Alana Hay

Event Marketing in a Virtual World

Profile

Alana is the founder of award-winning specialist event marketing agency, Milestone Creative Australia, a performance-driven agency that creates connections between communities and events for growth, tourism and visitation outcomes.

Milestone services business and major events, destinations, hospitality, venues, tourism, creative industries, and the arts. Services include strategy, marketing, media buying, brand and creative, digital marketing, social media and communications.

Alana’s 25 year career spans event management, venue operations, catering, branding, event acquisition, tourism, event development and destination marketing. She has a deep understanding of events and the role they play in creating inclusive and vibrant destinations and communities and she is passionate about the development of events that engage people with places, spaces and shared experiences.

Previous Experience

Events: Alana has been instrumental in the development, evolution and marketing of Australia’s largest and most prestigious major events, festivals, precincts, venues, destinations, arts organisations and corporates. These include a long-standing relationship with Vivid Sydney, Mardi Gras, Sydney Royal Easter Show, Darling Harbour festivals, Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art, Corroboree Sydney plus and new events including Eurovision – Australia Decides and global event, SailGP. They’ve worked with prestigious venues including Merivale, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, China National Convention Centre, Royal Botanic Gardens, Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney Olympic Park, Melbourne Olympic Park; and tourism bodies and destinations including Destination NSW, TEQ, City of Gold Coast and Wollombi.

Alana is active in the events industry, through advisory roles, mentoring and speaking. She is on the Board of Directors of Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) and is an Accredited Fellow Member of MEA (AFMEA). Alana won the 2018 and 2019 National Sales, Marketing or Business Development Person of the Year at the Meetings & Events Australia National Awards.

Milestone also collected the 2019 Australian Event Awards Best Achievement in Marketing, Sponsorship or Partnership. They also were also winners in the SPICE Top 100 for Marketing; was Finalist in the Event Marketing Awards for Best Integrated Marketing Campaign and the Australian Event Awards for Marketing Campaign of the Year in 2018. Milestone also won the MEA National Award for Event Marketing 2018 and was Finalist in the Small Business Champion Awards for Marketing Services and the Local Business Awards for Specialist Services in 2019.

Expertise

Talking Points
The old approach to marketing. And why you should ditch it.
Campaign Planning 101 and Event App Development
Marketing under pressure: Australia's 11th Hour Ticket Buying Culture
20 Trends for 2020 and Beyond
Event Marketing in a Virtual World
Topics