Business Book Awards Shortlisted in Sales and Marketing category

Explore the art and science of how to create and curate transformational events

In an age of deep fakes and misinformation, business and professional events are more important than ever before. Live events are where real people have authentic conversations, where trust can flourish. They convene communities, create connections and host conversations, and ultimately they can change the world.

Events have been elevated around the boardroom table: they’re no longer simply a cost centre, but drivers of revenue and purpose. They have the power to inspire world leaders, change government policy and transform the conversation in sectors from immunology to indigenous rights. But creating such purposeful, transformational events is a strategic, not a tactical undertaking. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook offers a blue print for a new generation of events; purpose-led, outcome-driven and aligned to organizational goals.

Drawing on her decades of experience across a wide range of events – media-owned, commercial events, corporate, non-profit and association – Sasha Frieze has created the essential guide for CevOs, aspiring CevOs, Event Directors and Planners, CMOs, boards and anyone exploring the strategic power of events for their organization.

I speak at dozens of events a year and I know what a difference professionalism makes. Sasha Frieze is the guru of business events and the advice you need is right here. – Daniel Finkelstein, Columnist, The Times

Having spoken at Sasha’s events for over two decades, I’ve witnessed firsthand how she consistently creates experiences that deliver genuine impact. As a CMO, I recognise that events are increasingly a critical component of organisational success, and The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook provides exactly what leaders need – packed with clear thinking and deep insights to help achieve this impact. This must-read book offers a practical framework for placing events at the heart of your brand, culture and strategy, ultimately helping to power your organisation’s success. – Laurent Ezekiel, Chief Marketing Officer, WPP and CEO, WPP Open X

Events are the most important channel for marketing teams who rely on their Chief Event Officers to deliver events with genuine strategic purpose; delivering the bigger corporate strategy. Sasha’s decades of experience and guidance in this book is an invaluable tool for senior event professionals and CMOs to ensure that their events deliver. -Anita Howard, Founder, ICE, International Corporate Event Awards and Network

Sasha Frieze has spent over 30 years transforming events from routine gatherings into high-impact experiences that drive real change. In The Chief Event Officers Playbook: How to Create Transformational Events, she distils a lifetime of expertise into a must-read guide for anyone who understands that events are more than logistics they are powerful tools for influence, innovation, and business success. With a rare blend of creative vision and commercial acumen, Sasha has helped top organizations, media brands, and nonprofits craft events that leave lasting impressions. Whether you’re a seasoned event leader or just starting out, this book will challenge your thinking and elevate your approach. If you want to create events that truly matter, you need this playbook on your shelf. – David Adler, Founder, BizBash

Having directed flagship global sponsorships – from the Premier League to Reading & Leeds Music Festivals – and grown two data businesses to successful exits, I know the difference between logistical noise and strategic impact. In The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook, Sasha Frieze distils decades of insight into a concise, actionable blueprint that elevates events from cost line to board-level catalyst. Her four-question framework and 5Cs model hand leaders a clear path to transformational, community-driven gatherings. Essential reading for anyone serious about turning meetings into momentum. – Mike Flynn, Edutero Chairman and Serial Entrepreneur

Sasha has captured exactly what senior leaders need to hear about events. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook reframes events from logistics to strategic assets – something the events industry has needed for years. It’s clear, grounded, and genuinely useful. If you’re serious about creating events that deliver business impact, this is the guide. Sasha brings years of real experience and deep thinking to the table, and it shows. This isn’t theory – it’s a manual for doing events properly, with purpose at the core. – Adam Parry, Editor, Event Industry News

Events are powerful drivers of customer and member engagement – but too often, they’re reduced to a logistics checklist, rather than focusing on the event experience, community and outcomes. Events are complex productions that demand a combination of strategic leadership and marketing. Today’s environment calls for a new kind of leader – one who sees events as a brand platform, not just a function. In The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook, Sasha Frieze offers a blueprint for creating the kind of transformative, connected experiences that inspire action. – Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer, American Medical Association, and author, The 10-Second Customer Journey

I loved this book – it’s exactly what the events industry has been crying out for. It’s not another ‘how-to’ guide or academic tome, it’s a genuinely inspiring, easy-to-read Playbook that helps you think bigger and deliver events with real purpose. Packed with practical insights and storytelling that sticks, it’s a book you will keep coming back to when you want to create experiences that actually mean something. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook is strategy-led, warm, and purpose-driven, and will become the bible for making your events more than just dates in a diary. -Gina Kay, Marketing Manager, Mash Media – International Confex

With misinformation and mistrust prevalent, many of us crave authentic human connections that in-person gatherings bring. Sasha reframes live business events as transformational, community experiences, not the old-fashioned product showcases of yesteryear. Her book makes a compelling case for elevating event professionals to the C-suite and provides a strategic framework that will revolutionise your gathering. Through personal stories and real-world examples, she reveals how purpose-driven events create the sense of belonging participants crave. It’s a love letter to the profound human impact of masterfully crafted events. Essential reading for anyone serious about creating experiences that truly matter. – Tamar Beck, CEO, Gleanin

The old events industry – cold coffee, stale speakers, staler rooms – still lingers. Enter The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook, a handbook for experience creators, strategists, content creators and influencers. Crafted to help you create intentional events that transform, engage, and move people. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook shows how experience drives business success, with trailblazing brands leading the way, and how events can learn from this. Both a user guide and a warm embrace to the events industry, this is a compelling narrative that introduces the world of transformational events, and the power they have in modern business. – Alistair Turner, Managing Director, Eight PR & Marketing

This book is bang on the money and all event leaders should own a copy. Tackling topics that are easy to push into the future – next gen event goers, business events’ essential need for community and connections, the aptly named event conundrum of infoxication – which often fall into the ‘too hard’ box. It digs into the importance of measuring event impact, beyond financial impact. And most importantly, this is a call to arms to put strategic event conversations where they belong: firmly in the boardroom. Our industry moves fast – chasing growth, seeking innovative projects, or putting out the latest fire; this book is a much-needed firebreak. A moment to stop, reflect, and reset your strategic direction. Don’t wonder if it’s for you, just read it, and you’ll see it is. – Vanessa Lovatt, Founder, Event Tech World & Event Sector Consultant

The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook is an essential guide for leaders who want to move beyond logistics and deliver events with lasting impact. Sasha combines strategy, creativity, and industry expertise to show how events can drive transformation, not just transactions. A must-read for anyone serious about the power of experiential leadership. – Flavilla Fongang, CEO & Founder of Black Rise

This book urges all event leaders to adopt a strategic mindset. Only then can we elevate our role as a strategic business partner and earn a seat at the table, driving pipeline and revenue.

This is the only way to allow our team members to elevate themselves beyond logistics, the only way for our roles to prove their strategic impact to the business.

This book is a must-read for all event professionals who aspire to a leadership position and who seek more than checklists and room rate negotiations. – Liz Lathan, co-founder, Club Ichi

In a world of saturation, attention is the most valuable currency. That makes events uniquely powerful: one of the few remaining contexts where people show up on purpose. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook is an excellent guide to stop treating events like logistics exercises and start seeing them for what they are: live laboratories of human behaviour.

When you design with that mindset, you stop guessing what works. This book is an intelligent manifesto for making events feel less like broadcast, more like belonging, and for building shared momentum that lasts. The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook helps you create events that earn memory. That stick.

Lea Karam, Behavioural Scientist, Founder and CEO, Mindscope

In an increasingly AI-driven business environment, it takes a brave business leader to ignore the power of events. Events are a crucial part of the marketing ecosystem – without meeting customers, suppliers, competitors, future employees (or employers) in the flesh, your brand will inevitably become faceless and potentially irrelevant.

In good times events highlight excellence- in bad times they can be the life raft that keep you afloat and visible. This well-timed book guides you to create events are stimulating, thought provoking and impactful. Ignore it at your peril.

James Hanbury,
Media entrepreneur and investor, co-founder Incisive Media

*The Chief Event Officer’s Playbook *is a timely and essential guide for anyone serious about transforming events into powerful strategic tools. It highlights the critical importance of designing events with intention, creativity, and a deep understanding of how people learn and engage.

In today’s knowledge-driven economy, meetings and events are not just gatherings – they are catalysts for innovation and economic acceleration. This book offers a roadmap to creating impact through professional event design. Every page offers insight, every paragraph fuels inspiration. It’s not just a book – it’s a blueprint. I’m certain it will become the go-to bible for every forward-thinking event professional.

Linda Pereira, CEO, CPL Events & Consultancy

With the rise of AI and changes in marketing, events have emerged as the most powerful channel – no longer optional, but a critical, strategic business function.

For years, event professionals have pushed to shed the “party planner” label and claim their rightful place at the heart of organisational strategy. This book gives you the blueprint to make that happen. Every event professional should read it – and so should every C-suite leader serious about the critical role of events in delivering on your big strategic objectives.

Will Curran, event industry influencer and successful event agency owner

Introduction: Why CEvOs matter

Chapter 1. Exploring the event transformation

Chapter 2. Envisioning the journey

Chapter 3. Articulating the purpose

Chapter 4. Mapping the stakeholders

Chapter 5. Amplifying the message

Chapter 6. Curating the content

Chapter 7. Crafting the experience

Chapter 9. Evaluating your transformational outcome

Chapter 10. Making events a board- level conversation

Afterword: Looking deeper

Appendix Event Transformation Methodology downloads

FORMAT / ISBN / PUBLICATION DATE / RRP

Paperback / 9781788606912 / November 18, 2025 / £14.99

Hardback / 9781788606905 / November 18, 2025 / £24.99

Ebook / 9781788606936 / November 17, 2025 / £7.99

Paperback and eBook Bundle / £16.99

Sasha Frieze

Sasha Frieze FRSA FCIM is an award-winning event strategist, consultant, coach and trainer, who’s delivered 1,000+ events in 30+ years. Sasha has worked for decades with clients across media owners, corporates, associations and non-profits. Her clients include the United Nations Foundation, The Guardian, The BMJ, the Open Data Institute, Abrdn, Raymond James, Times & Sunday Times, Incisive Media, Informa, the British Society for Immunology and the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
Sasha is a Non-Executive Director of the British Society for Haematology, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and The Royal Society of Arts, is a visiting lecturer in event management at The University of Westminster, London and judges industry awards.