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Grafana Labs, the company behind the open observability cloud, is seeking an experienced Events Manager to independently own and deliver the company's regional events across EMEA and, over time, APJ. This is a hands-on role for someone who has successfully run conferences end-to-end: sourced and contracted venues, managed budgets, coordinated vendors, and led on-site execution.
You will manage a portfolio of in-person events, including Grafana's owned regional user conferences (ObservabilityCON on the Road) and third-party sponsorships. You'll work across marketing, sales, product, and regional teams, owning both event strategy and execution outcomes.
Key responsibilities include: independently managing end-to-end event logistics (venue sourcing, negotiation, contracting, vendor coordination, booth design, on-site execution); owning project management with detailed timelines, budgets, contracts, and stakeholder alignment; defining and tracking event success metrics with post-event analysis and ROI reporting; creating and approving event assets (signage, collateral, presentations, registration experiences) for brand consistency; leveraging AI and automation tools to improve planning and reporting; identifying and resolving risks proactively with real-time decision-making; collaborating cross-functionally to align events with business objectives; and providing guidance to junior team members, contractors, and agency partners while remaining hands-on.
You should have 4+ years of direct event management experience, including hosted conferences you personally owned end-to-end and third-party sponsorships you ran independently. You must have demonstrated ownership of the full lifecycle: venue sourcing and contracting, budget ownership and reconciliation, vendor management, registration build, on-site delivery as the lead, and post-event analysis. Experience as the primary on-site lead making real-time decisions without escalation is essential. You're willing to travel approximately 40% (including long-haul to APJ and occasional cross-timezone work), with flexibility during peak event seasons. You're curious about adopting new marketing technologies, including AI-driven tools, and have excellent communication skills for collaborating across global teams. You can manage multiple concurrent events with competing deadlines while maintaining quality. Candidates must be located in the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, or Germany.
