Behind the Scenes with Nicole McDonagh: UCC Academy's Events Lead

11 Mar 2026

Nicole McDonagh, Conferece and Event Lead's work helps bring people, ideas, and major events together across the university. Her role has taken her through a wide mix of creative, logistical, and collaborative projects and she brings plenty of passion, energy, and even a musical streak to everything she does.

Nicole, does your job have a typical day?

My work supports conferences and events across the university, so each day can look a little different. I could be setting up a registration page or helping a client with reviews on their abstract portal that we’re managing. I may have an international group coming to the university through Cork Convention Bureau to view venues for their event and who are considering UCC for their talks, reception, or dinner.

On event days, it’s an early start to check everything is set up as it should be, working with internal UCC teams such as General Services and KSG  (catering) as well as external suppliers, and making sure everyone visiting campus has a positive experience.

You have been at the Academy for seven years now. What types of roles have you done in that time?

My seven‑year anniversary is coming up in March. I’ve been here since 2019, beginning as a Marketing and Events Executive with the conference office. After a brief interlude in 2020 I thought I might emigrate to Canada before COVID 19 put a stop to that, I came back as a Communications Project Officer working on communications and video‑specific projects.

I then became the Video Team Lead working exclusively on video projects. For a time, I managed both the video and conference teams, and now I am the Conference & Events Lead, back to my original home.

What has been your favourite project to date at UCC Academy?

It’s too hard to pick one! I have three projects I’ve enjoyed for different reasons.

• I directed the UCC Career Services Transition Out videos in 2020. It was a fabulous experience working with great UCC students to create video supports for students transitioning out of college and into the working environment.
• I worked on the UCC Sport website project, collaborating with many stakeholders across UCC on the website planning process and seeing the content needs come together.
• Finally, being part of the team for the European Astronomical Society Conference last summer — and seeing 1,500 delegates come to campus for our largest conference to date — was a fantastic experience, supporting the School of Physics and developing a strong working relationship with the society’s events team.

We know you like to sing! Can you tell us more? Who is your favourite artist and why?

I do enjoy singing. My undergraduate degree is in Music with Vocal Performance. I studied at the Cork School of Music in MTU for four years, learning classical techniques and opera, singing in different languages, and performing as a soloist or in ensembles.

Now, I predominantly sing in choirs including Alma and MusiCórum, and I do ceremony music for weddings and the occasional Christmas gig. There are a few new projects in the works, but I can’t reveal anything quite yet!

Picking a favourite artist is difficult! I like anything from Linkin Park to Maria Callas to musical theatre, but now I’m listening to a lot of Raye, Amble, CMAT, Hozier, and Olivia Dean.

If you could take a holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you bring?

I am going on my dream holiday this year: a long‑awaited honeymoon to Japan in September, visiting Kyoto and Tokyo with my husband Ken.

Congratulations on seven years at UCC Academy Nicole and enjoy what will be a fabulous trip to Japan with Ken.