Av Manager Jobs in Raleigh, NC (NOW HIRING)

Required Skills and Who You Are:

Success in This Role

Success in this role means delivering exceptional conference experiences through strong project leadership, creative problem-solving, stakeholder management, and flawless execution. The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking with hands-on event expertise and can confidently manage multiple event workstreams from concept through execution.

• Bachelor's degree in Event Management, Hospitality, Marketing, Communications, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience planning and executing large-scale corporate conferences, user conferences, or enterprise events.
• Demonstrated experience managing cross-functional project plans and multiple stakeholders.
• Experience working with creative agencies, production companies, AV vendors, and event suppliers.
• Strong understanding of event branding, signage production, wayfinding, and attendee experience design.
• Familiarity with conference content development processes, including speaker management and agenda planning.
• Excellent communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
• Willingness to travel and support onsite event execution.

Required travel:  TBD (strong possibility)

WebexOne 2026 set-up and execution dates, Saturday, October 3 – Thursday,

October 8. (Event is October 5-8)

Key Responsibilities:

Event Branding & Signage Management

• Lead the project management of creative and design partners responsible for event branding, environmental graphics, and signage production.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive signage placement plans for conference venues.
• Create and manage attendee-facing venue maps and wayfinding strategies.
• Ensure all event branding elements align with Cisco brand standards and event objectives.
• Coordinate review cycles, approvals, production schedules, and installation timelines.

Production & Venue Experience

• Partner with production agencies and vendors to identify and recommend audiovisual requirements, staging solutions, furniture packages, décor elements, and event infrastructure.
• Support the development of event environments that enhance attendee engagement and elevate the overall conference experience.
• Collaborate with venue and production teams to ensure seamless execution of event spaces.

Conference Track Management

• Project manage multiple conference content tracks simultaneously, ensuring milestones and deliverables are completed according to the event timeline.
• Partner with content leads to develop speaker rosters, session abstracts, agendas, and supporting content materials.
• Monitor project plans and proactively identify risks, dependencies, and resource needs.
• Facilitate regular stakeholder meetings and status updates to maintain alignment across teams.

Experiential & Ancillary Event Planning

• Contribute creative concepts and recommendations for attendee activations, networking experiences, and ancillary events.
• Collaborate with internal teams and agency partners to develop engaging experiential moments that support business objectives and attendee satisfaction.
• Assist in evaluating and implementing innovative event technologies and engagement strategies.

Event Operations & Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, agencies, venues, and vendors.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.
• Track timelines, budgets, approvals, and deliverables across various event workstreams.
• Support onsite event execution and issue resolution as needed.

What You'll Do

Lead cross-functional Speaker Management Workstream for WebexOne 2026; responsible for all strategy, planning and execution of the workstream, keeping things organized, facilitating collaboration, and assisting with unblocking throughout projects:

• Manage Rainfocus Speaker Portal.
• Receive training for related tools related to speaker mgt at WebexOne 2026 (Rainfocus, Socio, OneDrive/Office, Webex, etc).
• Primary manager of the WebexOne speaker management processes and tools.
• Orchestrate content management and updating system, process, and tools for all speaker types (both Cisco and external speakers).
• Work with all speaker sourcing teams (ARPR, Training, Breakouts/Roundtables, Sponsor, Keynote, Customer, etc) and stakeholder orgs (ex: Product Marketing, Customer Advocacy) to ensure speakers are approved, onboarded, and supported.
• Track and provide regular (weekly or more) status updates on all aspects of speakers (approval, agreement sent/signed, logo use approved, headshot/bio received and uploaded, travel / hotel booked, rehearsal and speaking times confirmed, etc).
• Ensure Rehearsals, speaking sessions, and other deadlines/touch points are calendared and supported.
• Capture all signed speaker agreements in OneDrive folder; note any modifications (logo use, live streaming limitations, etc), clearly communicate and ensure any contractual obligations are carried through.
• Provide communication resources and templates to ensure speakers and related parties get timely and correct information.
• Coordinate speaker hotel room list with WebexOne Housing team
• Ensure speakers know where to go, who to meet, what to wear, when to be ready, etc onsite.
• Ensure speaker info/content is correctly uploaded/updated across all platforms (Rainfocus, Socio, Website, Slides, spreadsheets) in collaboration with Event App Manager and other stakeholders.
• Ensure workstream contributors and key stakeholders are meeting the deadlines.
• Ensure "white glove" service for executive and/or external VIP/C-suite speakers.
• Work with Cisco AMEX travel coordination team to ensure they can connect with customers to book travel, and track spend against actual.
• Maintain/update key slides in various WebexOne decks that track invited/approved/confirmed speakers.
• Create/update documentation on speaker management process and learnings.
• Create post-event reports and metrics to assess speaker and session performance, impact.
• Ensure post-event thank you notes and other communications.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills

• Texas and/or Austin, TX applicants (Webex One event located in Austin, TX)
• Previous tech experience: Cisco, Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft
• Product Marketing
• Experience supporting conferences with 1,000+ attendees.
• Background working within technology companies or enterprise B2B environments.
• Experience with experiential marketing, event activations, and attendee engagement programs.

Education
• Bachelor's Degree