The chapter 3 of Allen`s Chapter talk about the communication objectives and targeting issues. As the starting point of event planning, the second step is setting communication objectives based on situation analysis and fit with corporate and market objectives. While setting a communication objective, planner could use some tools such as gap analysis and Ansoff matrix within the SMART rules; meanwhile, the objective should follow the communication theory. After that, planner should try to determine and describe target audiences in order to segment these targets. At last, the author segments the target in different lights: individual and decision-making unit, reference groups and opinion leaders etc. Therefore the event planner should take the most appropriate method, media and message to communicate with each group. In the event planning, the author provides some method to manage the information and timing. The author emphasize the important of task controlling—critical path, and provide two tools for event managing—function sheets and contact sheets.
