Conference Planning: Understanding Finance Budgets

Conferences are an excellent way to boost the visibility of your association and offer great benefits to your members through networking and professional development opportunities.

Organising a conference can be a nice break from everyday administration work, but it can be a challenging task. One of the most critical aspects of ensuring its success is being able to manage its finances effectively. A well-planned budget not only keeps the event financially viable, but also helps in delivering the best experience for your members.

Importance of Budgeting

Creating a budget before planning your conference helps you to:

• Control Costs – prevents overspending and ensures resources are efficiently allocated.
• Be Accountable – provides a clear financial path that the association’s Directors can review.
• Set Priorities – identify essential expenses and prioritises these areas.
• Monitor Financial Health – gives you time to adjust the budget and keep the conference on track.

Creating a Conference Budget

Start by listing all potential sources of income on a spreadsheet. This will allow you to easily work out your profit margins. Consider:

• Tickets – calculate this based on the number of expected attendees multiplied by the ticket cost.
• Sponsorship – add together the total number of sponsorship packages you are expecting to sell.
• Exhibitor Fees – multiply the amount of exhibitor stalls you are able to sell by the price of exhibitor ticket fees.
• Post-Conference Income – this may include income from post-conference ticketed events, such as workshops or online seminars.

Identify Expenses

Expenses can fall into one of two categories, either fixed or variable.

Fixed:

• Venue Hire – conference halls and breakout rooms
• AV Equipment – professional audio-visual support, which is often provided as an optional extra by the venue.
• Marketing and Promotion – consider the cost to advertise your conference externally through social media channels, the cost of printing materials and any merchandise on banners you need for the day(s).

Variable:

• Catering/Drinks Reception – this will change depending on your number of attendees.
• Printing – the amount of printed literature you will need.
• Travel & Accommodation – this is often provided for free or at a reduced rate for guest speakers and Board members.

Contingency

It is important to include a contingency fund within your budget to cover any unexpected costs. It is suggested that 10-15% of your total budget should be allocated to ensure that any last-minute changes or unforeseen circumstances can be addressed.

Once you have created your budget it’s important to consistently review it as part of the conference planning process. Adjust estimates based on actual bookings, sponsorships and evolving expenses. This will help to keep the budget more realistic and up to date.

Ensure that you are detailed throughout the process and make use of historical data you may have on file for similar events.