Developing and Managing Budgets for International
Meetings
I am delighted to offer an explanation on how to develop
and manage budgets for international meetings and to
give examples of the types of items that should be included.
As Sea to Sky Meeting Management Inc. is a full service
conference and event management company, we have had
the opportunity to manage a variety of events, large and small, domestic and international. The information I am sharing with you describes Sea
to Sky's approach to budget development and management.
Developing a Budget
Conference management involves four main stages:
concept, design, execution, and evaluation. A budget
is developed in the design stage but only after the
purpose, goals, and objectives of the meeting have been
determined in the concept stage.
The purpose of a budget is to:
- translate the goals and objectives of the meeting
into financial terms,
- provide a framework for supplier negotiations,
- serve as a tool for analyzing major decisions and
controlling expenditures, and
- forecast the financial return on investment.
Information required to develop an accurate budget
is:
- a meeting's goals and objectives,
- a history from past meetings (for example, past
revenues, expenditures, and statistics ), and
- a previous conference program and/or current draft
program, which provides the components of the conference
and what line items to include (for example, food
and beverage events, exhibits, posters).
A few tips when developing a budget are:
- be conservative when projecting revenue figures,
- be as accurate as possible, and a little on the
high side, when projecting expenses,
- have a 3 to 5% contingency fund,
- be as detailed as possible in the description of
the line item, and
- set the framework of the budget line items to correspond
with the chart of accounts. This facilitates the task
of comparing budget items with actual items and integrates
the budget with the accounting system of the organization
that is managing the finances.
Managing a Budget
Managing the budget occurs during the execution
and evaluation stages of the conference and requires
that you:
- only over spend in one area if you can under spend
in another,
- stick to your budget and make informed and agreed
to changes,
- monitor your budget constantly, and
- compare propsed budget versus actual regularly.
Once the conference has ended and all the revenues
are collected and expenses are paid, then it is important
to produce a financial analysis, which forms part of
the conference wrap up report demonstrating the conference's
return on investment. The wrap up report is an essential
last step, which is often overlooked. It is important
as it serves as a historical document recording facts,
figures, and lessons learned for use by the next local
organizing committee.
Examples of Budget Line Items
Sources of revenue include:
- conference and exhibit registration fees,
- sponsorship payments and in-kind sponsorship,
- hotel room rate commission (if PCO hired),
- grants, advertising payments, and merchandise sales,
- optional social events, bank interest, and cancellation
registration fees,
- bridge financing (revenue that needs to be repaid),
and
- goods and services tax rebate if defined as a foreign
convention by Revenue Canada.
There are four types of expenses:
- fixed (does not change with the number of attendees,
for example a meeting room rental),
- variable (varies directly with the number of attendees,
for example food and beverage),
- indirect (can be either fixed or variable, for example
staff time and insurance), and
- hidden (the less obvious, for example union overtime
and electrical hook-ups).
Examples of expenses are:
- administration and office expenses (for example
long distance, photocopies, stationery, bank and credit
card fees, and postage),
- marketing costs (for example logo design, design
and printing of promotional material, website development
and maintenance, proceedings, travel costs to promote
conference, advertising, and inserts),
- development and production of an on-site final program,
a book of abstracts,
- travel and speaker costs,
- local committee expenses (for example travel and
meetings),
- on-site expenses (for example meeting room rental,
insurance, security, housekeeping, electric, registration
set up, audio visual equipment and labour, signage,
poster boards and display services, registration badges
and tickets),
- food and beverage (for example refreshment breaks,
lunches, dinners, welcome reception),
- professional conference management fees (for example,
management of: marketing, logistics, pre and on-site
registration, exhibit and poster management, invited
speaker and abstract management, sponsorship sales
and serving, spousal program, supplier negotiation
and delivery),
- applicable taxes, and
- a 3 to 5% contingency fund.
Working with professional conference organizers like
Sea to Sky Meeting Management Inc. is an excellent way to
save costs, as we have the expertise, systems, and established
relationships with suppliers that all translates into
cost savings for the conference. Sea to Sky's company
policy is not to accept commission from our suppliers
and we never mark up supplier invoices to earn additional
revenue. Instead, Sea to Sky negotiates the best possible
price and passes on any savings directly to our clients.
Sarah Lowis, CMP, CMM
President
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