What will this book give me?

Many events have not been as successful as they could have been, because the organiser failed to adequately plan, and overlooked or under-estimated important things. Apparently insignificant mistakes can ruin a potentially successful event.

Events can be of any size, from huge pop festivals or Formula 1 car races attracting many thousands of spectators, down to primary school sports days attracting only a handful of people. No matter what their name or size, they all have an event manager, an objective, an audience and attractions. To deliver any of them, somebody had to investigate, research, plan, liaise with the authorities, obtain permissions and licences and then deliver the event to the public.

Anyone organising a large pop concert or other major event will almost certainly have professional assistance and previous plans on which to base their arrangements. This guide is therefore aimed at aspiring event managers, or the inexperienced who want to organise a smaller event attracting a few hundred, or a few thousand spectators.

More experienced event managers will read this book as a refresher, or possibly just to get a different view of some aspects of event management. The objective is to offer four things:

• guidance – as to what to consider when researching, planning and running an event,
• structure and method – to use to plan and organise your event,
• lists – to help you to make your plans, and
• outside agencies - an indication of the agencies that you may have to contact to arrange a successful event.