Do you host free events or charge for them?

When hosting an event once your topic has been established and confirmed and you are looking into speakers and venues for the event you have to think about the delegates and packages available to them and the cost of your event.

Do you charge for places at the event or do you offer the event free?

This will depend on lots of factors but most importantly your budget; make sure you start with a budget showing exactly what funds or income you have for the event.  Do you have a sponsor that is going to cover the costs for the entire event or are you using a free meeting room so only have minimal refreshment and catering charges.

If you have high outgoing costs for your event and no event sponsor to start with you need to look to source a sponsor to cover this or make a decision whether to charge delegates to attend instead.

As well as covering the costs for your event, does your event need to make a profit to help you run more events in the future or is it a one off event to inform attendees or a new service or product.

Other aspects to consider are attendee numbers, free events will usually attract more delegates as they only have to pay for their travel costs, but there are limits to this as it is affected by location too. For example delegates from Scotland travelling to London may have expensive travel and a long journey so even if the event is free it may not encourage them to attend. 

If you charge for an event this will ensure you receive an income to cover any costs and hopefully a profit for future, but may limit numbers if delegates have to factor in the attendance cost as well as travel.

Make sure if you charge for a place it is the most cost effective option for both the delegates and your event, and offer extra incentives such as early bird discounts or group booking discounts to encourage as many bookings as possible.

There are other reasons such as the topic, type of event and speakers that will impact who is interested and able to attend but making your event free or a charged for event is also a good place to start when planning.

Please share your experiences of hosting free or chargeable events or if you would like to write a blog for Mosaic Events please email sarah@mosaicevents.co.uk