Trade Show and Events Director

nVent•St Louis, MN

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Global Events & Partnership Marketing is a senior leader within nVent’s Marketing organization, based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and reporting to the Vice-President of External Communications. The role leads nVent’s global center of excellence for trade shows, customer and partner events, sponsorships, and related enterprise brand activations. It harmonizes global events strategy with local execution across nVent’s portfolio of brands and establishes the processes, operating model, standards, and investment priorities needed to deliver consistent, high-impact experiences across regions and business segments. The director sets global strategy and governance for events and partnerships, advises executive leaders on activation choices and investment, and establishes standards for selecting events, sponsors, partners, agencies, and experiential technologies. The position develops strategic marketing partnerships, integrates event plans with sales and marketing priorities, and governs brand experiences across physical and digital touchpoints. The role also establishes performance measures for activation impact, lead progression, brand impact, and return on investment, and translates event analytics into commercial recommendations. It leads and develops a global team, including remote employees and matrixed contributors, and selects and oversees agency and supplier relationships. Travel of up to 20% may be required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, Event Management, or a related field.
At least 12 years of progressive experience in event marketing, trade shows, experiential marketing, or partnership marketing.
At least 7 years of people-leadership experience, including direct management of distributed global teams, matrixed cross-functional resources, and external agencies.
Demonstrated executive-level communication, judgment, and influence, including the ability to resolve ambiguity and competing priorities in a global matrix.
Ability to travel up to 20% of the time as required to manage enterprise activations and visit key partners.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a global B2B or industrial manufacturing organization.
A proven track record of building, transforming, or leading an enterprise-level experiential marketing Center of Excellence.
Advanced command of enterprise event management technology, workflow/project management tools, and CRM/marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce and Marketo.

Responsibilities

Set the multi-year global strategy for trade shows, partnership marketing, partner summits, and related brand activations.
Define and govern the global center-of-excellence operating model, including playbooks, templates, technology standards, and intake-prioritization workflows.
Advise executive leaders on activation choices, event tiering, resource prioritization, budget allocation, investment trade-offs, risks, and opportunities.
Establish criteria and governance for selecting events, sponsorships, partners, agencies, and experiential technologies.
Identify emerging experiential trends, technologies, and industry practices and develop scalable capabilities to improve customer experience, productivity, and business impact.
Develop global sponsorship and partnership strategies, evaluate mutual business value, and manage senior external relationships.
Drive joint marketing initiatives with strategic partners to extend brand reach and create pipeline value.
Work with Segment Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Marketing Operations, and Communications to turn audience priorities and business objectives into integrated event and partnership plans.
Set and govern brand-experience standards across physical and digital touchpoints while allowing appropriate regional and audience adaptations.
Partner with Sales, Segment Marketing, and Product Management to develop integrated pre-event, during-event, and post-event activation plans based on customer journeys.
Partner with Marketing Operations to establish event lead-capture, qualification routing, attribution, and follow-up standards.
Establish and govern a global performance framework measuring activation impact, lead progression, brand impact, and return on investment.
Translate post-event analytics and qualitative findings into actionable commercial recommendations for business unit leaders.
Lead and develop a global Events & Partnership Marketing team, including remote employees and matrixed contributors, with clear accountabilities, goals, development plans, and succession priorities.
Coach team members, strengthen strategic and operational skills, and foster customer focus, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Select, govern, and negotiate contracts with global agency partners and suppliers while managing costs and brand standards.