2a:I[647297,["/_next/static/chunks/0b2em43229bgo.js","/_next/static/chunks/2eljon8afroc_.js","/_next/static/chunks/2lexs0ohw3z97.js","/_next/static/chunks/36xz8kmret68n.js","/_next/static/chunks/3t6sz3m0q_uop.js","/_next/static/chunks/2oqd596k58d1q.js","/_next/static/chunks/38r6nmvjer5tx.js","/_next/static/chunks/0h44xbdfaw05o.js","/_next/static/chunks/2px5tb4pdo0z_.js","/_next/static/chunks/3hbry68blg0_g.js","/_next/static/chunks/0_7y1uxe4txjk.js","/_next/static/chunks/17-nh12wgons2.js","/_next/static/chunks/2gj7drv9nvsy6.js","/_next/static/chunks/0jli3_g4b__j_.js","/_next/static/chunks/3sgennhz6q10x.js","/_next/static/chunks/3mudhykkkzyf3.js","/_next/static/chunks/11_-d90lqa2s4.js","/_next/static/chunks/1skf_l73mwj9p.js","/_next/static/chunks/03pkn1j-3hrdg.js","/_next/static/chunks/1eiutj8ug5fl1.js","/_next/static/chunks/0r1th07vsk8cs.js","/_next/static/chunks/18j1crccjo1-l.js","/_next/static/chunks/0et1zrhhvgr0i.js","/_next/static/chunks/2bp2tbvd9ze9r.js","/_next/static/chunks/2fval02ikh6cz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0zn809v4hnd9i.js","/_next/static/chunks/2rppvxpjdqov6.js","/_next/static/chunks/3njfjoaa110d-.js","/_next/static/chunks/1mfgr8aqiadw5.js","/_next/static/chunks/3v-2itf1xqn1u.js","/_next/static/chunks/0ko40_z7mv0-y.js","/_next/static/chunks/30w08u3kzspp1.js","/_next/static/chunks/2vjv3e-d9tbgd.js"],"default"] 2b:Tddb,

An event budget is not a list of costs. It is a model of how the event behaves when the number of attendees changes — which it will, in both directions, after you have signed for the room.

Split everything into fixed and variable

This is the whole trick. Two columns:

Fixed: venue hire, AV, stage, the platform, design, marketing, staff. These do not move if fifty more people come.
Variable: catering, badges, lanyards, delegate bags, seat-based licences. These move per head.

Once they are split, your break-even is arithmetic rather than a guess:

Break-even attendance = fixed costs ÷ (ticket price − variable cost per head)

A conference with £40,000 of fixed costs, a £250 ticket and £60 per head of catering and materials breaks even at 211 attendees. That single number is the most useful sentence in the budget, and you should be able to say it without opening the file.

Budget the revenue honestly

Three lines, and be pessimistic on the first two:

Tickets. Model at 70% of your target, not at target. If the event works at 70%, it works.
Sponsorship. Count signed contracts only. Verbal interest is not revenue. See how to price sponsorship.
Other. Exhibition space, workshops, recordings. Our piece on revenue beyond tickets covers the ones people forget.

The four places budgets fail

AV. Quoted for one room, delivered for four. Get a quote against the actual room plan, not the headline.
Catering minimums. Venues charge on guaranteed numbers, not attendance. A 20% no-show rate on a free lunch is money already spent — see reducing no-shows.
Payment fees. Two to three per cent of gross, on every ticket, including the ones you refund.
The last fortnight. Reprints, couriers, extra staff, a replacement speaker's flight. This is what contingency is for.

Contingency is a line, not a feeling

Ten per cent of total costs, held centrally, spent with a decision rather than absorbed quietly into other lines. A contingency that is spread across every line is a budget that is 10% wrong everywhere.

Track it against the real numbers, weekly

A budget that is reconciled once, at the end, is a post-mortem. Pull actual registrations and actual ticket revenue from your registration system every week and put them next to the model. The week the curve flattens is the week to act — not the month after.

If your platform reports sold against target per ticket type, that comparison takes a minute; Gathervo's dashboard does it on the page, and the metrics that matter piece explains which lines to watch.

Write down the assumptions

Next to the model, in plain words: expected attendance, no-show rate, sponsorship secured, and the ticket mix. When something goes wrong, the assumption that was wrong is what you want to find — not the arithmetic.

Ready to put numbers against a real event? Set one up free on Gathervo and let the registration data fill the model as it arrives.

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