About the Role
The Event Director is responsible for leading, growing, and delivering the Construction Division's event portfolio in Nigeria and Egypt. This role drives long-term commercial growth, market leadership, and industry impact, holding full P&L accountability for allocated events. The Event Director will ensure successful development, positioning, sales performance, marketing, content, stakeholder engagement, and operational delivery of the portfolio. The position acts as the strategic leader in both markets, ensuring alignment across Sales, Marketing, Operations, Content, and Finance while adapting event brands and growth strategies to local market conditions. The role involves identifying new growth opportunities, strengthening industry partnerships, and maintaining the events' status as leading platforms in the construction and built environment sectors in Nigeria and Egypt.
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Key Accountabilities
Event Strategy and Leadership
- Leads overall event strategy, ensuring long-term growth, relevance, and competitive positioning; utilizes data, market insights, and commercial understanding to shape event direction.
- Develops a 3-year plan for each event and market outlook, aligning the event strategy with the event delivery playbook.
- Ensures cross-functional alignment across Sales, Marketing, PR, Content, and Operations, maintaining focus on commercial, audience, and delivery priorities.
- Drives sustainable event growth, audience impact, and commercial performance.
- Manages organizational complexity and competing priorities confidently.
P&L Management
- Owns full financial performance, including revenue delivery, cost control, and profitability.
- Provides accurate and timely reporting of event KPIs and forecasts.
- Liaises with finance for reporting requirements and manages the event P&L.
- Monitors ongoing performance against budget and establishes a monthly forecasting process.
- Ensures billing and collections in accordance with contracts and monitors debtor collections.
Commercial Leadership
- Leads sales and sponsorship performance across Nigeria and Egypt.
- Collaborates with local and international sales teams and partners to achieve revenue targets.
- Executes sales and sponsorship strategies for the event and monitors sales performance.
Stakeholder and Partner Management
- Builds and manages strategic relationships with governments, associations, local partners, and key industry players.
- Establishes advisory boards and maintains strong market visibility.
Brand Management & Market Adaptation
- Ensures event brand alignment with the wider portfolio strategy and adapts it to each market's positioning, messaging, and value proposition.
- Oversees the development of locally relevant marketing campaigns and content programs to maximize audience engagement and commercial success.
Marketing
- Oversees the development of the marketing strategy and objectives for the event in collaboration with the Senior Marketing Manager.
- Ensures the event website is updated and aligns with overall brand standards.
- Oversees database development in conjunction with the database department.
Business Development
- Identifies and develops new event profiles, launches, or vertical extensions based on market gaps and demand.
Operational Delivery
- Oversees the operational preparations for the event, ensuring high standards and customer satisfaction.
Qualifications, Experience, & Skills
Minimum Qualifications and Knowledge:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, Events, or related field.
- Strong understanding of B2B exhibitions (construction/infrastructure preferred).
Minimum Experience:
- 7+ years in exhibitions/events with portfolio leadership responsibility.
- Proven experience managing full P&L and multi-channel sales (direct, agent, partner).
- Experience in multi-market environments (Africa/Middle East preferred).
Job-Specific Skills:
- Strong commercial and strategic acumen.
- Expertise in market-driven brand positioning and event development.
- Ability to manage local partners, agents, and stakeholder ecosystems.
- Ability to lead cross-functional teams through alignment and influence.
Behavioural Competencies:
- Strategic leadership and long-term thinking.
- Strong influencing and stakeholder management skills.
- Leadership maturity and ability to operate in complexity.
- High resilience and sound judgement under pressure.
- Strong ownership mindset and accountability.
- Ability to build collaboration, consistency, and performance across teams.
