ABSTRACT
Planned events, from the smallest meeting or private party to the grandest festival or world championship, are an essential part of human civilization. They have been with us throughout recorded history. Events help define cultures and sub-cultures, give identity to places and individuals, and bind communities together. Events facilitate commerce and trade, they entertain us, and shape our competitive and playful spirits. A civil society without the full array of events is not imaginable. Until fairly recently most events were organic, springing from the needs and aspirations of
communities, and they were informal – people helped out because it was expected and necessary. However, events planned to meet specific goals or reflect particular values have always been popular, and increasingly they are planned to meet public policy and strategic corporate or industry objectives. Although many events are periodic, and some even become permanent institutions in their
host communities, they are often held only once. But as a population, planned events are institutionalized – that is, they are expected to perform important social, cultural and economic roles, and so they receive the support of powerful stakeholders as well as their resident communities. The population of events in any place says a great deal about how that society functions, the degree to which it shares and cooperates, and how it is managed. While any one event can be replaced or substituted, every place needs a healthy population of events.
