Julie McAlonana

• Led the strategic delivery of UTS’s central events program, aligning event activity with university-wide brand and business priorities
• Developed and implemented a comprehensive framework for event planning, execution, and performance reporting, positioning events as a key driver of engagement, lead generation, and long-term brand impact
• Oversaw the design and delivery of high-profile initiatives including UTS Big Thinking, showcasing institutional thought leadership; Life After Lockdown, a timely COVID-response series; and major partnerships with Sydney Festival and Sydney Film Festival
• As the central events team, we set and maintained best practice standards across all University events, ensuring brand consistency and experience quality
• I embedded data-led decision-making into event planning, using registration metrics, behavioural data, and NPS to inform strategy and demonstrate impact
• I also developed a framework for capturing and leveraging event content, positioning events as a critical component of the marketing lifecycle and an opportunity for scalable content and personalised follow-up
• Events under my leadership consistently exceeded NPS benchmarks and contributed meaningfully to audience engagement, brand equity, and marketing performance

• I have led the strategic transformation of the UTS web content experience, delivering a future-focused content strategy that directly supported the University’s strategic objectives and digital roadmap.
• My work positioned content as a core enabler of UTS’s vision, driving engagement, accessibility, and personalisation across our digital ecosystem.
• As the leader of a high-performing core team of four, and an extended network of contributors, I oversaw a university-wide audit of more than 20,000 content assets
• Through a targeted uplift of over 1,500 priority pieces, we significantly improved the quality, accessibility, and consistency of UTS’s digital presence
• I led the development and roll-out of a new content strategy and taxonomy, ensuring alignment with the University’s broader technology stack and personalisation ambitions.
• I also spearheaded a bold new approach to digital storytelling, bringing to life the student, research, and industry partnership experience at UTS.
• I conceptulised and commissioned content for a new industry facing ‘front door,’ a central hub designed to elevate UTS’s position as a leader in research and industry engagement.
• In parallel, I acted as the Product Manager for the UTS website (from November 2024 to the present) setting and managing development priorities to ensure alignment with strategic goals, audience needs, and future-focused capabilities such as personalisation.

• Fairfax Events delivered over 40 events in Australia and New Zealand including the American Express Open-Air Cinema, The Sun Herald City2Surf presented by Westpac and Good Food Month presented by Citi.
• As strategist my role was to develop client strategies for all major partnership renewals (i.e
• Westpac and City2Surf) and new partner strategies of significant value.
• Employing the use of Fairfax data, as well as event research (which was under my remit) I created partner strategies and financial proposals that offered a compelling ROI for partners.
• The development of financial proposals (schedules) which showed the value of the partnership was instrumental in securing revenue as part of the process.
• Identifying the importance of insight led strategy and the use of data and analytics, I developed a new process for the sales team to deliver better sales collateral to market through the centralisation of all strategic output.
• The formalisation of this process greatly improved the quality of the collateral the team produced, demonstrated by high conversion rates.

Highlights

• Securing a multiyear presenting partner deal with Tata Consulting Services for the Canberra Times Australian Running Festival.
• Securing significant investment from the ACT Government for the Enlighten Night Noodle Markets in 2018.
• Secured Qantas as a sponser of the The Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence Program.
• Developed a framework for schedules and value representation, which saw an increase of between 5% and 10% on renegotiated/new sponsorship deals.

• MADE was a media agency within Fairfax tasked with delivering on network marketing strategies for clients and off-network content and communications strategies.
• My position was multi-faceted, from strategy, business development to event activation and project/ relationship management.

• As a producer I owned a diverse client list from a wide range of categories, with the largest projects within travel (South Australian Tourism Corporation, Tourism Australia, Flight Centre Corporate) Retail (Officeworks) and Business (PwC).
• Managed content and media strategy and delivery for a ground-breaking digital campaign: 'Network South Australia.'
• This campaign was recognised at the INMA Global Awards for Native advertising in May 2016 and was a winner in the Travel Category for the Australian Marketing Institute Awards in October 2016.
• This project included the strategy, production and promotion of 300 pieces of content to audiences in Australia, USA, New Zealand and the UK via paid and earned media.
• Included deployment of a global first: multi-party (destination marketer + airline + publisher) data tracking and re-targeting.

• Managed and delivered event, advertising and content strategies including the prestigious JPMorgan and Financial Review Chanticleer Lunches in Sydney and Melbourne, the GE Capital Momentum series, and the inaugural GE Australia 2.0 series.

• Managed Property and Recruitment sector accounts and identified new business opportunities.
• Consistently met or exceeded sales KPIs.