Concur (Now SAP)

Overview

As Concur expanded globally, the company identified the need for a flagship user conference that could support customer retention, drive upsell opportunities, and strengthen its growing partner ecosystem. Prior to this, Concur had produced a single customer-only conference with approximately 400 attendees, managed by an external event planner. Leadership determined that scaling the program—and aligning it with broader marketing and growth objectives—required experienced, in-house ownership. I was hired to build, lead, and grow the global user conference as a core marketing and revenue-adjacent initiative.

My Role

I owned the end-to-end planning, design, and execution of Concur's global user conference program, with executive sponsorship and strategic guidance from Elena Donio, Global VP of Marketing. This included full ownership of the conference as a business program—from defining objectives and audience strategy to shaping content, partner participation, and revenue impact. I led cross-functional collaboration across Marketing, Sales, Product, Partner Alliances, Executive Leadership, and Operations to ensure the conference directly supported company growth priorities.

What I Led & Delivered

• Scaled the conference from 400 customer-only attendees to 1,300+ attendees, expanding participation to include enterprise customers, channel partners, and sponsors
• Expanded the program from a 2-day event to a full week-long conference with 60+ concurrent breakout sessions
• Designed and launched a tiered sponsorship model, enabling Concur to pitch, sell, and exceed sponsorship revenue targets with key enterprise partners
• Integrated partner programming to strengthen alliance relationships and support joint go-to-market initiatives
• Participated in conference agenda development, session strategy, and speaker readiness, including executive and presenter dry runs
• Led all operational execution, including venue selection and contract negotiation, vendor management, budget ownership, registration, AV, food and beverage planning, and on-site delivery
• Collaborated with Concur's Creative Director on event website development, promotions, attendee communications, and conference collateral

Business Impact

• Generated an average of $10M in direct revenue per conference, with significantly higher downstream sales pipeline impact
• Increased customer engagement, retention, and upsell opportunities through deeper product education and executive access
• Established the user conference as one of Concur's most important annual marketing initiatives
• Created a repeatable conference model that scaled alongside Concur's global marketing expansion

Why This Work Matters

This program demonstrates how event-led initiatives can function as strategic growth engines when owned and designed intentionally. It reflects senior-level leadership across strategy, partnerships, revenue alignment, and execution—well beyond logistics or production.

Capabilities Demonstrated: Program-Level Marketing Leadership · Customer Retention & Upsell Strategy · Partner Ecosystem Enablement · Revenue-Adjacent Marketing · Cross-Functional Leadership · Large-Scale Event Execution