Special Events

Special Events

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The Wiley Event Management Series

SERIES EDITOR: DR. JOE GOLDBLATT, CSEP

Dictionary of Event Management, Second Edition

by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP, and Kathleen S. Nelson, CSEP

Special Events, Third Edition

by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP

Corporate Event Project Management

by William O’Toole and Phyllis Mikolaitis

Event Risk Management and Safety

by Peter E. Tarlow, Ph.D.

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Special Events

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GLOBAL EVENT MANAGEMENT

THIRD EDITION

Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP

Julia Schiptsova

Contributing Editor, Third Edition

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

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Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.

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A public celebration is a rope bridge of knotted symbols strung

across an abyss. We make our crossings hoping the chasm will

echo our festive sounds for a moment, as the bridge begins to

sway from the rhythms of our dance.

Ronald Grimes, Beginnings in Ritual Studies (1982, p. 231)

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Dedication

In 1913 my great-grandfather wrote to my maternal grandfather these words of

encouragement as he prepared to wed my grandmother:

Dear Alcibiade,

I write today to wish you and Leah all the happiness there is in

married life. That your lives will be long and happy and that in case

there happens to be some little troubles in your youth you will be

steadfast in your love to one another. If you do this you will conquer

all and happiness will soon return.

Their long and happy marriage produced two daughters, Rosa and Bertha,

and seven grandchildren. These two proud Southern women often assembled

our family around an elegant table for the purpose of celebrating a beautiful

family. With eternal gratitude I dedicate this book to my remarkable mother

and aunt. They first introduced me to the traditions and rituals of celebration.

Through their steadfastness and love, the first seeds of celebration were planted

deep within me. The evidence of their enduring influence is apparent in the

pages of this book.

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Special Dedication

This book is dedicated to the members of the New York City Fire Department (NYFD); the

New York City Police Department (NYPD); the staff and rescue workers of the United States

Pentagon; the thousands of rescue workers in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC;

the families of those who lost their loved ones; and the sacred memories of those individuals

whose lives are forever enshrined in our global consciousness. May we always remember

these acts of heroism, commemorate the sacrifices that were made, and commit to turning our

sorrows into future celebrations through a renewed commitment to global understanding and

lasting peace.

Furthermore, the author has directed that a portion of the proceeds from this book be do￾nated to the United States Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to aid the families of those who lost

their lives as a result of the September 11, 2001, attack on America.

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Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

PART ONE Theory of Event Management 1

Chapter 1 Welcome to Twenty-First-Century Global Event Management 3

Chapter 2 Models of Global Event Management 35

PART TWO Event Administration 61

Chapter 3 Developing and Implementing the Event Plan 63

Chapter 4 Management of Human Resources and Time 107

Chapter 5 Financial Administration 119

Chapter 6 Event Leadership 145

PART THREE Event Coordination 157

Chapter 7 Managing Vendor Contracts 159

Chapter 8 On-Site Management 189

Chapter 9 Accommodating Special Needs 241

PART FOUR Event Marketing 249

Chapter 10 Advertising, Public Relations, Promotions, and Sponsorship 251

Chapter 11 Online Marketing 281

PART FIVE Legal, Ethical, and Risk Management 289

Chapter 12 Risk Management: Legal and Financial Safeguards 291

Chapter 13 Morality, Law, and Ethics in Event Management 313

ix

PART SIX Technology and Career Advancement 321

Chapter 14 Technology for Modern Event Management 323

Chapter 15 Advancing Your Career in the Twenty-First Century 333

Chapter 16 Case Studies in Twenty-First-Century Event Management 355

Appendix 1 Organizations and Resources 377

Appendix 2 Internet Sites 387

Appendix 3 References 393

Appendix 4 Periodicals 405

Appendix 5 Directories 409

Appendix 6 Audio and Video Resources 413

Appendix 7 Software 415

Appendix 8 Sample Client Agreement 419

Appendix 9 Sample Vendor Agreement 423

Appendix 10 Sample Catering Menus 427

Appendix 11 Sample Insurance Certificate 431

Appendix 12 Sample Incident Report 433

Appendix 13 Sample Purchase Order 437

Appendix 14 Sample Event Evaluations 439

Appendix 15 ISES Code of Ethics 445

Index 447

x Contents

Foreword

It is with great pride and humility that I write this foreword. As a professional

newspaper journalist for nearly a quarter of a century, this is my first attempt

at executing this form of writing. But being the persuasive and charming per￾son that he is, Joe didn’t ask me to do this—he told me. And he would not

take “no” for an answer.

“You’ve known me all your life,” Joe told me. “And you’re a writer, a very

good one too. So write.”

I reside in and am a native of the city of New Orleans, where every week

of every month there are dozens of special events taking place. Of course, like

residents in other parts of the country, we celebrate the usual national and re￾ligious holidays. But here in New Orleans—in Louisiana—it is just as impor￾tant to us what we celebrate as how we celebrate.

And playing vital roles in the success of any celebration in my hometown

are two important elements, music and food. You can rarely have one with￾out the other.

My culture celebrates and pays tribute to what some may view as the odd￾est of things, but for the Louisiana native, it seems perfectly natural. We have

local festivals honoring such foods as andouille sausage, crawfish, crabs, cat￾fish, shrimp, chili, pecans, strawberries, and gumbo.

In New Orleans, baptisms, deaths, marriages, graduations, birthdays, an￾niversaries, and even school fairs are celebrated like they are no place else on

earth. No one visiting this unique and diverse city should be shocked to see

a group of jazz musicians playing a lively tune after a funeral.

We celebrate and honor all forms and types of music, paying tribute to mu￾sicians of every race, class, and culture through every venue imaginable: on

street corners, in hotel lounges, in neighborhood bars, under tents, in school

auditoriums, and in concert halls.

From January 6, we celebrate the start of the Carnival season with an event

called “Twelfth Night,” named for the twelve days after the celebration of

Christmas. For the next few weeks, prior to the start of the 40 days of Lent,

we celebrate by attending daily parades and parties throughout the metropol￾itan New Orleans area.

And as private organizations plan and execute elaborate, colorful, and fes￾tive parades and balls, those who are not members of these groups can still

enjoy the celebration of the Carnival season in their own way by simply be￾ing a spectator.

Just about every weekend in the fall and spring, school fairs abound. Gone

xi

are the days of such activities as fish ponds, ball throws, and strongmen com￾petitions. To get the largest crowds, fair planners have to offer would-be fair

goers a variety of everything: food, games, arts and crafts, refreshments, and

live music. And booking the most popular, local band can become a year￾round job.

So you can see why it as important to those interested in special events,

either as planners or attendees, to keep in mind that why people celebrate and

how people celebrate are of equal importance. From national conventions to

school fairs, from major sporting events to local football or baseball jamborees,

keeping organized while knowing what the public wants is critical. I say this

knowing quite well that the author of this book is the utmost authority on how

to organize an event, large or small. This book will help you fully understand

the why and how of celebration and so much more.

If anyone epitomizes the title of “professional event manager,” it is Joe

Goldblatt. I have known him for nearly fifty years, and together we have cel￾ebrated hundreds of family events. He has an uncanny and dare I say, bril￾liant, knack for making a quiet, family dinner into a memorable event. He is

a special events master through and through, never passing up a chance to

liven things up, to transform the tedious and mundane into the spectacular.

From his childhood of performing magic tricks that included making Leah,

his little sister, disappear from inside a special box, to his recent career in

academia, Joe has many gifts that few possess. In the midst of sadness, he can

make people smile. A happy occasion for Joe becomes a indelible memory.

And Joe has no problem laughing at himself as he recalls the times from our

own childhood when he was the instigator of a practical joke but then laughed

the loudest when the joke was on him.

Writing this foreword has been a wonderful opportunity to briefly share

with you my view of what special events have meant to me and to the family

Joe and I experienced as children. So now it is time for you to celebrate and

to make your own special memories, both personally and professionally, as

you join our family and follow my cousin Joe into the magical, memorable

world of professional event management.

Eva Jacob Barkoff, Community News Editor

The Times-Picayune Newspaper, East Jefferson Bureau

New Orleans, Louisiana

xii Foreword

Preface

“I am bringing shrimp, crabs, and crayfish.” Thus, my Aunt Bertha wrote to

my mother (her sister) in 1967 telling her of an upcoming visit she would

make to our home in Texas. My mother, a native Cajun who raised her family

in Texas, was surely excited about the upcoming visit of her only sibling. I am

also certain her mouth was watering in anticipation of the seafood that would

soon arrive with Aunt Bertha, who we lovingly called “Aunt T.”

I felt a similar sense of anticipation when John Wiley & Sons’ senior edi￾tor, JoAnna Turtletaub, phoned me to ask if I would serve as series editor for

a new project entitled the Wiley Event Management Series. According to

JoAnna, through research, Wiley had identified the fact that the special events

field was expanding rapidly and needed new books to meet current and fu￾ture educational demands of the profession. The first book in the series would

be the third edition of Special Events, which historically was the first aca￾demic textbook in the field. This book would be followed by three or four

books per year, to keep pace with the tremendous growth being experienced

by the field. The development of a series or canon of books in the emerging

profession of event management marks a new and major milestone in an an￾cient tradition (celebrating) and a modern profession (event management).

The first edition of this book was entitled Special Events: The Art and Sci￾ence of Celebration. This title reflected the ritual and ceremonies, as well as

the emerging technologies associated with this field. The second edition ap￾proached the field from a business standpoint, and the title became Special

Events: The Best Practices in Modern Event Management. However, the third

edition has now addressed the major issue of the twenty-first century, and that

is the global environment in which events are now conducted. Therefore, the

new subtitle is Twenty-First Century Global Event Management.

In the preceding edition I noted that the profession was experiencing dra￾matic growth and a move toward standardization through professional certifi￾cation the Certified Special Events Professional [CSEP]) program sponsored by

the International Special Events Society). This growth has continued and even

escalated, giving further evidence of the need for an expanding body of knowl￾edge. Examples of this growth are the George Washington University (GWU)

Event Management Certificate and master’s degree programs. In the second

edition of this book I noted that GWU’s program enrolled 200 students annu￾ally. Now, only three years later, GWU educates more than 4,000 professional

event managers annually. The new subtitle of this book, Twenty-First Century

Global Event Management, also reflects how the profession (and, some would

xiii

argue, all professions) is changing. Today, GWU’s Event Management Program

enrolls students from more than thirty different countries, and graduates hold

distinguished and important positions around the world.

The future is bright indeed for event managers equipped with the essen￾tial tools of experience and education. For the first time since the early de￾velopment of the profession, classified advertisements appear regularly in ma￾jor daily newspapers seeking event managers. To further assist employers,

event management headhunting agencies recruit and match meeting planners

and event managers with employers. For the first time in the history of the

profession, event management is being formally recognized as something that

is valuable and unique and that is desirable as a career.

A Bright Future for Event Managers

The future of the event management profession is ripe with promise. This is

due to several factors. First, the growth in two-income families has propelled

growth in the service industry. In record numbers, husbands and wives are

turning to event managers to handle the details of their social life-cycle events.

Second, the United States has become a nation of specialists. Those with spe￾cialized training, such as event management, are in demand by people and or￾ganizations that require specific expertise. As the event management profes￾sion grows through education, people employed as event managers will be in

greater demand. Finally, the event management profession incorporates mul￾titasking skills that form a generic management base. For example, event man￾agers must be marketing, human resource, and financial specialists to produce

effective events successfully on a continuous basis. Those trained in this field

are able to use these highly portable skills to succeed in other professions,

such as public relations or general business, where event management may

fall under the category of “other duties assigned.” As the economy continues

to be unpredictable and the labor force reinvents itself on a daily basis, event

managers are well positioned to anticipate and even prosper from these

changes. A 1995 article in M & C Magazine described how, due to layoffs or

downsizing, many traditional meeting planners were using their meeting plan￾ning skills in other fields to earn new income. Event managers are even bet￾ter positioned, as they are more broadly trained than meeting planners and

this training and experience will enable them to succeed more quickly in lo￾cating a new position if required.

According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), more than

150,000 people practice public relations. Event management, according to

PRSA, is one of the fastest-growing and most important trends in this modern

profession. Public relations is a discipline that grew out of journalism and

psychology. Although well trained in writing and research, few of its current

xiv Preface