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Are you planning for an event and you are wondering how to cut the cost to fit into your prospected budget?

An event’s budget planning and management is the binding glue to the moving parts of a live event which makes it the key ingredient to making the event a success. This is important as it helps one cut cost – or in other words – prevents the haemorrhage of funds into unnecessary costs of your event. There are infinite ways on how this can be handled.

Balancing the budget, even if it is realistic, is the most challenging task a planner faces when choose where to spend and where to save. Making difficult choices to reduce the amount of resources used in some areas is usually done in order to stretch the budget as long as you stay on target.

Let us look at where cheaper options for planning your event.

The Venue

The venue choice ought to positively motivate the guests anticipating to attend to make the choice of actually availing themselves. It should be a fantastic venue with incredible views and filled with the latest tech. Having an event out of town/city is considered a wise choice since it has an added bonus on savings. It also means that the guests will arrive at the event in time as they will avoid the stressful town traffic mainly if the event is in the rush hours.

However, the venue should have adequate parking spaces for the guests and be easily accessible by public transport. Consider various options in terms of convenience, functionality and cost before settling down for one.

Travel and Accommodation

When shopping for the best deal for the VIPs guests and keynote speakers, upfront spending is considered a better choice since it may help avoid high changes. This happens mainly if the guests’ and attendees’ schedules change. If the travel arrangements involve taking a flight, connecting flights is a bit cheaper, although it adds more hours to the journey. Opt to partner with the airlines and accommodation venues for discounted rates.

Finalizing the arrangements in good time is always advised for better bargains.

Equipment

Using one’s equipment at an event is a money saver, big time if they are already owned and not new purchases. In the instance the equipment required is not owned, the option of renting through an event supplier is the second-best option. This comes with a guarantee that everything will work since you are familiar with the equipment and have full control of the execution.

Catering

Catering may be considered the elephant in the room due to the fact that most people consider cheap food to be ‘bad’ food. If the venue is rented, using their catering team would come at a high rate than shopping for your own desired catering team. This means you will only have to stretch your budget to your desired limit.

Another way to cut costs is considering to avoid mid-afternoon refreshment break and finishing the event early by having a shorter afternoon session. Free bars and lavish drinks receptions can also be avoided especially for the guests who are driving, hence can be out of the question.

Gifts/Merchandise

Promotional materials should be available to make your event appealing and more memorable. However, care should be given so as not to drain your budget. There should be a balance between friendly and helpful, and being stylish so as not to overbear the cost. The promotional material should be for building up awareness since the guests’ colleagues, family and friends will almost definitely see the items. Consider functional, local gifts to promote your local heritage as well as save on costs.

The merchandise which is leftover over ought to be reused for the next event, therefore, reducing waste, which cuts cost.

In order to cut costs, impressions on the guests should be considered carefully. One can also consider co-organizing the event with other affiliated companies so as to pool resources together or even getting sponsorships to your event.

Using social media as a marketing tool is a cost-effective one which gives you direct access to the target audience, in the sense that, one does not have to make numerous calls or sending texts and emails to the desired audience.

You may also want to consider using volunteers for your event. Since volunteering is a launchpad to careers in events, if effectively managed, the mutual benefit is worth the weight of gold.

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