Title: Eventful Cities

Authors: Greg Richards and Robert Palmer

Publisher: Elsevier – Butterwoth-Heinemann

ISBN: 978-0750669870

Book Review

Due to paradigmatic changes at local and global levels, cities face the need to reinvent themselves in order to remain or become competitive. In this context events are perceived as key elements in the process of urban development as they have the potential to contribute to economic, social, cultural and environmental revitalization.

This book is structured in twelve chapters, starting by explaining the reasons why cities need to engage in the organization of major events. The next chapters focus on the strategies of creating and programming a portfolio of events and the resources needed to implement such strategies. The development of a suitable marketing approach, from a strategic and operational point of view, is crucial to the success of promoting an eventful city. The book proceeds by providing some considerations about event programme outcomes and impacts, event programme sustainability and keys to success.

Eventful Cities articulates the issues of cultural management and urban revitalization, linking theory and practice and providing case studies of cities engaging in event development and revealing critical success factors.

According to its authors, this book intends to provide guidance to those involved in designing, running, funding, evaluating and studying cities and their events. Furthermore the authors acknowledge that the central issues are not event management, place management and marketing, but rather the strategies that are needed to be developed by cities to ensure that events reinforce and celebrate the identity or culture of the places in which they happen, and have the greatest possible impact on a city´s economic and social prosperity.

According to the above, this book fills a gap in terms of synergies that can be established between the development of a portfolio of events and the desired urban regeneration and revitalization.

Margarida Custódio Santos

José António Conceição Santos