What to Save on, What to Splurge on for Your Next Event

The time has come to plan your next event. Early in the process, before you dive into the finer details, you will be staffed with the responsibility of setting a budget. Once this number is set, you will have a better idea of what you can and cannot do as you move forward.

At some point, you will be faced with difficult decisions. More specifically, what to save on and what to splurge on. You only have so much money to go around. However, this doesn’t mean you can skimp across the board, as people are expecting a good time as well as quality.

Save On

Let’s face it, you will always be looking for ways to save money. This does not mean that you can be cutting corners and make your event look cheap or have your clients feel like they paid too much for too little.

Here are two things that you can absolutely save on:

• A facility with all the bells and whistles. Sure, you want to book a nice venue for your event, but don’t think you have to overspend in order to get what you want. For example, a convention center may not be necessary for your type of event. Instead, you can opt for a large conference space in a top notch hotel. You will still get what you want in terms of space and features, but you won’t have to overspend.
• Speaker fees. Depending on the type of event, you may be interested in booking a few speakers. This can be as costly or as cheap as you want. Rather than blow your budget on this expense, reach out to speakers who are “up and coming.” Along with this, opt for local speakers who don’t have to travel far. This will help you save on transportation and lodging costs.

Splurge On

When you save on some areas, you can splurge on others. Here are three details that deserve more of your budget:

• Extra help. The last thing you want is to be short-staffed. If this happens, you could find yourself running around in an attempt to do more than one job. At some point, this will catch up with you. At some point, it could begin to annoy your attendees. It is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to extra help.
• Food. Some events serve food, others do not. If you know this is something you need to do, don’t hold back. This doesn’t mean you should blow your entire budget on the best catering company you can find. It does mean you should provide high quality food that meets the needs of the majority of your audience.
• Technology. There used to be a time when technology had no place in the event space. Those days are long gone. In today’s world, the use of technology can make or break your event. Don’t hold back. At a minimum, make sure you have WiFi—and, we think having a Twitter wall would be a great piece of technology to splurge on, too.

Final Thoughts

Start out by creating a budget. From there, make a list of all your expenses. Finally, make decisions on where and how to spend your money. This is when it comes in handy to have preferred vendors or sponsors to still get top notch quality at a lower price (or free)!

The information above should give you a clear idea of what to save on and what to splurge on.