Festival and Special Event Management

by William O'Toole, Johnny Allen, Robert Harris

Festival and Special Event Management, 5 th edition continues the comprehensive overview of the theory and procedures associated with festivals and special events established in previous editions. The new edition of this market-leading text introduces developments and professional tools, and considers the globalisation and subsequent internationalisation of event management.

The role of marketing and communication, environmental planning, the increasing role of governments through the creation of event strategies, and the different perspectives of event management are all discussed. This edition aims to embrace and extend the growing body of knowledge relating to event management by tracking many of the recent changes and developments in the field. This offers students a current, relevant textbook for their study and professional reference.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

608 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2002

Reviews

[Letario Prodeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helps me to understanding the concept of event management.

[DeBora Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a required reading for my festival management class in order to get my CFM certification which I completed. It contains a lot of knowledge on event management.

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual book and most of the authors seem to come from the academic side of teaching event management. Festivals and events are at least thousands of years old (Stonehenge events for example).....so it is interesting that the authors speak of establishing a formal course in management of such events as something new and novel. And the production of this text was specifically for the event. I have a special interest in event management because for a number of years I was responsible for managing a program of participation in major trade displays in over 60 countries with all the complexities that come with this. As such, I was mildly disappointed to find that trade displays are not even listed in the index.......more or less as though they were not events. In fact some ofd these trade displays such as the Frankfurt Book Fair are over 500 years old and other such as CEBIT (also in Frankfurt) are simply massive events attracting millions of visitors. So, I think this is a real oversight on the part of the authors. They are mentioned in the introductory chapter but there seems to be no real focus on trade events in their own right. I recall attending a trade show event in Las Vegas which was run by the Trade Show Association in the USA and was mightily impressed bye the level of research that they were carrying out. For example, they had researched the impact of lighting on the number of visitors that a trade booth received....and the length of time a visitor would wait to be attended to. As most of the festivals and events also have side activities such as displays and catering some of this sort of research knowledge would be invaluable to students of special event management. Anyway, I think this is a glaring gap in the content of the book. And yes, I've also been responsible for managing major events such s the Export Awards which formerly were a State Based series of events but we were able to secure cooperation from the States in feeding the State winners into a national program with TV coverage etc. So this is more familiar territory for this text book. I must confess that I've only dipped into the book and it seems pretty comprehensive for the areas it does cover. Like all such manuals, there are a thousand and one things that one should be doing and the book provides a huge number of check lists and ideas for things to consider. In practice, I've found, one needs to be extremely flexible and adaptable because "stuff happens". All sorts of things happen to throw you off the planned trajectory. The weather, disasters, labour strikes, transport issues, financial problems, political changes, etc etc. Almost impossible to plan for all of these...so changes have to be made as one goes along. I remember working on a transport schedule for the Olympics and deciding that we would use Microsoft Project management to manage the whole thing. This fell in a heap because the staff were not familiar with the program and couldn't pick it up in the time available ....and, it was over-complex and required constant up dating. So the fall back became the humble white-board that had the advantage of an ability to see things at a glance and to update it in an instant. To me this raises the issue that frequently one has to work with the staff that you have and not all are skilled in project management software. (In fact, most are not....so this needs to be your starting point).
Anyway, overall, quite an impressive text book. Covers a lot of ground. The case studies are interesting and useful because they bring into play a lot of complex issues. But disappointed that trade events and displays were not covered or even listed in the index.
However, I guess, virtually all of the principles discussed are also valid for trade fairs as much as other events. For example, HR management, goal setting, project management, marketing and promotion, logistics etc. I feel however, that some elements of a trade display such as booth design, booth location, engaging with the audience, special events (such as seminars) that go with the events, lighting, follow up with contacts and so on, are really important but seem to be entirely neglected in this book. I guess that reflects the background of the authors ...but it's worrying that they have a somewhat limited view of "events". I give it five stars......think it is very well done but would have liked a bit more.

[Naly · Rating 4 out of 5]

its a great book that will help gain more understanding on event management