Virtual Event Planner Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

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Professional Bolingbrook, IL, US

Salary Range: $138,400.00 To $150,000.00 Annually

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About S&S

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois, S&S is a tech-forward leader in branded merchandise distribution, helping customers grow through a powerful combination of products, technology, services, and business solutions. With more than 80 leading brands and an expansive North American distribution network, S&S empowers businesses with the scale, expertise, and reliability they need to succeed.

As S&S continues to evolve, we're investing in how our brand comes to life — creating experiences that tell our story, inspire customers, showcase our unmatched portfolio, and strengthen our position as the market leader. From major industry moments and customer experiences to sales meetings and brand activations, we're reimagining how people experience S&S.

S&S is seeking a strategic and creative Senior Manager, Event & Experiential Marketing to shape how our brand comes to life through experiences. This leader will translate the S&S brand, business priorities, and customer insights into compelling experiences that build connection, showcase our portfolio, and drive measurable business impact.

The Senior Manager will lead national trade shows, customer events and internal conferences while partnering across Marketing, Sales, Merchandising, Creative, Corporate Communications, and Executive Leadership. This leader will create best-in‑class experiences that deepen customer relationships, strengthen the S&S brand, and support business growth.

This is a highly visible leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy, creativity, operational excellence, and execution. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable shaping long‑term experiential strategy, leading cross‑functional teams, managing a complex portfolio of high‑impact events, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

• Develop and execute a North American event strategy aligned with S&S's business objectives, brand strategy, and commercial priorities.
• Manage the annual event portfolio, including national trade shows, customer events, sales conferences, regional activations, brand moments, and customer engagement experiences.
• Recommend annual event investments based on business impact, customer value, and brand visibility.
• Develop annual and long‑range event plans that support company growth and customer engagement.
• Identify opportunities to use events and experiences to strengthen brand storytelling, customer connection, product discovery, and differentiation.
• Present event and experiential strategies, performance metrics, and recommendations to executive leadership.

• Lead the planning and execution of live, virtual, and hybrid events from concept through post‑event analysis.
• Oversee venue selection, budgeting, logistics, travel, exhibit management, production, registration, and onsite execution.
• Ensure every event and experience reflects the S&S brand and delivers a seamless customer experience.
• Identify new technologies and engagement strategies that enhance event effectiveness, attendee engagement, product and brand discovery, and operational efficiency.
• Proactively manage event risks and contingency planning.

• Partner across Marketing, Sales, Creative, Merchandising, and Corporate Communications to deliver integrated event campaigns and customer experiences.
• Lead the development of event content and programming, partnering with Corporate Communications, Creative, and business leaders on presentations, customer sessions, executive messaging, and brand storytelling.
• Translate the S&S brand and company story into memorable experiences that help customers understand who we are, what we offer, and what makes us different.
• Ensure consistent execution of the S&S brand across every customer‑facing event and experiential touchpoint.
• Collaborate on booth design, sponsorships, activations, presentations, and event content that showcase the breadth of the S&S portfolio.
• Continuously improve the attendee journey before, during, and after each event.
• Lead the development of immersive brand and product experiences that help customers discover products and understand the value of S&S technology, services, and business solutions.
• Translate business priorities into compelling customer experiences, including interactive environments, product showcases, demos, brand activations, and customer journey moments.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Event Specialist while building scalable processes that support future growth.
• Serve as the primary liaison between internal stakeholders and external agencies, vendors, venues, and strategic partners.
• Lead agency and vendor relationships to ensure exceptional creativity, execution, innovation, quality, and value.
• Foster strong cross‑functional collaboration and a customer‑first approach across event initiatives.
• Partner with experiential agencies, production partners, fabricators, technology vendors, and creative teams to bring brand experiences to life.

• Develop and manage the annual event budget, ensuring investments align with business priorities.
• Monitor budgets, reconcile expenses, negotiate vendor contracts, and identify cost optimization opportunities.
• Develop and track KPIs that measure event effectiveness, customer engagement, brand awareness, attendee satisfaction, commercial impact, lead generation, product engagement, and ROI.
• Deliver post‑event reporting with actionable insights and recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies, and experiential marketing best practices.

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Event Management, Business, or a related field preferred.

• 8–12 years of progressive experience leading corporate events, trade shows, experiential marketing, or event marketing programs.
• Experience developing brand‑led experiences or activations that bring a broader brand story to life.
• Experience managing large‑scale, multi‑event portfolios.
• Proven success leading cross‑functional initiatives and managing complex budgets.
• Experience managing agencies, vendors, and strategic partners.
• Previous people leadership experience preferred.
• Strategic planning and business acumen.
• Strong creative instincts with the ability to translate brand strategy and business objectives into compelling experiences.
• Strong project and program management skills.
• Executive presence with exceptional communication and stakeholder management abilities.
• Leadership, coaching, and team development.
• Budget management and financial acumen.
• Vendor and agency management.
• Strong negotiation, problem‑solving, and decision‑making skills.
• Data‑driven mindset with the ability to turn insights into action.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, event management platforms, and collaboration tools.

This position requires travel throughout the United States and Canada, including evenings and weekends as needed. Estimated travel is approximately 10-20%.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear.

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

S&S Activewear welcomes people of all backgrounds and experiences and are committed to creating a diverse culture and supporting human growth. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal opportunity for all employees and applicants. We conduct business without regard to sex, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, military status, status as a veteran, or any other protected characteristic. Our policy is to recruit, hire, train, promote, assign, transfer, and terminate employees based on their own ability, achievement, experience and conduct and other legitimate business reasons. S&S participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.

This job offer is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check.