Yes, it’s September & the “silly season” has started – this is marked by the sudden influx of calls for our event entertainment services.  Companies are putting their plans together for their year-end events & corporate functions, so I’ve decided to give you, the event planner, some help with these resources, links, websites & tools!

BLOGS / RESOURCE WEBSITES:

• EventManagerBlog | Event Planning 2.0
• Event Planning News/Resources from Alltop
• Fresh Event Tips – Bonjour Events
• About Event Planning

SA Special Events Industry Guide 2008

“CAREERS IN EVENT PLANNING” (thank you Sirena Evans)
This website covers everything you need to know about starting a career as an event planner.  It covers:

• What is event planning?
• Who plans events?
• Is event planning for me?
• Event related jobs
• Event planning jobs
• Career planning resources
• Free eZine with much much more!

EVENT PLANNING TEMPLATES:

• Free “Event Planning Templates For Corporate Events”, including “17 Professional Tips for Planning Corporate Events”
• Bonjour Events provides these amazing templates:
  • AV Cue Sheet
  • Celebrity Participation
  • Conference Management Tool
  • Dinner Party Budget Template
  • Event Signage List
  • Event Summary Form
  • Golf Contests
  • Large Conference Budget Template
  • and so many more!

USEFUL ARTICLES:

• Things to consider when planning your office party. (from iLoveMusic entertainment)
• 10 Tips For Bringing Your Event To Life (from Cape Business News / Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach)
• Event Planning Calculators & Checklists (.pdf) (from Marriott hotels)
• What to wear if it’s a ‘black tie’ event (from All Events Advisor)
• Etiquette Mistakes at Business Events – Bad Manners that Event Guests and Hosts Should Avoid (from About.com:Event Planning)
• Business Etiquette for Corporate Events – Useful Tips for Good Manners at Meetings and Social Events (from About.com:Event Planning)
• Getting the most out of your Event Photographer (from Bonjour Events)

EDUCATIONAL:

• Attend The Hedgehog Event’s regular training seminars & ‘boot camps‘ on event management & planning.

ONLINE EVENT ORGANISING SOFTWARE:

Send invites, receive RSVPs, plan schedules & book venues with these online solutions:

• Event Wax (Free) – “The easier, smarter way to organize special events, from conferences and workshops to parties, gigs, and receptions.”
• Meeting Wizard (Free)  – “Use MeetingWizard to arrange and schedule meetings and other events. As a productivity tool it makes the planning process easier and more effective.”
• Amiando (Free for free events) – Website, ticketing, statistics, reports, polls – very popular in Europe.
• PurpleTrail – “A better way to plan online Parties & Events”. Free resources!

Bookmark this page since I hope to add more resources as I find them.

Do you know of any additional resources I should have included? Let me know in your comments below …

Marcel Oudejans, magician and corporate entertainer, has been invited to give a presentation at an international magic convention in India at the beginning of May. Marcel received a personal invitation from one of the top illusionists in India, Gopinath Muthukad, who will be hosting the convention. Vismayam 2008 will be held from 1 to 4 May at the Academy of Magical Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala.

Marcel will be speaking alongside notable presenters such as Jorge Blass, an illusionist from Spain who has appeared in a number of television shows, and Reed McClintock, a pioneering close-up and stand-up performer from the USA. The conference organisers have billed Marcel as a “new-generation magician” and a “leading figure in the corporate entertainment sector”.

At just 26, Marcel has made a solid name for himself in the events industry in South Africa. He has a host of satisfied clients, including the likes of Old Mutual, First National Bank, Woolworths and IBM. One detail that makes his style of business unique amongst magicians is that he offers a 100% money-back guarantee to any client who is not satisfied with the performance or service they receive – and so far not a single client has invoked this guarantee. He has been performing professionally for over 10 years, and his witty sense of humour, comic timing and evident enthusiasm have stood him in good stead.

Marcel’s speciality is close-up magic, which allows him to involve the audience in his performance. His performances to date have included corporate dinners, cocktail parties, wedding receptions, product launches, birthday parties, train trips and concept presentations, where he has amazed guests by bending forks before their eyes, causing bank-notes to hover in the air just above their hands and appearing to read their minds. The fact that his performances require no stage, sound equipment or special lighting makes them incredibly versatile.

Vismayam 2008 is expected to draw a large number of both international and local magicians – there are estimated to be around 6,500 magicians in India. The organisers promise that the festival will showcase a mix of traditional Indian street magic, ethnic magic and modern western magic. Being selected to speak at the convention is indeed a privilege – speakers will even be honoured with a special title by the Kerala Ministry of Culture.

For more information on the conference, visit www.vismayam2008.com.
For more information on Marcel Oudejans, visit www.corporatemagician.co.za.

Press release prepared by August Sun Projects

• Picked up by ‘The Times’ : ‘Oudejans to make magic in India’
• Picked up by ‘SA Rocks’ : ‘SA magician disappearing to India’
• Picked up by ‘MyPressportal‘: ‘South African Magician set to dazzle in India’

• You can interact with me regularly by writing comments on my articles or by asking me questions
• I find it easier to add more multimedia, like images, videos & links to other webpages
• Because I can write an article online from anywhere in the world, I can write them more regularly than I have in the past
• Search engines (like Google) can find my articles so that more readers, like you, can benefit from my articles & resources
• You can read my articles at your leisure, instead of receiving them in your email Inbox

The ability to read my articles at your leisure is a major feature of blogging, because it uses a protocol called ‘RSS’. RSS, or ‘Really Simple Syndication’, enables my blog articles (called posts) to be streamed in a ‘feed’. Subscribing to my feed is a bit like adding a channel to your television – you are basically saying “Yes, I would like to receive your articles as they are published”.

Now, you may be used to receiving regular articles from other people in your email – if that’s what you prefer, great! You can still emailed updates by subscribing to my blog by adding your email address in the form on the right.

But what if there was a way that you could receive any web page or blog’s updates & articles without filling up your email Inbox? That’s where RSS comes in. By using an application, called an RSS Reader, you can get all the your updated information in one place quickly & easily, while you maintain control over the flow of information to you.

Here’s my problem: I’ve chatted to a lot of my clients & most of them think that using RSS is too complicated, when in fact, it’s not only easy to understand but it saves you a LOT of time & you benefit from receiving only the freshest & newest information.

It’s the difference between buying a daily newspaper & selecting to read only the articles that interest you, & having a window on your PC that automatically updates those same articles as they published.

Newspaper = old news, where you need to page through to find what interests you
vs.
RSS Reader = the latest news, but only from sources that interest you.

And those sources can be anything you like to read regularly – industry news, experts’ articles, or even updates of your friend’s uploaded photos & news.

Personally, I use RSS feeds more than my emails now because I get to choose who I receive updates from & when I want to read them.

Ok, so you might still not understand! ? That’s ok, because below I’ve posted the best video I’ve seen that explains the basic concepts of RSS!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

1. So, get your free Google RSS Reader here (my personal preference, because it’s so easy)
2. Subscribe to my feed by clicking here .
3. Add a few more feeds (BizCommunity has a great tool to find feeds you may like)
   (Hint: look for this logo : :to subscribe to a feed, it can be on the webpage itself or in your address bar)
4. Take part in my discussion by writing comments to my posts

Well, I hope that you too can benefit as much as I have from using RSS feeds & Google Reader!

Any questions? Add your comment below & I’ll gladly answer them!