Karri Levens

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

"Sometimes a name just says it all. That's the case with the updated second edition of Judy Allen's Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives, and Other Special Events. Allen not only delivers on the title's comprehensive promise, but also addresses changes in the industry since the first edition was published in 2000, such as the increased role of procurement and the growth of virtual events. Each chapter provides tips and sample checklists and outlines the paths to follow and the pitfalls to avoid in every aspect of meeting planning, from venue selection to on-site execution."     —Corporate Meetings and Incentive Magazine / MeetingsNet.com

"I recommend that Judy Allen's book, Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide 2nd edition, become your Bible for approaching your next affair, whether it's a meeting, conference, incentive travel function or fundraising gala. My copy has highlighting on virtually every page. Yours will, too. After you've read this book (or one of ten others she's authored), you'll be an expert on creating unforgettable events your attendees will enjoy and remember for a very long time."     —Dave Egan, Head Writer, Writers Direct Group

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.

Celebrate All the Way to the Bank

Weddings, parades, fairs, graduations, conferences, political rallies, fashion shows—what do they have in common? Everyone would rather have someone else plan and conduct them! That someone else can be you if you’re a professional event planner who knows how to develop a theme, find a location, arrange entertainment, plan transportation and do the myriad things needed to pull an event off successfully.

Learn everything you need to know to get started in one of today’s hottest—and most lucrative—businesses:

• How to stay abreast of the newest entertainment, food and decoration options
• Hot new industry trends, from environmentally friendly parties to extravagant first birthday parties and more
• How to build a loyal customer base for large and small events
• Targeted strategies for planning commercial events, political events, civic events, social events and more
• The latest information on the use of technology in event planning

With gross profits averaging 30 to 40 percent, you can easily earn six figures a year planning and conducting events—and have a blast in the process. If you’re looking for a flexible schedule, a wide variety of responsibilities and new adventures every week, event planning is the business for you.

—Forbes Magazine

“Key Bank has referred people to The Business Planning Guide for years. Bangs’s no-nonsense style takes the intimidation out of the business planning process.”

—Jayne Crosby-Giles, Senior Vice President and Area Sales Manager, Key Bank

“The Business Planning Guide is a classic of American entrepreneurial literature.”

—David BenDaniel, Professor, Johnson Graduate School of Business, Cornell University

For anyone considering venturing into the unknown waters of starting or managing a business, having a voice of experience at hand can mean the difference between a safe journey and shipwreck. Too many new ventures start with neither compass nor map—highly inadvisable in such an important undertaking. New and existing businesses alike need tools for business analysis, financial forecasting, and budgeting guidelines to grow and prosper.

Although these terms sound technical, the practical, proven, and real-life advice offered in this all-new ninth edition of The Business Planning Guide makes the jargon come alive. If you are an entrepreneur or manager wanting to launch and grow your venture on more solid financial footing, these are the step-by-step strategies you need to compile a complete business plan and financing proposal.

The Business Planning Guide provides three complete sample business plans and offers expert guidance, including information on how to:

•  Collect relevant information from inside and outside your company.

•  Analyze current market conditions as well as your business’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

•  Determine the appropriate amount and kinds of financing you will need. 

For businesses small or large, for-profit or non-profit, author David H. “Andy” Bangs, Jr., offers his business philosophy: “The thrill comes in making a business grow, serving more customers, trying out new ways to deliver value to them, and watching your employees grow and develop.”