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SHRINKING BUDGETS, RISING COSTS

Shrinking budgets have been an event planning challenge for years. However, the ongoing downward trajectory (going against the rise in costs) calls for some real wizardry in how you manage your budget. Here are some ideas to help make a smaller budget work:

• Ask your clients for flexible dates: With short lead times becoming increasingly common, explain up front how this can affect the event’s budget, and check if they are open to moving their event to a later date (and saving money in the process).

• Increase your marketing and sales spend: As counterintuitive as this may sound, in an economic downturn you will need to work that much harder at convincing people to spend money on your event.

• Make your hybrid event asynchronous: Hosting the in-person and online components of an event at different times tends to be a more cost-effective route than running both simultaneously, notes the J.Shay Event Solutions team. Examples of what this can look like include broadcasting the in-person event recordings at a later stage, or recording the speakers for the online event outside of their live speaking slots.

• Question everything: David Strafford, co-founder of Hopper, encourages you to interrogate all your decisions with a view to how things can be done more affordably. “The worst phrase in the history of event management is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’. So get rid of your sense of tradition and question all your decisions,” he says.

• Sacrifice your profits: This is another tip from the J.Shay Event Solutions team, which is to focus on long-term revenue over shortterm profits.

02technology

The number of tech products and services for events, and what they do, is simply incredible. However, this doesn’t mean they will all be incredible for your event. Planners need to take care to use only what is needed, and to choose options that are a good fit and can (and will) be implemented effectively.

On this point, Ben Waugh from polling platform Vevox shares these three pointers when it comes to choosing the right tech for your event:

• Wi-Fi: How good is the connectivity at your venue, and will this impact on how effective the tech in question will be on the day? If it is completely reliant on Wi-Fi, keep in mind that this will in turn impact your venue choice – and possibly your bottom line, if a dedicated high-speed and wired internet line is needed.

• Adoption: How easy will it be to get your attendees to adopt and use the tech in question? For example, you may need to incentivise them to download an event app, by highlighting the value it will give them and even offering prizes.

• Suitability: It’s easy to be wowed by cool gadgets and solutions, but you need to make sure that the tech you invest in is fit for purpose to help you achieve your goals. Keep coming back to what your event priorities and budget are, who your audience is, and what tangible benefits you can gain from it.

Bonus: For some great tips from Gavin Burgess, managing director of Technology Partners, on navigating technology during South Africa’s ongoing energy crisis, visit the ‘Resources’ tab on theplannerguru.co.za.

Safety

The risk of cybersecurity attacks has been on the rise, in part due to criminals taking advantage of the vulnerabilities that remote working creates. Bonnie Smith, GM of FCM Travel Solutions, suggests the following basic protective measures for when you and your team are working on-site:

• Use a virtual private network (VPN) to hide your IP address and encrypt your online activity. This makes it impossible for hackers to monitor your activity, even if you’re using a public hotspot, and gives you a secure way to access company data.

• Keep your laptops and mobile devices safe , as business events are often targeted by thieves.

• Update your software whenever updates become available. Outdated software can leave you vulnerable to an attack, and many security issues are fixed with the latest update.

• Use different passwords for different accounts and change them regularly. If a cybercriminal gets their hands on one of your passwords, they could try to use it to access others.

Sustainability

If your clients aren’t yet demanding a sustainable event solution, they soon will be. For those new to sustainable event management, here are the decisions that will have the biggest impact in terms of cutting your event’s carbon footprint, based on data gathering by Shawna McKinley from Clear Current Consulting:

• Take your event online: When and where this makes sense, it is a huge climate winner, with the potential to cut your greenhouse gas emissions by 98%.

• Make your event hybrid: This growing trend not only benefits your attendees and event analytics, but the environment as well, with a 40% potential emissions reduction.

• Reduce airlift: When an event must be inperson (either completely or in part), your choice of destination can have a huge impact on the air miles delegates need to fly to attend it. Choosing a city that eliminates longhaul air travel can reduce emissions by 29%.

• Clean energy location: Shawna largely works on events in North America, where different cities have different energy sources, which in turn have different carbon impacts. Here in South Africa, we are essentially limited to coal-fired power, but some venues may have their own renewable energy setup, which is clearly a big benefit when calculating your event’s carbon footprint.

• Energy-efficient venue: Choosing venues and hotels that have effective measures in place to limit their energy consumption has a potential emissions reduction of 17%.

Bonus: To download your free ‘Green venue checklist’, visit theplannerguru.co.za, click on the ‘Resources’ tab and search for checklists.

Hybrid Events

Will you be planning hybrid events in 2023? If yes, Airmeet, a hybrid event platform, outlines these four elements as key for success and the ones to guide all your planning decisions:

• Content: Unsurprisingly, content tops the list. This is the reason why people are tuning in to your event, and staying tuned in. This includes having a great agenda that runs on time.

• A sense of community: Events are about connections, so make sure both the in-person and remote attendees have opportunities to forge connections through networking and collaborating.

• Engaging activities: Stimulate participation so that your remote attendees don’t zone out. This can be anything from polls to live Q&As, workshops, quizzes, games and competitions.

• Analytics to measure success: It’s easy to track and trace your online participants’ journeys, preferences and engagement. This data is event planning gold, for understanding where your event worked well and where it needs adjusting.