What do I charge for my event?

Do you want to charge the same for every event?  Consistent pricing, like a consistent location, is great if you can amortize your costs over all your programs.  Don't forget that you'll want to favor your members in whatever pricing structure you use, so factor in the discount when looking at your costs.   How much should you charge? What will attract attendance? Is there a price point that might be prohibitive? Do you want to charge the same for all your events?  Have you calculated all your costs-- venue, speaker fees or travel expenses, catering?  Look for sponsors to help out with overhead costs. If your host venue is offering you space for free, but you need to pay for catering, negotiate in advance to keep your costs down. Be specific as to what you'll need. Lunch? Buffet, or served? Hot or cold food? Snacks? Wine, beer, soft drinks or Cocktails? In fact, even if your host is footing the bill, you need to be specific about what you expect from them.   Once all the details are established, pricing your event is a simple matter of budgeting.

Pricing your event: weigh your costs vs the value your members will get from attending. Knowing how many people to expect helps you plan the final details that make an event great You've planned well. There's plenty of time to spread the word and build excitement. Now you need to plan on how many will come to fill your room. How many registrants will we see at our event? Even when we demand prepayment for an event, there will be some folks who have last minute commitments that pull them away. There is bound to be a 10% or so drop off from the expected number of attendees. As a matter of good policy, you want to urge attendees to sign up early.  "Space is limited" only goes so far.It is used so often that it might not be suspect.  Much higher prices for a walk-in to attend your event is both a carrot and a stick.   Just as some people will not be able to come at the last minute, some people will want to show up at the last minute. There will always be walk-ins. The real issue for planning is gauging the walk-in rate. Keeping walk-ins to a minimum makes it easier to plan for food, seating, printing of take-aways.   [See "As a matter of good policy..." above.]     If your policy is not to insist on prepayment, you can still encourage it by charging a higher rate at the door.  You want to give even preregistered attendees the incentive to show up.  Some venues, especially if you are holding events in donated corporate space, discourage walk-ins because they create issues for their security desks. If you charge more at the door than you do for pre-paid registrants, you will find that you can keep walk-ins to a minimum. Asking for pre-payment is also asking for a commitment from the attendee. Most people will make the effort to attend something for which they have already paid. Discourage walk-ins unless your event and venue is extremely flexible.