How to cut down on your Event Budget?

by Ashwin | Jun 29, 2016 | Blog, event management, Marketing

An event can be successful only if it’s a win-win situation for both the company/organization and attendees/participants. From the beginning to the end, managing the event involves a lot of things, and only money can fuel this! Efficient management of budget is the key to an event.

Event planners strive to create the most accurate budget for their events and try their best to stick on to it. Randomly surmising an amount might lead to an unsteady flow of cash either more or less than the estimate. Event planners take their time to understand, organize and conclude an amount to be incurred as expenditure. Beyond optimistically expecting a good inflow of cash from registrations, sponsors, etc., and an event planner takes the pain of reducing the expenses and consistently works towards its mitigation. Return on Investment (ROI) is a major driving factor for any event planner where investment as less as possible, but reap a large profit margin. Here are the ways to cut down on the budget for an upcoming event.

1. Avoid “the season” (for a change!)

Most of the big shots conduct their events during the most favorite days of a season. This might create a hike in the pricing of most of the services such as venue rates, staffing cost, etc. While an attempt in the offseason might sound dubious, it is, however, going to act as a moment of surprise for those who are ever interested in the theme of your event. Attendees do show up for events that are conducted at less popular times of the year, and most services do not charge exorbitant rates due to less demand thereby creating a win-win situation.

2. Try to get ‘All in One’

Instead of searching for individual services like food, audio and visual system, Wi-Fi connectivity, etc., it is wiser to find a package that offers all these services.

Usually, some venues provide all services that are expected for an event, giving a solution to the searching process. Packages are generally cost-effective as opting for a single source that provides all services is way cheaper than asking individually for help.

3. Be wary of the expenses on event speakers/celebrities

Beyond that fact that famous stars, celebrities, speakers allure a broad range of audiences it is highly intelligible if an event planner understands that most attendees attracted by such perks would simply be entangled in admiring the eye-catchy stardom that your event showcases and will not have the expected interest in the theme of your event.

Popularity is a major factor that acts as a marketing tool for your event to fetch attendees, however, do they bring you the right ones? A simple but knowledgeable and articulate speaker will be able to deliver his ideas and conclusively transfer knowledge to the attendees who are intrigued by the theme of your event. A significant chunk of money can be saved with simplicity.

4. Hunt for ‘Free’ services like marketing

A successful marketing approach tries to shun massive investments in the same. Activities such as marketing erstwhile involved the purchase of materials for the creation of banners, huge posters, printing, etc. With the advent of technology and the dominance of social media platforms, it is profoundly inane to spend on such means to advertise. Online advertising, social media marketing are the best ways to reach a large number of people with minimal or zero expenditure.

5. Pull in volunteers instead of paid staffs

There is a stark difference between volunteers and staffs. Volunteers do work for free just to gain knowledge and have an experience in the domain your event concentrates while workers are paid employees who do the same job. Although some tribute in the form of freebies can be given to volunteers as a token of appreciation such as gifts, certifications of appreciation, coupons, etc., it is never as costly as paying for staff. Sometimes if your event demands adequate knowledge in a particular field, then it is always advisable to hire staff. Otherwise, an excellent way of reducing the budget is to go on the search for like-minded volunteers.

6. Rope in College Kids ( A.K.A Volunteers)

There are a lot of students who would want to participate in such events. The agenda is to provide them with knowledge and experience which will help them to add on to the resume. After the completion of an event, provide a certificate or a letter of appreciation which is of great value to a student and efficiently cut down on the budget costs too.

7. Can’t pay for a venue? Go online

Many successful events take place online. With the rising popularity of webinars and the comfort that it renders from the attendee perspective, it turns out to be the ideal deal for event planners regarding the budget. All that you need is a stable internet connection and some free online tools for communication.

8. Cut down on food and beverages

While food and drinks are a way to attract attendees, an extravagant dining is not required. A simple set of snacks with a steaming cuppa of coffee would be enough to keep your attendees glued to their seats and feel satisfied.

These are some means to narrow down on your event budget, there may be several other ways through which you can reduce the expenses, and these may be specific to your event and its theme. Taking wise decisions and thinking twice before spending on a service may turn out to be you a cost-efficient solution for planning event budget.