responsible for execution.
Experience creating and enforcing governance frameworks, operational standards, or process improvements for an events or experiential function.
Proven ability to operate as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, providing insights, recommendations, and data ‑ driven decision support related to event performance and trade engagement strategy.
Demonstrated capability navigating multiple concurrent initiatives, managing competing timelines, and delivering results in fast ‑ paced, high ‑ visibility environments.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in the travel, hospitality, cruise, or related experience ‑ driven industry preferred.

Responsibilities

Strategic Event & Channel Planning: Develop the multi ‑ year strategic roadmap for sales events, FAM trip programming, trade engagement experiences, and conference presence across HAL/SBN, ensuring alignment with commercial priorities and revenue growth objectives. Translate brand and commercial strategy into an annual events framework, prioritizing initiatives based on expected ROI, market trends, and trade partner needs.
Portfolio Ownership & Resource Allocation: Serve as the strategic owner of the dual ‑ brand sales events portfolio, determining which events to activate annually and the level of investment for each. Make data ‑ informed recommendations on resource allocation, budget prioritization, and event scaling to maximize commercial outcomes.
Enterprise Stakeholder Leadership: Lead cross-functional steering groups (Sales, Brand, Revenue, Deployment, MarTech, Onboard Operations) to align event strategies with enterprise ‑ wide objectives. Influence senior stakeholders by presenting event strategies, performance insights, and investment recommendations.
Vendor Strategy & Negotiation Authority: Oversee vendor strategy, including selection, contract negotiation within delegated limits, performance evaluation, and optimization of service costs across the event portfolio. Establish long-term vendor partnerships that improve consistency, reduce cost of delivery, and enhance brand impact across trade channels.
Team Leadership & Capability Development: Build and lead a high-performance team capable of executing large ‑ scale, complex events across multiple geographies and brands. Define team structure, role expectations, and capability development plans, ensuring bandwidth and expertise align with growth ambitions.
Governance & Standards Creation: Create and enforce events governance frameworks, standardizing planning cycles, brand consistency, reporting expectations, and risk mitigation across all event types. Set enterprise standards for physical sales assets, FAM trip quality, site inspections, and trade show representation.
Performance Measurement & Optimization: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for events and experiential initiatives; develop reporting dashboards and deliver insights to senior leaders that influence future priorities and investment decisions. Perform ROI evaluation on major events and recommend modifications to improve commercial impact and operational efficiency.
Sales Channel Influence & Go-to-Market Integration: Partner with Sales and Brand leadership to embed event strategy into go ‑ to ‑ market plans, ensuring experiences directly support channel acquisition, trade loyalty, and revenue goals. Shape how HAL/SBN show up within trade and conference environments, elevating the value proposition for partners at every touchpoint.
National & Global Sales Meetings Plan and execute alternating national and global sales meetings, ensuring seamless delivery, cross functional alignment, and clear linkage to commercial objectives.
Trade Show Merchandise & Logo ware: Own the strategy and execution of trade show merchandise and branded logo ware, ensuring brand alignment, quality standards, and effective utilization.