Laura Capell - Event Management for Dummies

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Event Management For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. , The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2013

2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex.

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ISBN 978-1-118-59112-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-59109-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-59110-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-59111-6 (ebk)

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall.

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Introduction

Event management used to be a career that people fell into. Few people had any kind of qualification or degree that was related to the industry, and most people found that they ended up in it when they thought they were on a different career path.

I started off working at Toyota (GB) plc in their New Media team as it was called at the time back in the days when having a website was considered essential, but also the work of wizards; this was back when ad banners at the top of a page were as exciting as the industry appeared to be. I was challenged with monitoring the online forums (of which Yahoo was by far the main one) that discussed Toyotas products. I remember thinking at the time that the people who used these forums felt like they were trend-setters, but I never appreciated how big communities would be one day be on-line probably just as well I didnt continue my career in that new-fangled technology!

At the time, Toyota were launching the second version of an electric car and from watching the owners of the first version in the forums, I could see how passionate they were about their cars and how sharing information amongst themselves to help each other was really important. I suggested to the press team that when the new car was to be photographed in the UK, we invite some of these first version owners as advocates, knowing that theyd write about their experience across the forums. I then had the task of working out who to invite and organising them to be in the right place at the right time for the photo shoot. Fifteen or so owners turned up, excited about seeing face to face the people they had been talking to for months online, but also with the anticipation of seeing something to which they knew they had exclusive access, and about which theyd each have opinions they could pass on to everyone else.

That day was the reason I have been working in events ever since. No amount of online stats, increase in web traffic numbers or site usage info could compare to the pure joy that I saw on the faces of those guests, and I had helped make that happen. I started a career in events so I could make people smile.

Since then, not all of the events I have managed have been about making people smile. Nowadays, events are used for many different reasons and as a much more common communication tool. However I always try to remember that someone, somewhere should be smiling because of the event that Ive organized or why do it?

About This Book

This book is primarily about the business of working as an event manager within the event management industry. It covers the crucial areas of briefing, budgeting, scheduling and the thousand-and-one pieces of detail required to successfully meet a clients brief. If youre not an event manager as such, but you have been tasked with organising a particular one-off event, or if youre a marketing professional who would like to know more about the events industry and what it entails, this book is for you, too: Organising a successful event involves the same skills and requirements whatever your job title.