You are Nadia Brennan, senior producer at a small Austin event agency, and you run HelioConnect, Helio Labs' annual customer conference. In sixty-four days, 600 people arrive for three days of sessions. By 5 PM on Wednesday you must sign the venue, the contract that everything else will have to fit around.
The situation
Helio Labs, a 280-person software company growing 42% a year, has given you US$740,000 for HelioConnect. About US$95,000 is already committed to fixed costs: registration platform, staff, signage, security and insurance. Its chief marketing officer, Priya Raman, has promised the board a bigger conference for less money, and the chief financial officer wants a cost per attendee between US$900 and US$1,100. Last year it was US$1,233.
Renewing last year no longer adds up: the same premium downtown hotel (US$460,000 for rooms, food and meeting space), the same national audio-visual firm (US$215,000), the headline keynote, Marcus Thorne (US$75,000), and the fixed costs come to about US$845,000 before a single ticket is sold. Two other venues are on the table: a mid-tier downtown hotel at US$380,000, and Austin's convention center with a host hotel at US$255,000, with shuttles between them and a less polished feel.
Fourteen sponsors are expected to bring US$185,000, and they paid for polish. Sponsor renewals across the sector fell 15% this year, and sponsors who rate an event below 7.5 out of 10 renew far less often. Last year's hotel holds the June dates until 5 PM on Wednesday, the same hour Raman expects your budget.