Senior Manager Trade Fair

This role is for one of Weekday’s clients

Min Experience: 8+ years
Location: Chennai
JobType: full-time

We are looking for an experienced and results-driven Senior Manager – Trade Fairs & Conferences to lead the planning, execution, and growth of large-scale trade fairs, conferences, exhibitions, and industry events. The ideal candidate will have 8–20 years of experience in event management, conference production, exhibitions, or B2B events, with strong exposure to business development and stakeholder management.

This role requires someone who can independently manage events end-to-end—from identifying high-value opportunities and developing event strategies to managing vendors, partners, speakers, sponsors, and post-event business outcomes. The candidate should have strong commercial acumen and the ability to turn conferences and trade fairs into meaningful business development opportunities.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the overall strategy for trade fairs, conferences, exhibitions, summits, and industry events.
• Identify relevant conferences, trade shows, and industry platforms that align with business objectives and target audiences.
• Own the end-to-end planning and execution of events, including venue selection, budgets, timelines, logistics, production, branding, and on-ground operations.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with event organizers, industry associations, conference partners, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, and strategic stakeholders.
• Identify and develop business development opportunities through conferences, trade fairs, exhibitions, and industry networking platforms.
• Lead sponsorship and partnership initiatives, including identifying prospects, developing proposals, negotiating commercials, and closing partnerships.
• Work closely with sales, marketing, leadership, and external partners to maximize event participation and business impact.
• Develop event concepts, themes, agendas, speaker line-ups, networking formats, and engagement strategies.
• Manage external agencies, production partners, vendors, contractors, and service providers to ensure high-quality event delivery.
• Track event budgets, commercial performance, registrations, attendee engagement, sponsorship revenue, leads, and ROI.
• Represent the organization at major conferences and trade fairs and build a strong presence within relevant industry ecosystems.
• Conduct post-event analysis and develop actionable insights to improve future conferences and events.

Must-Have Skills

• 8–20 years of relevant experience in trade fairs, conferences, exhibitions, B2B events, or large-scale event management.
• Strong expertise in conference planning, event strategy, and end-to-end event execution.
• Proven experience managing conferences and trade fairs with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong vendor, partner, sponsor, and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent project management, negotiation, communication, and organizational abilities.
• Ability to manage multiple conferences and events simultaneously while working within budgets and timelines.
• Strong commercial understanding and ability to measure event success through business outcomes.

Good-to-Have Skills

• Experience in business development through conferences, exhibitions, and industry events.
• Proven track record in acquiring sponsors, exhibitors, partners, or commercial accounts.
• Strong understanding of B2B sales, lead generation, networking, and relationship building.
• Existing relationships with conference organizers, industry bodies, associations, sponsors, and corporate decision-makers.
• Experience managing large-scale national or international events.
• Familiarity with event technology, CRM platforms, registration systems, and event analytics.