Event Strategy Manager

The Event Strategy Manager transforms event insights, audience research, and client objectives into creative event strategies, experience designs, and engagement activations for Shepard's strategic accounts. This role combines strategic thinking and creative expertise to develop themes, attendee journeys, sponsorship opportunities, and experiential concepts that enhance engagement, strengthen event performance, and deliver measurable value for clients, attendees, and sponsors.

Key Contributions of the Role

Strategic Account and Creative Strategy Support - 25%

• Support creative strategy for an assigned portfolio of strategic accounts, aligning experience concepts with each client’s business objectives. • Translate data and insights, voice-of-customer research, and success plans into creative experience with Event Strategy. • Support client discovery sessions with Event Strategy to understand goals, audience dynamics, and desired outcomes. • Align internal teams, such as the Sales, Account Production, Concept Design, and Marketing teams, so client objectives carry through execution.

Insight-to-Design Translation - 20%

• Analyze audience needs, market trends, survey data, and event performance metrics to identify what is and isn’t working for each event. • Develop and design experiences that align with each client’s brand, including themes, attendee journey maps, floor plan concepts, networking ideas, activations, and technology integrations that resonate with target audiences and drive engagement. • Shape sponsorship activations that clients can sell and sponsors can measure with Event Strategy.

Experience Design and Execution - 25%

• Develop and present experience concepts using visual storytelling, ideation decks, and concept storyboards for internal and client audiences. • Collaborate with production, sponsorship, and Concept Design teams on approved concepts and ensure designs are carried out as intended. • Manage experience deliverables, including concept decks, design summits, and attendee journey maps, while maintaining quality standards and meeting project deadlines.

New Business Development - 15%

• Contribute experience solutions to RFP responses, pitches, and proposals that align with client discovery findings. • Present experience concepts, recommendations, and case studies to prospective clients. • Build strong client relationships by demonstrating industry expertise and providing thoughtful, actionable recommendations.