Alanna Palladino '08 got her first taste of event planning during her days as a Social Chair for her Sorority, Alpha Phi. She coordinated their formals, bar nights and other events. She learned how to balance budgets, perfect the aesthetics and handle insurance, among other things. She credits those early experiences for molding her into the person she is today.
Currently, she is an Event Specialist for the Hartford Courant Media Group. HCMG is owned by tronc, Inc., an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company's portfolio includes The Hartford Courant, the Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, the Sun-Sentinel, Newport News and several others.
One of Alanna's primary clients is Fox 61 in Hartford. She communicates directly with their sales team and works in tandem with production to ensure that sponsor deliverables are met. In addition to generating sales, she heads event pre-planning and coordination with third party vendors, venues and staff. She also oversees the flow of the event as well as post event providing revenue numbers and budgeting tie outs.
She joined tronc, Inc. upon graduation from the University of Connecticut where she majored in Communications. "I started doing small business sales support," said Alanna. "I then merged into co-op advertising and worked with large corporations on my behalf of my local clients. A few years ago, I started working in events."
Currently, Alanna is based in Hartford. She will soon relocate to Stamford, CT and assume the role of National Event Sales & Sponsorship Specialist.
"We have nine markets within our corporation," she said. "I will work our Chicago and Los Angeles teams on their client's events and build-out sponsorships and activations for them. Every market has its' own local events team. Alanna would work in tandem to activate the sales and onsite pieces." For example, if a VISA or American Express came to tronc and said, 'we are interested in X, Y or Z; I would say we have events held in markets A, B or C. We would then assess their objectives and goals and design a 360 package for them."