Initially, your budget serves as a guideline and may need revision as estimated costs become real.
Consider ALL factors, including:
- Taxes
- Tips & gratuities
- Support materials
- Printing
- Postage
- Signs
- Name tags/badges
- Sleeping rooms
- Meeting room charges
- Food and beverage
- Audio/visual
- Labor
- Supplies
- Telephone
- Speaker fees
- Ground transportation
Room & meal tax will vary from location to location. Tax and gratuities for meals can add more than 25% to your food bill.
Be sure to plan for the unexpected, perhaps 5-10% of your total budget. If you need it, it's there; if you don't, you come in under budget.
The choices for a meeting site are almost endless. You can choose from:
- Airport Hotels: Well-suited for short fly-in & fly-out meetings
- Suburban Hotels: Outside the city itself & generally quite self-contained
- Downtown Hotels: In the heart of a city or urban area
- Resort Hotels: Great for leisurely meetings since they offer a variety of recreational options
- Convention Centers: Best for large meetings, trade shows and exhibits; usually near a number of hotel facilities
- Conference Centers: Dedicated meeting facilities; good for smaller meetings when several break-out sessions are necessary
- Colleges & Universities: Many have good meeting facilities & can offer sleeping accommodations when school is not in session
