Despite a small budget, a small-budget event can still deliver a big experience to audiences, requiring resourcefulness and innovativeness to ensure meaningful and memorable experiences. Let me first explain what a small event budget is:
Small-budget events result from several circumstances, the most prominent of which are the unpleasant economic downturns and realities being experienced around the world today. Instead of putting off the events and losing out completely on the benefits they will offer, small-budget events are the best alternatives. Mostly, corporate event organisers may be victims of the rising trend; nevertheless, innovative ones will make lemonades out of lemons.
What is a small-budget event?
A small-budget event is a gathering organised with limited resources or tight financial constraints. It will usually have very limited financial support.
So let’s get into the ways you need to know to create a big experience from a small-budget event
1. Carefully choose and understand your audience for the big experience
It is wise not to host so many attendees that your budget cannot cater to, but rather carefully select and understand your audience. Using your event objective and your budget as a yardstick, carefully identify those attendees that will fit into your objectives using different variables such as interest, behaviours and other demographics to determine or prioritize those who need to be there.
In this regard, you will be well-armed with the needed resources to create the same big experience as you would when you have a big budget but a limited number. For instance, you have the chance to offer discount codes or coupons for your products to many more attendees or provide a gamification experience.
2. Skillful negotiation with Vendors
Negotiation is a skill that every event manager and planner must have and is crucial when dealing with budget-tight events. It involves securing favourable terms and agreements with vendors through discounts and value-added services without going beyond what you have budgeted.
During this negotiation with vendors, mutual benefits and understanding must be communicated clearly among all parties involved to prevent misunderstandings or misinterpretations of agreements.
Given this, event planners must persistently develop sustainable relationships and earn goodwill that will speak for them in times like this and still deliver a big experience.
3. Leverage Technology for the big experience
The 21st century event management process must be technologically driven or else it will not meet up with the rapidly changing environment and human behaviours of the times. One major benefit of involving technology in the event planning process is that it simplifies and streamlines all the laborious tasks that take a lot of time and resources to accomplish.
In the same vein, integrating technological solutions into all the event processes will not only help to include the modern attendees’ expectations but also allow the event organizer to manage the event with a low budget and eventually create an innovative touch and provide a big experience for the event in general.
For instance, instead of spending a budget on buying paper to print attendance sheets and other programme and agenda details, the event app can take care of these, and a part of the budget is eliminated.
4. Building strategic partnerships for collaborations and sponsorships
Just as the world is rapidly becoming one globally connected village, the chances of walking alone are strategically eliminated and as such, collaboration and partnerships are the new CTA (call to action). Event managers must therefore build sustainable relationships and partnerships to remain relevant.
Event planners can spend less when they earn collaborations and have sustainable partnerships with other organisations that agree to sponsor or support their event objectives. Through this opportunity, the sponsor may take a huge chunk of the budget off your shoulders, the budget becomes easier to carry and ultimately all event objectives are achieved.
5. Allocating budgets to key elements through prioritizing or choosing budget–friendly options
Elementary economics teaches us to prioritize through a scale of preference. Strategically, the event manager must carefully select the key elements to which he or she wishes to allocate resources. These must be selected based on the impact they will have on the event. However, you must have a vivid understanding of your event objectives to wisely choose the key element that will create the needed impact.
On the other hand, choosing budget-friendly options is another approach that entails choosing alternatives with low-budget options but still has the opportunity to deliver impactful experiences and deliver on the event objectives. It may entail choosing cost-friendly venues, decorations, catering, etc.
In conclusion, the small-budget event has equal chances of providing a big experience as the big-budget ones, provided the event manager is innovative and resourceful considering the factors that have been provided in this article.
