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.
Talking Points
Event Marketing in a Virtual World
Event Marketing in a Virtual World
The old approach to marketing. And why you should ditch it.
With events being increasingly used as a go-to destination marketing channel, and with the rise of paid digital media, on top of last-minute decision-making and ticket buying, the way you approach event marketing now, can influence, make or break a decision to attend an event, and therefore affect, visitation and economic return from your event.The old approach to marketing. And why you should ditch it.
Milestone will be sharing the latest trends in marketing including video, re-marketing, long-tail search and long-form content. They will also share their event ticketing matrix and a real-life example of an integrated event marketing campaign. They'll also share their crystal-ball insights into marketing for the future.
If it's your job to create engagement with your audience, position or promote a destination or sell tickets and put bums on seats for an event, this is an essential session to attend.
Campaign Planning 101 and Event App Development
Are you keen to expand your festival's audience profile to include international markets? Perhaps you're considering developing an event app but don't know where to start and what's involved?Campaign Planning 101 and Event App Development
Alana Hay from Milestone Creative represents one of Australia's leading creative agencies specialising in destinations, events, hospitality, arts and tourism. One of their clients, SailGP is a brand new annual, global sailing event, held in some of the world's most iconic city waterfronts, such as Sydney, San Francisco and New York, where national teams compete in supercharged F50 catamarans. Using SailGP as a case study example, Alana will provide you with an overview of the type of analysis required for event app development, as well as proving you with an insight into the challenges and useful tips on sourcing an app developer. The presentation will also guide you through what it takes to plan an international marketing campaign and grow and expand your audience reach.
Marketing under pressure: Australia's 11th Hour Ticket Buying Culture
With Australia's last-minute decision-making and ticket buying culture, the way you approach event marketing can influence, make or break visitation and the economic return from your event. Milestone will share their approach to planning and managing event marketing and ticketing including a real-life example of an integrated event marketing campaign. They'll also share the latest trends in festival marketing and their crystal-ball insights into marketing beyond 2020. If it's your job to create engagement with your audience, promote a destination or sell tickets and put bums on seats for an event, this is an essential session to attend.
Marketing under pressure: Australia's 11th Hour Ticket Buying Culture
20 Trends for 2020 and Beyond
Milestone will be sharing the latest trends in event marketing and their crystal-ball insights into marketing for the future. This presentation will cover the top trends in video, digital marketing, apps, podcasting, AI and bots. They will also share a real-life example of an integrated event marketing campaign. If it's your job to create engagement with your audience, position or promote a destination, sell tickets or delegate boost to put bums on seats for an event, this is an essential session to attend.
20 Trends for 2020 and Beyond
