Why Line Item Budgets Are Essential for Corporate Event Planning
Executive Summary
A new client hosts an annual incentive travel program for its top performers—exclusive events that are beyond impressive. We successfully found a destination and resort for their annual President’s Club hosting 300 team members while coming in significantly under budget. We accomplished negotiating an astonishing event package following our proprietary process that includes our corporate event budgeting SOP (standard operating procedure).
Background & Problem
A prominent insurance company in the US needed a world class destination and resort to host their annual President’s Club, their incentive travel program for top performers. This elite group of employees has the opportunity to participate in the event and celebrate their accomplishments together.
The challenge was to not only have a successful event ensuring the attending team members went home with memories to last a lifetime but to also keep costs affordable.
Objective
It was essential to the client to surpass their previous year’s AAA Five Diamond experience at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, but not exceed the last year’s spend for this corporate event.
Solution
The first thing we tackled together was getting the previous year’s event expenses broken down by line item with the client. It’s an essential part of the solution because locales can affect line-item costs differently. More specifically, focusing on:
- Cost of air travel
- Taxes
- Fees
- Venue packages
These pieces of the puzzle impact the bottom line. Furthermore, cultural differences affect how venue packages are offered.
This process also allowed us to determine per-person costs per line item to account for any potential changes in attendance. This is often overlooked when organizations plan their own events rather than relying on event management experts.
With this budgetary information in hand, we sent out an RFP (request for proposal) to leverage our global network of vendors and suppliers. We did a thorough line item cost analysis with each proposal and were able to negotiate each line item separately due to the preparation work done beforehand.
The next stage of the process was to bring several amazing options to the table for our client. We presented a full YOY (year-over-year) accounting, by line item, for each resort presented enabling our client to choose a locale and venue that ensured would meet the objectives:
- Surpass their previous year’s AAA Five Diamond experience at the Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort
- Not exceed the previous year’s spend for this corporate event
Results
The careful cost analysis and negotiations paid off. Even with international air travel included, our client had an incredible President’s Club at the Ritz-Carlton in Aruba for $83,000.00 less than the prior year’s program, a savings of $227 per person, per day!
We now have additional years of data for the client as we continue managing events, further ensuring accuracy and results as we move forward together.
Implementation
This solution doesn’t just apply to travel incentive programs. It’s our proprietary process that makes the difference for our clients’ events, no matter the type:
- Travel incentive programs
- Global meetings
- Corporate events
- Conferences
- Hybrid company meetings
- Corporate retreats
Together, we’ll go over your previous event expenses and help you break them down by line item. We’ll then send out an RFP leveraging our global network of vendors and suppliers that will meet your event objectives.
We’ll complete a comprehensive line item cost analysis with each proposal to negotiate all line items separately among the top RFPs received. Then provide the very best packages/offers to you for final selection.
Ready to experience the difference? Schedule a discovery call today.