Creating Your Budget Planner

• Your meeting budget is an estimate of anticipated income and expenses for your meeting and provides financial control and accountability.
• It’s important to document how and why you arrived at all figures. You can keep track of your calculations used to arrive at each budged items through Excel spreadsheets. (Download now.)

Seven Common Mistakes

1. Know the value of your business
2. Allow contingencies for the unexpected
3. Include tax and service charges
4. Include labor costs
5. Communicate clear policies to speakers/staff
   • Type of airline ticket (coach, business, first class)
   • Type of hotel room & how many nights you’ll pay
   • What meals are included
6. Review master account daily
   • Limit authorized signatures
7. Rely on history for your meal guarantee

Food and Beverage Tips

• Theme events using ethnic foods that are less costly
• Serve light lunches such as salads rather than heavy entrees
• Cut down on portions
• Use boxed lunches, if appropriate
• Negotiate complimentary receptions
• Shorten time of receptions
• Use butler service instead of buffet tables
• Use meal tickets
• People drink less at cash bars
• Order by consumption, not per person
• Piggy back on another meeting’s menu

Sleeping Rooms

• Comp rooms – don’t settle for 1/50
• Get cumulative, not nightly count
  Pick-up Mon. 49 Tues. 49 Wed. 49
  Nightly:   0 comp rooms; Cumulative  2 comp rooms

Negotiations

• EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE
• Rates/Dates/Space-pick 2 of 3
• Use Value season/holidays/days of week or Hot Dates

Sponsorship

• Sponsorship of meal functions
  
  • Serve dessert near sponsor’s booth if trade show follows lunch
• ALMOST everything can be sponsored
• Marketing assistance
  
  • Provide financial incentives for suppliers to promote meetings

Signage

• Create permanent generic reusable signs with update information on Velcro
• Prepare room signs listing all meetings in that room throughout the meeting
• Use hotel sign boards

Shipping/Postage

• Prepare a timeline with deadlines to take advantage of least expensive shipping rates.
• Check post office regulations before creating mailings.
• Barter with shipping companies to send your shipments at no charge.

Miscellaneous

• Check travel costs during site selection
• Recycle badges
• Take advantage of using the Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs)
• Consider outsourcing to save time and money
• Select hotels that offer frequent flyer points that can be used for speakers, staff, or ttendees

Revenue

Expenses 

Sleeping Rooms 100

Food & Beverage 200 

AV Equipment 300 

Printed Materials 400

Administration 500

Speaker Fees 600

Miscellaneous 700