Customer Reviews

Dollars & Events: How to Succeed in the Special Events Business

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This book is very technical and goes into a great depth of the "business" end of running your own company. It is not a good book for someone who's just beginning and just wants basic information about the event planning business in general. For my needs Affairs of the Heart by Nancy Gluck was a much more insightful book.

This book was not as I had expected, however once I got into it I realized that its content was very valuable. The authors offer up advice that no one would normally tell you and that you would have to find out on your own as a result of poor planning. Some of the material is technical but important to have a successful event planning business. Event planning is much more than picking floral arrangements and reviewing colors of swatches for table linens. This book allows you to taste the true business aspect of the world of event planning. A bargain at its price as it is less expensive than making future business mistakes!

This is a good basic text for starting an event planning business. It includes step-by-step instructions for how to get started, manage the finacial end and maintain your edge in the business. There are lots of sample forms for everything from assessing your suitablility for this business to a sample contract. Throughout the book are anecdotes about people who succeeded at the particular element being discussed.

The book is well written and easy to understand. If gives a good idea of what to expect and what is expected. If you are considering a carreer in event planning, this is a good place to start.

If you're considering a career in client-driven events (e.g. the Feldstein wedding) or an event support business (e.g. lighting design), this book will provide a useful overview of basic business issues. Most of these issues would require additional reading and the authors provide a good list of references. The coverage is a little uneven, with some topics (e.g. focus groups) discussed in great depth and others (e.g. risk managment) glossed over. There is also some redundancy (e.g. research techniques are discussed in some depth in two different chapters). But you'll also find lots of good advice on sound business practices.

In contrast, this book is a lot less useful if you're interested in developing your own public events (e.g. concerts, sporting events). There is minimal or no discussion of essential issues like sponsorship, ticket pricing or recruiting/managing volunteers. The discussion of marketing is limited to attracting clients and does not touch on recruiting an audience. There is, however, considerable overlap in the business issues. Since I haven't found a good coverage of that area elsewhere, I'd still recommend this book for you.