Friday, December 12, 2008

Professional Event Coordination or False Prophets

Professional Event Coordination (The Wiley Event Management Series)

Author: Julia Rutherford Silvers

Introducing a clear path toward event excellence

A comprehensive guide to essential competencies for event coordinators,
Professional Event Coordination examines the full event planning process and provides the tools and strategies to effectively procure, organize, implement, and monitor all the products, services, and service providers that will bring an event to life.

After establishing each layer of the anatomy of an event, this in-depth guide covers:



• Event design

• Project management techniques

• Site selection and development

• Infrastructure services

• Entertainment possibilities

• Food and beverage options

• Safety and security

• Inviting attendees


In addition to dozens of checklists, tables, and figures, this complete guidebook is enhanced with On-Site Insights (real-world examples), Technology Tips, and Exercises in Professional Event Coordination (reinforcement exercises that help in preparation for the CSEP certification exam).

A versatile tool that is effective for all types of events-for small functions with ten guests to major festivals with 10,000 attendees - Professional Event Coordination is a valuable book for every professional who works events, including event managers, caterers, event planners, and hotel and food and beverage managers.



Table of Contents:
Foreword
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Ch. 1Anatomy of an Event1
Ch. 2The Event Element Assessment27
Ch. 3Developing the Event Site63
Ch. 4Accomodating the Audience93
Ch. 5Providing the Event Infrastructure133
Ch. 6Safe Operations169
Ch. 7Coordinating the Environment203
Ch. 8Fundamentals of the Production231
Ch. 9Staging the Entertainment Experience269
Ch. 10Food and Beverage Operations293
Ch. 11Making Event Memories317
Ch. 12Ancillary Programs341
Ch. 13Vendors and Volunteers367
Ch. 14Knowledge Management397
Ch. 15Strategies for Success423
App. 1: Sample Client Interview Form431
App. 2: Sample On-Site Change Order Form439
App. 3: Event "Survival" Kit441
App. 4: Sample Site Inspection Checklist443
App. 5: References and Reading List449
Index457

New interesting book: The Conflict Resolution Toolbox or Nonprofit Boards That Work

False Prophets: The Gurus Who Created Modern Management and Why Their Ideas Are Bad for Business Today

Author: James Hoopes

According to Jim Hoopes, the fundamental principles on which business is based-authority, power, control-are increasingly at odds with principles of life in a democratic society-freedom, equality, individualism. False Prophets critically examines the pioneering theories of the early management thinkers, such as Taylor, Follett, Mayo, and Deming, which intended to democratize corporate life yet have proved antithetical to the successful practice of business. Hoopes challenges popular management movements that followed in the wake of these thinkers and accuses today's business theorists of perpetuating bad management in the name of democratic values. He urges executives and managers to recognize the realities of corporate life and learn to apply the principles of power. He also unveils a new management agenda that will be of paramount significance to modern organizations.A rich and lively read, False Prophets provides a refreshingly new and original overview of the history of management in the larger context of the American culture, brilliantly illustrating its evolution-from the ivory tower to the shop floor.

9/03 - Choice

Writing in an engaging style, the author uses rare historical evidence to challenge readers to look at management ideas skeptically...recommended.

Harvard Business Review

Provocative and incisive.

The Washington Post

Hoopes's novel assertion is not that the gurus made life worse for workers -- anyone in the thrall of simpleton platitude-spouting bosses realizes that's axiomatic. Instead, he holds that the attempt to democratize the workplace actually hurts workers and work. Corporations are not democracies, he writes, and one gives up certain rights when flashing the ID badge at the company door. — Frank Ahrens

Publishers Weekly

Babson College history professor Hoopes traces American business theory's antidemocratic strain by starting with "management manuals" for slave owners and overseers, seeing plantations as among the nation's earliest forerunners of the modern corporation. The inference that modern workers are just as commodified as slaves isn't accidental; one of Hoopes's theses is that management gurus, by nature idealistic and utopian, are uncomfortable addressing the fundamental discrepancy in American culture between corporate power and political ideals. In order to avoid confronting that contradiction, they posit "bottom-up" organizational models-in one extreme case, suggesting corporate authority doesn't exist, but is conferred upon managers by employees who reject the responsibility of decision making. By examining the lives and writings of eight 20th-century business writers, Hoopes aims to demonstrate how their management theories have steered American industry wrongly. By pretending corporate power doesn't operate from a "top-down" model, management theory fails to address the moral questions that come with authority, he says. And it's that blind spot, he claims, that leads to the self-deception and self-righteousness that fuel corporate scandals. The book's biographical elements are strong, offering brief but well-rounded portraits depicting not only the successes but also the shortcomings and failures of figures like Frederick W. Taylor, whose ruthless quest for efficiency put him in conflict with the laborers he sought to regiment. He also highlights theories that still have some practical value, such as Peter Drucker's proposal to promote specific objectives rather than abstract missions. Knowing the weaknesses of popular theories is useful in its own right, but managers looking for quick fixes to ethical dilemmas won't find them here. Agent, Barbara Rifkind. (June 3) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Hoopes (distinguished professor of history, Babson Coll.; Community Denied) here profiles nine business management leaders whom he labels gurus. He begins with a brief biography of each, then describes and analyzes the management philosophy he or she embraces. Hoopes's thesis is that the philosophies of Frederick W. Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, H.L. Gantt, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Chester Bernard, W. Edwards Deming, and Peter Drucker have been detrimental to business today. He argues that instead of subscribing to philosophies that promise to give more freedom to employees, business managers should look for new management models that recognize some of the antidemocratic conditions necessary in a successful corporation. Unfortunately, Hoopes doesn't really present a convincing argument that the philosophies of these business "gurus" are hurting business today. This thesis is broached in the final chapter but is not effectively tied to the preceding chapters, which are basically well-written biographies of the various individuals. Overuse of the term guru further confuses the issue; these are pundits who are not alone in shaping business as it is today. Recommended for large business collections and academic libraries.-Joyce M. Cox, Nevada State Lib. & Archives, Carson City Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.



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