Bel Experience and Tentpole Events Manager, Bel US

Bel is part of a mission-driven, family-owned company with 160 years of innovation and social purpose, a presence in 120 countries, and a commitment to repositioning the role of snacking to help support a balanced diet. With beloved brands like Babybel®, GoGo squeeZ®, The Laughing Cow®, and Boursin®, Bel U.S. creates delicious fruit, veggie, and dairy portion-sized snacks that bring nourishment, joy, and convenience to everyday life. Guided by the values of care, dare, and commit, Bel is committed to the Fight for Better Snacking—delivering accessible, portion-sized options while advancing sustainable innovation, healthier snacking, regenerative agriculture, circular economy, and community support. Bel’s mission gives the company a powerful platform to show up credibly at industry moments that shape conversations, partnerships, and the future of food. The company has headquarters in Chicago and New York City and operates 4 manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI; Brookings, SD; Traverse City, MI; and Nampa, ID. #IWorkForAllForGood Job Description Summary As Bel Experience & Tentpole Events Manager, you will be a strategic partner in shaping the Bel US annual industry events masterplan—translating business, brand, and communications priorities into event recommendations and execution plans—while owning the end-to-end execution of Bel US tentpole events such as Expo West, the National Restaurant Association Show, Climate Week NYC, and other priority trade, retailer, sustainability, and food system activations throughout the year. Reporting to the Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer, you will sit at the intersection of events, communications, stakeholder engagement, and business activation. You will own executional excellence for Bel US tentpole events, directly managing events agencies and vendor partners while collaborating closely with Sales, Marketing, Communications, Sustainability, Nutrition, and business leaders to create an unmissable, beautiful, and distinctive Bel Experience that elevates our product brands, reflects retailer priorities, customer meetings, innovation launches, sampling opportunities, lead generation, stakeholder needs, and measurable business outcomes. Location: Hybrid in New York City or Chicago; Or may be remote. Essential Duties and Responsibilities Event Strategy and Planning: Serves as a strategic partner in shaping Bel US’ annual tentpole events plan, translating business and communications priorities into Bel Experience recommendations that make our core brands unmissable, supported by clear planning guardrails and execution plans. Builds event briefs, objectives, audience strategies, messaging, timelines, run-of-show documents, agency briefs, Bel Experience principles, and success metrics that translate agreed-upon priorities into actionable plans and clear agency deliverables, with a clear standard that every Bel Experience must be unmissable, beautiful, and elevate our product brands. Partners with Sales and Marketing to ensure Bel Experience choices, formats, audiences, content, customer meetings, retailer priorities, innovation launches, sampling plans, and lead-generation opportunities reflect business needs. Leads cross-functional and agency coordination to deliver integrated event plans from concept through post-event follow-up, ensuring agencies are clear on priorities, timelines, roles, approvals, and expected outputs. Maintains an integrated events calendar, Bel Experience playbooks, planning templates, recap decks, and cross-functional planning routines to improve consistency, visibility, and efficiency across tentpole events. Monitors industry, retailer, sustainability, nutrition, and food system event trends and provides recommendations on where Bel should show up, sponsor, speak, host, sample, or partner, in alignment with broader business and communications priorities. Tentpole Events Management: Owns the end-to-end execution of priority Bel US tentpole events, ensuring each activation delivers an unmissable, beautiful, and distinctive Bel Experience that helps our core brands and innovation stand out. Drives all executional workstreams for tentpole events, including registration, sponsorship deliverables, booth and Bel Experience design, sampling, logistics, staffing plans, executive preparation, guest lists, on-site operations, and real-time issue resolution. Identifies and secures speaking opportunities, panels, hosted moments, executive meetings, and media touchpoints tied to priority tentpole events, partnering closely with the External Communications Manager to prepare leaders and spokespeople. Directly manages events agencies and vendor partners, including scopes of work, agency briefs, sponsorship deliverables, contracts, budgets, timelines, deliverables, quality control, spend tracking, invoice reconciliation, risk flagging, and efficiency opportunities. Serves as the on-site execution lead for tentpole events, coordinating cross-functional teams in real time, troubleshooting issues, and ensuring each Bel Experience is unmissable, beautiful, polished, elevates our product brands, and is impactful for customers, partners, media, and executives. Coordinates with Sales, Marketing, and other partners to ensure sampling, claims, signage, and event materials are accurate and on brand. Positions Bel executives, brand leaders, and subject-matter experts as credible voices in the Fight for Better Snacking, innovation, sustainability, and the future of food. Tracks and reports event KPIs, including stakeholder engagement, customer leads, speaking and media outcomes, social amplification, sampling performance, budget performance, ROI, and learnings to continuously improve Bel’s tentpole events and Bel Experience model. Event Communications and Stakeholder Engagement: Builds and manages relationships with event organizers, industry organizations, customers, partners, reporters, influencers, and key opinion leaders. Develops pre-event, on-site, and post-event communications plans, including internal briefings, external announcements, stakeholder updates, and follow-up. Partners with the External and Internal Communications Managers to coordinate event-related social and internal content that amplifies Bel’s presence before, during, and after priority events. Develops event-related media materials, including announcements, briefing documents, talking points, and press Q&As, partnering with the External Communications Manager to finalize content and ensure consistency with Bel’s external communications strategy. Prepares materials for executive briefings, media interviews, panels, customer meetings, and hosted event moments, working with the External Communications Manager to ready leaders and spokespeople for external-facing engagements. Manages press, VIP, customer, and leadership logistics for external-facing events to ensure a polished, business-relevant Bel Experience. Monitors event coverage, social engagement, competitor presence, stakeholder feedback, and post-event performance to refine future recommendations and improve event impact. Bel Experience Content and Development: Writes and coordinates Bel Experience content, including event narratives, talking points, invitations, briefing documents, customer materials, and recap communications. Leads the events agency in developing Bel Experience assets that elevate our product brands and innovations, including event presentations, booth and experience concepts, signage copy, sampling messages, and other on-site communication materials that make Bel’s core brands highly visible, memorable, differentiated, and beautifully presented, while ensuring every deliverable supports an unmissable, beautiful, on-brand event experience. Works collaborativ