Event Cost Saving Tips from the Pros

Necessity is the mother of invention: It may be the mantra of our times, but it also describes many a day in the life of an event planner — in any economic climate. Under normal economic conditions, you might be called upon to find a way to ship fragile gifts to Mexico, make a cavernous hotel ballroom feel intimate and personal, or produce an unforgettable opening session. These days, planners are turning that same creative mindset to the bottom line, finding new, innovative ways to save money. To suss out the best event cost-saving ideas, Event Solutions searched the country far and wide. What we found was nothing short of inspiring.

Barter. One way to reduce cash outflow is to eliminate it altogether — by bartering. The down economy is sparking renewed interest across the country in this time-tested practice, and one new convert is planner Dianne Velez of Colorblind Productions (colorblindprd.com). Recently, she traded entertainment, videography and DJ services for a new driveway, front walkway and backyard patio by bartering with a local concrete company.

“Your services are more economical to give than, say, paying money,” she says. “These even exchanges work out really well.” Try u-exchange.com, favorpals.com and for weddings, www.bigdaybarter.com.

Incorporate a webcast. Webcasting can reduce costs (and add revenue opportunities) in several ways. For example, says Stacey Ruth, CEO and chief creative officer of Atlanta-based The WOW Factory (www.thewowfactory.com), scale down the number of attendees at an internal event to a select group and you’ll spend less on staging (since it doesn’t have to be as elaborate), not to mention airfare and hotel.

You can also extend your event’s reach with a virtual component. One client that has traditionally held a conference only for its store managers and owners is now engaging its entire sales force through webcasts, she says.

Another option is making certain components of a conference online-only, such as an opening or closing session, which can eliminate a day or more of the conference, suggests Chris Baker of Wind Gage Communications Inc. (www.wind-gage.com), which produces customized multimedia broadcast messages.

Custom Bar: Photo: Roberto D’Addona

Create a high-end custom bar for less using cocktail tables. “One thing you can do is take 24-inch cocktail tables, alternate the linen and height and put them in a row. It’s more than the standard rental but less than a customized bar.” — Hopkins

Let the audience be the MC. “Last year we hosted an industry awards ceremony. We wanted this one to shine, as the winners, our RFP Magazine Outstanding Individuals in Industry, were like the award says: Outstanding. A couple of days earlier at the last minute, we found ourselves short of an MC, so the directors and the editor took to the stage and did something rather novel that has now been dubbed the ‘outstanding individual system.’ It goes like this: We collected people’s name cards as they came in. Before each award, we pulled the name of an audience member out of a hat and had him or her come up to present the award. Everyone was on the edge of their seats and it made the award that much more special so that everyone felt like they too could have a moment of being an ‘Outstanding Individual.’ It had the multiple benefits of saving money on an MC, creating a talking point, engaging the audience and making the night memorable.” — Claire Saeki, Managing Director, Facility Media, Hong Kong

Combine badges and tickets. “Instead of printing separate tickets and badges, we have redesigned our tickets to also serve as the badges, thus reducing printing and labor costs dramatically.” — Anthony Akers, Vice President of Communications, Market America

Stage specific drinks at specific times. “The longer you can delay having a full bar available, it’ll cut down on cost, and by staging different drinks at different times, it really helps with the perception of abundance.” — Beckie Bruffey, director of events for DesignDayz Event Planning in Seattle

Vacant office space: Courtesy: EventPros Inc.

Vacant office space: your next venue? Bill Svoboda of EventPros Inc. (eventprosinc.com) in Kansas City, Mo., has found that the city’s ample vacant office and warehouse space is an inexpensive venue option.

“Not only is it an unusual space that adds interest, but the landlord or property manager loves it because they get to show off the space to potential renters and they get some money in their pocket,” he says.

Find new ways to incorporate entertainment. Instead of an elaborate choreographed show, use elaborately costumed performers as greeters, suggests PJ Fuerstman-Meyer, owner of P’zazz (www.pzazz.net), a Naples, Fla.-based entertainment provider.

Or go for entertainment that looks less ostentatious. It’s a key concern these days, and one that Sharlene Sherman, president of Sharlene Sherman Events, is taking into account when making her entertainment decisions. “I’ve found that The Three Waiters and String Angels project a very sophisticated, high-quality, ‘much more than they actually cost’ type of image when they come to parties,” she says (www.mardarentertainment.com).

Share resources with other clients in your venue. “Work with your venue planner to see if you can coordinate with other clients using the same venue before or after your event to:

• Coordinate lighting and A/V rigging designs — less re-rigging means lower cost.
• Use a tent more than once — this saves on setup/teardown charges.
• Minimize seating changes between events — you can likely get a price break.
• Find out what foods other events at the venue at the same time are serving. If the kitchen can prepare a larger batch of the same menu items, the venue can offer them at a lower rate.” — Erin Peschel, Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Director of Sales and Marketing, Conference Center at NorthPointe, Columbus, Ohio

Push for more from your hotel — it’s a planner’s market. “We have tightened negotiations with hotels and ask for things we normally wouldn’t get, as properties are in a giving mood due to the current economy. We push for revenue-sharing opportunities like concessions, tour packages, etc.” — Akers

Make a better timeline. “A cost-saving measure for one event is that we worked on a very strict timeline — everyone came in at specific times for setup and teardown. This cut labor costs — people were not standing around burning up money.” — Svoboda

Use free marketing tools like Twitter, Facebook and other social media. “I never thought the day would come, but I’m using Twitter. I’m in the experimentation stage, but I took the plunge because I thought it would be the best free way to let people know when we have new postings on our designdawgs blog, find tons of new ideas about products and business issues, and stay in touch with the events industry in general. And, I put it out to my LinkedIn people that I’m using Twitter and the response was amazing.”— Tom Budas, Director of Marketing, AOO Events, Los Angeles

Lighter booth: Photo: Padgett & Co.

Build a lighter booth. “Instead of a heavy wood and Formica booth, do a fabric and frame booth. It fits in a much smaller container, is much lighter, and if you want to change graphics, you just reprint the fabric. And it can still have a hugely dramatic effect because these days the quality of the printing is so much better.” — Harris Schanhaut, Certified Manager Exhibits, Pharmaceutical Meeting Manager at Professional Meeting Planner Network and Board Member of Trade Show Exhibitors Association

Your next great speaker may be the one who’s already in town. “Use local entertainers or speakers to save on travel/accommodation costs, or find out which notables will be in town the same week — you’ll have a good chance to negotiate lower fees,” says Akers.

Make your signage generic enough to be reused or invest in reusable signage. “For one client who has a repeat program, just in different locations, we have made one-third of the signage generic enough to be reused. For a different client, we used a type of signage that is re-useable.” — Julie Ann Schmidt, CMP, Lithium Logistics Group

Ship it to next year’s conference location instead of shipping it home. “We recently finished working with a client at the National Automobile Dealers Association show in New Orleans. They own a booth that encompasses a 40-foot by 50-foot space, so needless to say, it’s quite large and expensive to ship, especially from California to Louisiana. Rather than incur the hefty cost of shipping it back to California, we ran some cost comparisons and found it would save nearly $10,000 if we shipped and stored it in Orlando, the site of next year’s show. Additionally, we’re able to capitalize on the extra space by storing a bunch of smaller items, such as chairs and monitors, to help maximize the savings. And, next year’s shipping cost will be much lower.” — Ryan Schneiderman, Promotions and Events Specialist, Blue Flame 6 (www.blueflame6.com), Phoenix

Ask what else your performers can do for you. “A client said to us, is there anything else you can do for me? And I came up with a list of value adds,” says Sally Allen, executive producer of corporate entertainment group The Water Coolers (seethewatercoolers.com). “It forces the entertainer to work a little harder. I wouldn’t have thought of it if she hadn’t asked.” In another situation, a client arranged to have the group’s pianist play during a cocktail reception preceding their performance.

Use free tools to better gauge attendees and better target your events. “To provide the most effective return on investment, we ask our clients to work with us in profiling and really understanding their prospective event attendees. We offer pre-event and post-event polling to help guarantee a targeted experience. This can be done quite inexpensively with websites such as www.SurveyMonkey.com or www.Zoomerang.com.” — Kristall Lutz, CMP, Vice President, A Gadsby Affair LLC, Los Angeles

Get more — ahem — mileage out of your speakers. “We are booking multiple events on the same dates. Thus, speakers conduct their presentations in one city one day and another city the next day, saving on hotel and transportation cost. In addition, this saves on prep time for speakers and our staff saves time preparing resources and supplies.” — Akers

Make A/V equipment do double duty. “We are tightening A/V equipment lists so that we can use the same devices for multiple needs,” says Anthony Akers of product brokerage and Internet marketing company Market America. He lists the following examples:

• Moving lights can function as spotlights, saving both on the spotlight and operator cost.
• Instead of using teleprompters and confidence monitors, just use confidence monitors for both PowerPoint and script needs.
• Use combo mics instead of separate-channel mics.
  Akers oversees all aspects of the company’s events program, including two major events in the United States attended by over 25,000 people each and 60 additional annual events in five countries.

Notes of Hope: Photo: Jamie Watts

Use material you’ve already invested in to create décor. To create impactful staging for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Gala, 360 Design Events repurposed cards that had been part of the museum’s cross-country tour. Called Notes of Hope, they contained the names and addresses of those who had seen it as well as thoughts on 9/11. The event firm wove the cards to create a 30-foot by 30-foot wall as a backdrop to the stage.

“It’s a labor-intensive process,” admits 360’s Hopkins. “However, we created something that was elevated in meaning at the same time as investing their dollars in a way that wasn’t just going into black drape.”

Schedule delivery and pick-up of rental equipment during normal business days and hours. “Typically our rental vendors calculate their delivery fees based on a delivery/pick-up time that is Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you want evening or weekend set-up/pick-up times, it increases. Sunday seems to be the most expensive. One recent example of this was that for a very small order, I could have saved $200 by doing a Friday delivery and Monday pick-up. That worked out to be 25 percent of the total!” — Tricia Clement, CMP, Manager, Events Division, Agenda: Kansas City Inc.

Scout up-and-coming designers. “I look for aspiring florists and event stylists who provide extraordinary concepts below market value. Because of their fresh perspective, the student florists and designers offer a unique approach that some veterans may miss.” — Farrah Parker, PR and Marketing Consultant, DBA-FD Parker & Associates, Los Angeles