Event Budget

Model the real cost before committing, then track against it. Event budgets are missed for the same three reasons every time: staff time is not counted, service charges are not modeled, and follow-up is not budgeted at all.

When to use

• Before committing to any event
• Comparing venues, formats, or sponsorship tiers
• Mid-planning, when scope is creeping
• Post-event, computing cost per qualified meeting for the portfolio view

Inputs

• Reads: workspace/events/<event>/decision.md, workspace/events/<event>/contract.md, workspace/program/charter.md
• Needs from user: quotes where they exist, team size and loaded day rate, travel assumptions, and what is already committed

Workflow

1. Build the fully loaded model

Every line, including the ones nobody counts:

2. Compute all-in per head for hosted events

The menu price is roughly two-thirds of the real price. Stack it properly:

Menu per head
+ beverage package (per person per hour x contracted hours)
+ reception cost per head, if arrival is in a separate space
= subtotal
+ service charge / gratuity (%)
+ coordination or administration fee (%)
+ tax (%)
= ALL-IN PER HEAD

Compare candidate venues on the all-in number only. The ranking by menu price is frequently not the ranking by final cost, and a cheaper menu at a venue with heavy add-ons routinely loses.

3. Model against the meeting target

The number the portfolio is judged on:

Fully loaded cost / target qualified meetings = budgeted cost per qualified meeting

Compare it to what a meeting costs from outbound, and to the same number from other formats in the portfolio. This comparison is what ends bad sponsorship habits, because it is much harder to argue with than a feeling about the event.

4. Build the lean version at the same time

Decide now, while it is unemotional, what ships if the budget is cut or the date slips: which formats, which concepts, which production items. That decision is far harder to make in the week of the event.

Also note where a surplus goes if diligence reveals a cheaper reality. A stand that turns out to need a banner rather than a build frees real money, and the default should be to move it toward guest experience or gifting rather than to expand the stand.

5. Set the tracking cadence

Weekly against committed and spent, from T-8 onward. Flag every variance over 10% at the time rather than at the end.

6. Reconcile after the event

Actual against budget, line by line, with a note on every variance. This is what makes next year's model accurate, and it takes twenty minutes if you do it in the week after.

Output

• Writes: workspace/events/<event>/budget.md from templates/event-budget-model.csv
• Prints: the fully loaded total, all-in per head where relevant, budgeted cost per qualified meeting with the comparison, the lean version, and the lines with the least certainty

Rules & quality bar

• Staff days are in the model. Loaded cost, including travel days
• Follow-up time is budgeted. Every time
• All-in per head, never menu price, for any hosted event
• Cost per qualified meeting is computed at budget time, not just afterward
• The lean version is decided before it is needed
• No quotes invented. Estimated lines are labeled as estimates with the basis stated
• Every variance over 10% is flagged when it happens

Related skills

• Reads: event-selection, sponsorship-negotiation, venue-selection
• Feeds: event-measurement (the cost side of every scorecard)
• See also: docs/operations-runbook.md section 5 for what stacks on a venue bill