Any event you plan and stage is a reflection of your organization’s image — from the initial invitation to onsite operations. Whether you’re planning a product launch, conference, sales meeting, an incentive event, or a gala fund-raiser, remember that the magic of a truly memorable event is in the details, but so is the devil. Whether your event is for 50 or 2,000 people, whether it has a budget of a few thousand dollars, or hundreds of thousands, it has to be perfect. Fully revised and updated, Event Planning, Second Edition, gives you a blueprint for planning and executing special events with flair and without any unexpected surprises and expenses. This unique book is loaded with practical advice on:

• Choosing the best venue
• Preparing and managing the budget, with sample costing forms included
• Scheduling, staffing, and collaborating with other related professionals
• Coordinating food and beverage, décor, entertainment, and themes.

It’s still the comprehensive guide that it always has been, but much has changed in the industry in recent years, and this new edition of Event Planning includes:

• Changes in security planning since 9/11
• Innovations in technology and how they can improve – or ruin – an event
• How to stage an environmentally friendly event
• New and updated examples and case studies of where things went right – and wrong
• Event Risk Assessment – What You Need to Consider before Contracting
• How keep your budget on target and where to find hidden surcharges
• Ways on how to ease airport stress and make air travel  a pleasurable part of the participant’s event experience
• When and When Event Planners and their Suppliers will need Work Visas
• What you need to include in your client’s event history in order to design your next event so that it maximizes your client’s return on their event investment
• A companion website with downloadable versions of the checklists, additional forms and tools, author Q&A, and more at www.wiley.ca/go/event_planning.

What you don’t know or know to ask can have a major effect on the success of your event and on your budget. Event Planning takes you behind the scenes and through every aspect of organizing and executing a successful event: the planning stages, timing and logistics, budget preparation, operations, and on-site management, providing practical tools for anyone who has to plan and execute a truly special event:

• Corporate in-house event planners
• Public relations and communications companies, and their clients
• Marketing and corporate communications professionals
• Fund-raisers and not-for-profit organizations
• Professionals in the hospitality and entertainment industries.
• Business professionals in charge of planning and handling their company’s events

Praise for Event Planning 

“Allen is a good teacher. Wise planners will add Event Planning to their personal reference library as a useful working guide.”

- Meeting Professional Magazine

 “A blueprint for executing events for 50 or 2,000, with budgets of a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands.”

- Success Magazine

 “Event Planning will save beginning event planners from plenty of heartbreak and headaches.”

- Lisa Hurley, Editor, Special Events Magazine

 “Event Planning gives readers a blueprint for planning and executing special events with flair. Consider the book as preventative maintenance.”

- Sales Promotion Magazine

 “A guide to well planned events. Event Planning is a must for any PR maven.”

- Marketing Magazine

 “This book will be a help to all event planners, from rank beginners to seasoned professionals. It provides excellent guidelines as well as helpful details.”

- Katherine Kossuth, Director of Operations and Special Events, Canadian Film Center

 For downloadable versions of the checklists, additional forms and tools, author Q&A, and more, please visit our companion website at www.wiley.ca/go/event_planning.

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While other books, college courses, and training programs give you the theory and how-to of the profession, Confessions of an Event Planner reveals the real world of event planning and what can happen—usually the unexpected—on an event program when actual participants are added to the event planning design and execution mix. In a climate of media scrutiny and corporate scandals, event planners must be masters of discretion, knowing how to avoid and deal with everything from sexual romps to financial shenanigans, to chainsaw wielding salesmen dead set on “re-landscaping” the grounds of the resort they’re staying at. From an event planner who’s seen it all and knows how to deal with it all, comes practical first-hand advice delivered in an entertaining and accessible format.

Each chapter is set in a unique location, with a cast of characters, and a host of challenges and problems to overcome—from the boardroom to the resort guest bedrooms. Readers learn what they can come up against, how to problem solve creatively on the fly, get ideas for staging spectacular events, and see the principles of event planning in action. The scenario in each chapter is introduced by an outline of what will be covered in the chapter, and each chapter concludes with a series of review questions to explore key issues and stimulate reflection or discussion for individuals or groups. Ideal as a companion to Judy Allen’s six other event planning books, as a textbook in event planning courses, or as a professional training tool Confessions of an Event Planner prepares planners for what they can expect once they start working in the world of corporate and social event planning, and will help decision-makers set company policies, procedures and protocol and promote discussion about codes of conduct in the office and offsite....