Event management

budget uncertainties
insurance against risks

MST326 lecture 8

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Event management
What is an event?:
• conference, symposium
• hands-on training
• marketing exhibition
• sports competition
• many others ...

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Rudyard Kipling's poem:
I Keep Six Honest Serving Men:

"I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are
What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who"

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Budget: conference venue
• Day rate per person all-in

• Hire venue at fixed costs, and either

 pay lower day-rate to cover refreshments
• perhaps with teas/coffees required
 leave delegates to find own refreshments

• Access arrangements
 disabled persons
 exhibition materials

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Budget: conference speakers

• speakers pay full registration fee

 include their accommodation?
 include travel and subsistence costs?
• generates goodwill and eases speakers load
• speakers pay (reduced) registration fee
• speakers attend free
 the latter two require higher registration
fees from non-speaking delegates

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Conference: delegates
• Poster papers
 often used to gain additional delegates

• Access for disabled persons

• Special dietary requirements
 vegetarian, vegan, halal, etc

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Budget: marketing and media
• advertising
 TV, radio, journals, magazines
 specialised mailing lists
 e-discussion lists
 SMS/MMS telecommunications
• media
 flyers, brochures etc
• design costs
• printing costs
• mailing costs

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Budget: other costs
• administration
• personnel on-the-day
• travel (to view venue in advance)
• audio-visual aids and technician

... and other income

• sponsorship
• “flyers” in the delegate pack
24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt
 Budgets
• “Annual income twenty pounds,
annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen
shillings and sixpence,
[£19.97½p] result happiness.

Annual income twenty pounds,

annual expenditure twenty pounds and sixpence,
[£20.2½p] result misery”.

Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens “David Copperfield”

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt
Continue or cancel?
• cancellation may incur:
 lost deposits on venues
 refunds of any prepayments
 speakers spending in anticipation of event
 “all that effort for nothing”
• continuation may result in:
 negative budget
 “loss leader” informing future events
 loss of reputation,
if delegate expectations not realised
24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt
Other types of events
• Broadly the same considerations
• outdoors may also need
 formal permission to use public space
 fenced area accessible only to ticket holders
 security to ensure no freeloaders
 public address systems
 first-aid provision
 independent caterers

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt

Insurance
• what can go wrong?
 pay-on-the-day and no-one arrives
 the weather (no audience - no “atmosphere”)
• insurers will cover the risk?
 they are in business to make money
 they consider the risks involved
 they request lower premiums where
• a full risk assessment already exists
• where plans/budgets have sensible contingency

24 February 2007 MATS326/EventMgt.ppt