What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 14 September 2015

Welcome to another week and now that the Summer Holidays are well and truly behind us, we're in somewhat of an educational mode.

With this in mind, we thought this week, it a good idea to mention essential reading this week for event people. Don't worry, we are not into all of those huge Self Help books, but we do firmly think that inspiration can come from a variety of sources and we like to be well read!

We do get a lot of Industry Magazines here at Cloud 9 Towers and we do like a quick flick through them over our butties at lunchtime, just to make sure we are keeping up to date and we even featured some of our suggested essential reading on our latest YouTube post a couple of weeks ago - which if you haven't seen we suggest you watch!

However, we also like a good book here and we mentioned Judy Allen a couple of weeks ago and her brilliant book for event planners. Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising, Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events is a bestselling all–in–one guide to the event planning business  and has been  fully updated and revised to reflect the very latest trends and best practices in the industry. This handy, comprehensive guide includes forms, checklists, and tips for managing events, as well as examples and case studies of both successful and unsuccessful events and some of content we are sure you will find particularly relevant!

Another great read by Judy is the Marketing Your Event Planning Business book, which is a must for any event planner looking to start up their own business – mostly because it contains every bit of advice to follow if you’re going to become a known brand. Established firms should also give it a read; it’ll be a godsend if you’re looking to expand your client base.

Given that corporate meetings are pretty much an integral part of the events industry,  there are plenty of books on how best to plan them. Thing is, most of those works focus primarily on logistics – something which most event planners are fairly capable of dealing with so Into the Heart of Meetings by Mike van de Vijver’s book instead delves into a number of core questions and practical issues involving meeting design; most importantly, it teaches how to tailor content so meetings deliver the best results possible.

 'Rework' by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson is also on our list. With chapters like 'Meetings are Toxic,' 'Fire the Workaholics,' and 'Planning is Guessing.', it's a great, short read and certainly some of the content will stick with you.

 

We also like 'Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of Your Meetings, Or Get Out of More Meetings' by Jon Petz as its a very lighthearted and engaging book and is anything but boring! 

 

So there you have it, a little reading about reading! Enjoy and see you soon!