Current techniques for handling events, such as the 'callback functions' approach, present some limitations to the development of Network Software, Communication Layered Protocols, Graphical Interfaces for Real-Time Applications and Multimedia. These techniques lack the mechanisms for data flow structuring, for the interaction between different events and for Finite State Machine design. This paper presents a paradigm, based on the concept of Active Objects, that provides a new way of designing event driven applications. The concurrent and object-oriented capabilities of this approach make it particularly useful for facilitating the construction of complex event driven systems.