What are some creative ways to cut costs without sacrificing quality in a live event?

One of the easiest ways to open the conversation with a vendor is to build a relationship with them. Most vendors, especially AV rentals and venues, love having repeat bookings. They are usual more than willing to cut a deal if you are consistent with them. Also note that many of these businesses keep tabs on each other, and hence know each other.

Transparency is key! Most venues worth their salt will want to help ensure your spend on meeting space, catering & services is proportionate. Provide as much information as you can at the early stage of a negotiation and let the venue co-build the budget with you.

Prioritize Essential Elements: Identify the key elements that contribute most to the event's success and allocate resources accordingly. Focus on delivering exceptional experiences in those areas while finding cost-effective alternatives for less critical aspects.

You can also consider signing a multi-year deal with the same venue if your event is an annual event. Most venues are willing to be flexible if you are willing to sign on for multiple events. Just make sure you do your due diligence before signing a multi-year contract.

To trim costs without compromising quality in a live event, consider securing strategic sponsorships to offset expenses. Utilise cost-effective digital promotion for wider outreach. When negotiating with venues, seek favourable terms to optimise services within budget. Embrace DIY or reusable decor options to cut styling costs. Forge collaborative partnerships with vendors to share resources and reduce expenses. Integrate virtual components to curtail travel-related expenditures. Leverage volunteer support for non-critical tasks, minimizing staffing costs. Opt for smart catering choices that balance quality and affordability. Implement technology solutions for efficient event management, reducing administrative expenses. Explore!

The beauty of technology today is around how much we can do for such a low cost, creating significant efficiencies. However, I find that quite often, groups spend on splashy tech that doesn't actually fill a need creating an expense for no reason. Spend for the tech solution you need today, with the ability to scale up, rather than spending for the tech solution you could potentially need down the road.

Your network is your net worth. Build relationships and partnerships off trust and honestly. Continue to blossom relationships by helping one another.

Partnerships are key. I realised in my first career, that you could do almost everything yourself... but you shouldn't. A key skill - which I learned early - is to: 1. Understand what jobs need to get done. 2. Then find people who are better at those things than you are. 3. Persuade them to join you. Now that's going to be different for every situation, but there is far too much pride taken in 'Do it all yourself', when that was not the most productive approach. We're a social species. Rutger Bregman argues, in his book Human Kind, that sociability and the inclination to collaborate is what elevated us above other animals. Maybe God built the world in 6 days, alone. But there genuinely was nobody else available.

Ein gutes Netzwerk an langfristigen und verlässlichen Partnern gehört zu den wichtigsten Aspekten, um als Unternehmen im Bereich Live-Kommunikation langfristig Bestand zu haben. Durch langfristige Partnerschaften findet man auch bei Projekten mit einem hohen Kostendruck durch gemeinsam erdachte Lösungen immer einen guten Weg.

This is a great way to cut costs, but remember all bills come due. Relationships are there to work in both directions, so if you are asking of friends and partners, be prepared to deliver or return the favor. Sometimes, the less expensive option is not taking the favor! Anecdotally, I recall a client renting a venue from a friend because it came without a rental cost, but the cost of retrofitting the space to our needs wound up being more than the cost of a different venue altogether! Context matters.

Being an event manager who works freelance, there are times where I’ve been left high & dry by a vendor, partner, etc. Having my network of previous resources I was able to have those issues fix within hours, instead of not at all.

We have seen that groups have started to take advantage of this. Not that long ago, events rarely took place in August or December, and now they are two busy months for us. While it's not evergreen, there is more competition at busier times of the year, so explore all options. We've also explored this from a venue standpoint with ticketed events. Comedy shows and concerts are regularly on weekends, and venues often have open space midweek. Bringing a speaker in during the middle of the week is something people will come out for since it's not as social an event, but something reasonable for people to do after work. That allows for lower venue costs if the space was going to be empty already. Think different!

Gerade Jahreszeiten haben im Post-Corona Zeiten einen immensen Einfluss auf die Kosten durch geringere Verfügbarkeiten. Gerade in den Monaten Mai-Juli spürt man das besonders stark. Hier hilft eine frühzeitige Planung und Buchung um eine besseren Ausgangsposition zu erreichen.

The first principle of cutting cost, is to have an experienced and lead/team with a wide range of experience. Budgeting is a creative skill, and a good experience designer will be able to consider the impact of each element of spend in relation to the perceived value to the target audience. Speaking of first principles, that is where an experience designer begins - in so far as there's time, and the brief allows. When you start there, you have a much stronger chance of not blindly walking into big expenditure, just because 'it's what they did last year'. Starting at first principles requires the lead to elicit a clear brief, with objectives to guide the spend priorities. And that's the first moment when things can start to go wrong.

The most important part of cost control in any event is the detailed on-time planning. People generally don’t realise it that they can save a lot if they plan their events well in advance and with proper detailing specially during peak season time when the venues and vendors are overbooked.