Great book for reference and getting into the industry. I enjoyed reading and learning from it. I am hoping to go back and re read parts of this to continue to use in my day to day work.

A useful guide to event planning and management from authors with plenty of experience in the field.

This is a really useful and well considered book - I read the third edition which covers a community of event organisers reeling from changes due to Covid. Most of the book deals with real-space events. The last section is about adapting to virtual and hybrid events. I've run and assisted with major and minor events in real-space and online.

I like the many case studies, written by organisers - one was a woman who had to organise an Indian culture funeral for a deceased male relative, during Covid. Others were major festivals, sporting events, business conferences.

Some sections are on publicising the event and using social media, media releases and local publicity. More could have been said on involvement of journalists - what are the requirements for a media centre room, should journalists have a specific contact, and how many journalists could be expected to attend, at what times. And some people - attendees or volunteers -refuse to use some social media sites on data privacy grounds, so you need to find other ways to communicate.

I also noted that while good attention is paid to security and health and safety, nobody says what you might do if it's too cold (I've found all windows open due to post-Covid ventilation requirements and the coffee on sale was lukewarm, then the venue stopped selling food during the afternoon), or if there isn't a floor plan displayed on each level of a building (people mill around and then ask someone how to get out; dangerous in case of fire). Performers expect a green room (for peace and quiet and snacks). Basic issues that the writers might think are self-evident but are not.

On health and security, I've attended a major event at which someone fell and needed assistance near the gate, but the ambulance for first aid was on the far side of an extremely crowded showgrounds. No mention is made of pickpocketing, and theft of phones, cameras, laptops, or copying credit card details on swipe machines. This won't happen at a family wedding but it may well happen at a festival or sport event. And forged tickets may occur. Crime doesn't seem to enter the heads of the lecturers / writers.

We are creditably told to include many diverse organisers, volunteers and attendees. I would mention issues, like motorised wheelchairs taking up all the space in a lift and needing a lot more time to manoeuvre, so when you have several of these big vehicles and the venue needs to move trollies, as well as guests wanting the lift, you are going to need more lifts, and signs to them.

The writers state only one meaning for acronyms and the student / staff may well already know another. Example being SMART goals - they say specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, time-bound. Whereas I learnt A and R being achievable and relevant, in college. I also had a lecturer who spoke of goals and objectives the opposite way to that which I'd learned. Goals are short term, like each goal in a match, and one succeeds another. Objectives are long-term strategic objectives, like winning the match and the league. But my lecturer said the BBC uses them the other way around. That makes no sense to me, as goal is a short word and objective a longer one. The writers should acknowledge - as many business handbooks do - that various interpretations are in the wild.

I'd like a comparison of online events from the attendee point of view. I attended one UN conference hosted on Hubilo which was excellent, an event hub where we could upload a photo and some details, view speakers and attendees' photos and details, ask to make contact, see content provided by speakers and groups, book and attend talks and panels. Others I attended have just been a YouTube or Zoom link for each specific talk at a specific time. Some had interpretation, chat or Q&A boxes. A Discord hub works well for a convention, as it aids communication among staff as well as attendees. In a hybrid event, the people at the event miss out on the panel talks if panellists are in different countries on Zoom. Unless you want in-person attendees to sit around staring at tiny phone screens, I suggest providing a big screen in a room for those talks.

References are given after each chapter, college-style, and men and women are given equal prominence. The book will certainly be useful to event management students, as well as working organisers of volunteer or commercial events.
I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.