subject: Easy Tips to Avoid a Budget Blow-Out [print this page] Easy Tips to Avoid a Budget Blow-Out Easy Tips to Avoid a Budget Blow-Out
Lining up aconference centre for your next major event is just one of the numerous tasks you will have to perform in the run-up to the day itself. But before you go anywhere, it is more than likely that you will have to draw up a budget to ensure costs are kept at a minimum and at the same time allowing you to run a profitable and enjoyable event.
Budgeting can be a difficult process given the open-ended nature of pricing in the event and conference industry. You can spend as much as you like on a venue and the options open to you provide an endless list of temptations that need to be carefully managed. That's why it is important to do a budget at the outset.
Let's take a look at some budgeting tips you can follow to make sure you keep your costs reigned in whilst at the same time giving good value for money to your attendees.
On the expenditure side, you will have to include venue costs, advertising and promotional products, cost of speakers or performers, catering, equipment, administration, name tags and any staff that have to be employed.
Income will be received from registrations and ticket sales, sponsorship investment and any public funding that might be available.
As the event organiser your responsibility will be to spend as little as possible, that's why you need to look at cutting costs to the bone. One thing to think about in this regard is whether one single large event will have more cost benefits than staging several smaller events for the same purpose. On the one hand you may increase costs slightly but if you can increase the number of attendees, then any extra expenditure will be more than compensated for.
Examine whether it is possible to do any publishing in-house. There is a plethora of software that can assist you in this process and can save you the expense of outsourcing. Using WordPress blogs and a number of free plug-ins can also cut back on your overheads and give you an easy to manage method through which you can communicate with your attendees and even accept payments.
Sponsors. You can reduce your expenses enormously with some appropriately placed sponsorship. Audiovisual equipment provides you with an easy avenue to publicise your sponsors throughout the event, and you may find it easier than you think to get local companies to pay for advertising during some of your presentations. Just a few sponsors could mean the same as a couple of hundred registrations.
If you are staging a larger event, it is easy to negotiate a discount with the host venue. If you point out that you are likely to run more events in the future, you might be surprised at how willing a venue is to reduce hire costs quite substantially.
Before you decide on your next conference centre make sure you run through your budget figures beforehand so you are fore-armed with arguments to negotiate the best price possible.
