Manager, Conferences Creative Journey & Branding

The Branding Journal; Egham; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Gartner, Inc. is seeking a Senior Event Branding Lead to own planning, development and execution of onsite branding and attendee experiences across a portfolio of global conferences and events.

You will collaborate with the Conference Center of Excellence and internal stakeholders to ensure brand-aligned experiences that resonate with attendees, clients and prospects. This role requires strategic thinking, creative leadership, and strong project management, with travel up to 30% internationally.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred.
• 5+ years in event management, branding, or experiential/event marketing.
• Proven creative and operational management responsibility and team leadership.
• Strong project management and multi-tasking abilities.
• Experience managing multiple agency and vendor partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end creative journey for external conferences, overseeing branding and attendee experiences.
• Manage conference projects from concept to execution, including onsite or virtual delivery.
• Provide strategic guidance on event experience, branding, and engagement opportunities.
• Plan, produce, and implement conference signage, branding elements, and experiential components with cross-functional teams.
• Develop and implement operational processes and best practices for consistency and scalability.
• Mentor and support junior team members and foster stakeholder engagement.
• Cultivate relationships with external vendor partners to deliver high-quality branding solutions.
• Drive creativity and continuous improvement in attendee experiences and planning processes.
• Manage conference budgets with forecasting, cost management, and risk identification.

Skills

Event management

Branding

Experiential & event marketing

Project management

Leadership

Budget management

Vendor management

Communication

Travel coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Office

Google Workspace

Job description

As a key member of the Global Creative Journey and Branding team, this role is responsible for leading the planning, development, and execution of onsite branding and attendee experiences across a portfolio of client-facing global conferences and business unit events. The position combines strategic thinking, creative leadership, project management, and operational excellence to deliver impactful experiences that enhance the overall conference journey for attendees, clients, and prospects. This individual will collaborate closely with Conference Center of Excellence teams and internal stakeholders to ensure alignment across conference planning, branding, and experience delivery.

What you will do:

• Lead the end-to-end creative journey for external conferences, overseeing branding, environmental design, attendee experiences, and digital touchpoints across Gartner’s global conference portfolio.
• Manage conference projects from concept through execution, ensuring seamless planning, coordination, and onsite or virtual delivery of branding and experience initiatives.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to understand business objectives and provide strategic guidance on event experience, branding, and engagement opportunities.
• Project manage the planning, production, and implementation of conference signage, structures, branding elements, furniture, and experiential components in partnership with cross-functional teams and vendors.
• Support the development and implementation of operational processes, project management frameworks, and best practices to drive consistency, scalability, and efficiency across the team.
• Mentor and support junior team members, fostering professional growth, strengthening project management capabilities, and promoting effective stakeholder engagement.
• Cultivate strong relationships with external vendor partners, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, innovative, and brand-aligned solutions that meet Gartner standards.
• Drive a culture of creativity, innovation, and continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to enhance attendee experiences and optimize planning processes.
• Manage conference budgets with a high degree of accuracy, including forecasting, cost management, contract negotiations, risk identification, and resource allocation recommendations.
• Collaborate effectively across Conference Center of Excellence teams to ensure integrated planning and execution of business unit experiences that support the broader conference strategy.

What you will need:

• Bachelor's Degree preferred
• 5+ Years Event Management, Branding and/or Experiential & Event Marketing Experience
• Proven creative and operational management responsibility & management of teams
• Proven event operational and project management skills
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and prioritize workload
• Management of multiple agency and vendor partners
• Effective people management skills and leadership
• Experience in creation of event spaces/environments/floor plans
• Proven and exceptional project management skills, effective management of time and prioritization
• Creative, innovative, strategic
• Strong financial management skills
• Client focused, solution oriented, and collaborative
• High sense of urgency, decisiveness, attention to detail and confidentiality
• Fully competent in Microsoft office and Google Suite, especially PowerPoint, Excel and similar in G-Suite
• Strong Oral & Written Communication Skills
• Ability to travel as needed, approx. 30% domestically & internationally

Hybrid

Who are we?

At Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT), we guide the leaders who shape the world.

Our mission relies on expert analysis and bold ideas to deliver actionable, objective business and technology insights, helping enterprise leaders and their teams succeed with their mission-critical priorities.

Since our founding in 1979, we’ve grown to 20,000 associates globally who support over 13,000 client enterprises in ~90 countries and territories. We do important, interesting and substantive work that matters. That’s why we hire associates with the intellectual curiosity, energy and drive to want to make a difference. The bar is unapologetically high. So is the impact you can have here.

What makes Gartner a great place to work?

Our vast, virtually untapped market potential offers limitless opportunities – opportunities that may not even exist right now – for you to grow professionally and flourish personally. How far you go is driven by your passion and performance.

We hire remarkable people who collaborate and win as a team. Together, our singular, unifying goal is to deliver results for our clients.

Our teams are inclusive and composed of individuals from different geographies, cultures, religions, ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and generations.

We invest in great leaders who bring out the best in you and the company, enabling us to multiply our impact and results. This is why, year after year, we are recognized worldwide as a great place to work.

Gartner is the world authority on AI

At Gartner, you’ll join a company at the very center of the AI revolution. Gartner has proactive, objective guidance throughout clients’ AI journeys. We set the standard for how organizations leverage artificial intelligence to drive meaningful impact. You’ll have access to unmatched resources, expertise, and technology, and play a key role in helping Gartner and our clients innovate and grow as we leverage AI to transform business and technology landscapes.

It’s an exciting time to be at Gartner, with limitless opportunities to make a real impact, grow your skills, and build a lasting, meaningful career in a field that’s reshaping the way we operate. If you’re passionate about AI and want to be part of a team that’s guiding the leaders who shape the world, Gartner is the place for you.

What do we offer?

Gartner offers world-class benefits, highly competitive compensation and disproportionate rewards for top performers.

In our hybrid work environment, we provide the flexibility and support for you to thrive — working virtually when it’s productive to do so and getting together with colleagues in a vibrant community that is purposeful, engaging and inspiring.

The policy of Gartner is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status and to seek to advance the principles of equal employment opportunity.

Gartner is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer and offers opportunities to all job seekers, including job seekers with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access the Company’s career webpage as a result of your disability. You may request reasonable accommodations by calling Human Resources at [phone] or by sending an email to [e-mail].