Professional Event Coordination (The Wiley Event Management Series)

497 Pages·2003·4.27 MB·English

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Professional
Event
Coordination
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The Wiley Event Management Series
SERIES EDITOR: DR. JOE GOLDBLATT, CSEP
Special Events: Twenty-First Century Global Event Management, Third Edition
by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP
The International Dictionary of Event Management, Second Edition
by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP, and Kathleen S. Nelson, CSEP
Corporate Event Project Management
by William O’Toole and Phyllis Mikolaitis, CSEP
Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events,
Festivals, Conventions, and Expositions
by Leonard H. Hoyle, CAE, CMP
Event Risk Management and Safety
by Peter E. Tarlow, Ph.D.
Event Sponsorship
by Bruce E. Skinner, CFE, and Vladimir Rukavina, CFE
Professional Event Coordination
by Julia Rutherford Silvers, CSEP
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Professional
Event
Coordination
Julia Rutherford Silvers, CSEP
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.(cid:1) (cid:1)
Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Silvers, Julia Rutherford.
Professional event coordination / Julia Rutherford Silvers.
p. cm. — (The Wiley event management series)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-26305-2
1. Special events—Planning. 2. Special events—Management. I.
Title. II. Series.
GT3405.S55 2004
394.2—dc21 2003012936
Printed in the United States of America.
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To Larry, my husband, my sailor, my best friend—the one who has
made any and all moon hanging possible.
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Contents
Foreword—Edward G. Polivka ix
Foreword—Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1 Anatomy of an Event 1
Chapter 2 The Event Element Assessment 27
Chapter 3 Developing the Event Site 63
Chapter 4 Accommodating the Audience 93
Chapter 5 Providing the Event Infrastructure 133
Chapter 6 Safe Operations 169
Chapter 7 Coordinating the Environment 203
Chapter 8 Fundamentals of the Production 231
Chapter 9 Staging the Entertainment Experience 269
Chapter 10 Food and Beverage Operations 293
Chapter 11 Making Event Memories 317
Chapter 12 Ancillary Programs 341
Chapter 13 Vendors and Volunteers 367
Chapter 14 Knowledge Management 397
Chapter 15 Strategies for Success 423
Appendix 1 Sample Client Interview Form 431
Appendix 2 Sample On-Site Change Order Form 439
Appendix 3 Event “Survival” Kit 441
Appendix 4 Sample Site Inspection Checklist 443
Appendix 5 References and Reading List 449
Index 457
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Foreword
In 1976 the president of the university where I was teaching asked me to
take over the direction of a tourism program that was losing enrollment.
His charge was to make the program grow or sign its death certificate. I
began researching all aspects of tourism for a program that would use our
teaching resources, appeal to our students, and give them some leverage
in the job market after graduation.
Our research discovered a subset of tourism called meetings, events,
conventions, and expositions. At that time this industry was contributing
$32.5 billion to the gross national product, but there appeared to be no
formal educational path for young people wishing to enter the industry.
On closer examination we discovered that most of the people work-
ing in the industry had gravitated to it by chance. Some of the most in-
fluential people in the industry at that time had been assigned the task
of producing great events and outstanding meetings by a boss who did
not want to do it himself. We were amazed at the size of the budgets for
many of these events. In some cases they exceeded the annual budgets
of small companies and divisions of large firms. With little or no formal
training available, these people produced creative and memorable events.
Over time, and with much trial and error, a recognizable profession grad-
ually took shape. We pondered, “Was everything they did intuitive?”
Many of the profession’s leading practitioners were surveyed to de-
termine what they considered to be their educational weaknesses and
what subjects they wish they had studied in school. The information we
collected helped us to define our curriculum.
As we grew closer to the launch of our program, we discovered two
things:
■ Most professionals thought that we were embarking on a fool’s
journey. This was one profession that could not be taught in a
classroom.
■ There were no books that could be used in the classroom to teach
these courses.
Times have changed. Meetings, exhibitions, events, and conventions
(MEEC) courses now appear in the curriculum of more than 200 univer-
sities worldwide. In fact, postgraduate course work in these fields is
taught at many of the world’s leading universities. It is quite common for
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