Event Project Management System

"The workshops were great and definitely in-line with what we face at work and I hope I'll have the chance to attend more of your workshops in the near future"
Nicole Shahin Senior Account Executive Polaris Public Relations, Jordan, May 2007

Bill's CV

William J. O'Toole CV for 2009 - as website and downloadable

Coming Up :

Courses and Conferences in 2009 :

In 2009 Bill will be working as an event development specialist in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, Uganda and Kenya

NZ Event conference in August 6 -7

If you would like the best of this website plus more on CDROM -(please see below for cost)- send me an
email :

CDROM : "It's all your fault! We won the business. Your package was and still is most helpful." Carl Henrickson of Capital Celebrations USA,

Comments from 2008 on workshops and consultancy

William J. O'Toole

After 25 years of creating and organising events, I found there is a definite system used in event planning and control. Over the years I compared special events and festivals around the world. Each event manager brings a different experience and style to the organising of these events. However there is an underlying system. Whether the event manager has come from theatre, film, music - or even engineering and medicine - they converge towards a common system. The managers are independently using similar methods, although using different terms according to their work history. The closest existing 'body of knowledge' which describes this system is Project Management. It doesn't correspond exactly, however the project management process is there, if unrecognised.

Below is a Schema of the Event Project Management System. It is a working model and over the next three years will evolve and be continually compared to actual events and refined. It forms the basis of my PhD thesis and, eventually, a software system that reflects the actual, real life, on-the-job, event organising. Parts of it, in particular the Checklists, have been compiled from the experience of many event coordinators, directors and managers.
That is not to say that the checklists are complete - after all each special event is indeed special.

Engineering Events: a comparison of the standard project management methodology with the management of events and festivals, Masters Thesis - available from:

Event issues : a number of discussion papers on event management issues - July 2008

University of Sydney course -event module online for project management Certificate, Diploma and Masters 2008 (another website)

Event Strategy for Councils, Shires, Regions and Cities (April 2006) - a system to support events for local authorities - (website)

Event management as a profession (July 2001) -summary of what makes a profession and how EPM fits into to it.

Trends (July 2001) a personal list of trends from various event managers

Operation Clusters - (Feb 2001) an analysis of event operations using three-level approach

Schema >Conferences>July 14 paper : text of conference paper - Towards the Integration of Event Management Best Practice by the Project Management Process (June 19 2000)

CDROM of the Event Project Management System (as on this website) - on the CDROM are documents, introductory workbook -to teach staff -, checklists and information on event management software plus lots lots more : $90 plus GST + postage - email your order to

. View some screen shots of the CDROM content- and if you don't like it send it back for a full refund