Gala!: The Special Event Planner for Professionals and Volunteers

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I highly recomment Gala! not only for its content, but also because it gives a great framwork on how to put together an event. Personally, it helped me preparing an 100 people event and I truly can say it great because it showed me how to pull all the elements together.
What's different from other books, it's that Patti Coons explains how important are details while preparing your event.
I great book overall!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I ordered the book thinking that I had found a good resource for starting my event planning business. What I received was a book that would be great for people who organize fund raising events with several committees of people working together. Not at all what I was looking for. In fact, most of the book is related to fundraising and the responsibilities of the various committee members. Overall, I was disappointed in the lack of general event planning information and ideas.

Rating:
Summary: not worth the money
Review: I suppose if you had never planned any kind of event, this book might be helpful. Once you've planned even a kids' birthday party, this book becomes obsolete. The lists are ridiculous; the same information and "hints" are reworded throughout the book to appear "new". For example, there's a monthly list of tasks to accomplish in a year-long planning scenario, and then the same tasks are redistributed and reworded for the shorter scenario; it fills up the book, but one would have to be brain-dead not to be able to condense the year-long format into a shorter list. All in all, it was a waste of money and a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I used this planner to organize an event for the Chamber of Commerce and it has EVERYTHING our group needed. All areas were covered, so NOTHING was overlooked; no last minute panics. Easy reading, checklist, sample letters, invitations, etc. Every Chamber and nonprofit organization should have a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: An Event Planner Must Have Book.
Review: This book is a must read for everyone. It is a book that can help not only the person that is a professional in the field of event planning but for the person who has never given an event. The step by step instructions are very easy to follow. The author covered all the aspects of what you need to do to plan a successful event. I just can't praise the author enough for writing this book.

Rating:
Summary: It's for fundraisers! Not events! Just fundraisers!
Review: When I bought this book I thought it was about planning different kinds of events, fundraisers included. Turns out it's all about fundraisers. Which is fine, but I wish they'd said so ON THE COVER so I wouldn't wasted my money. The info is good for fundraisers, but pretty much irrelevant for any other kind of big event.