Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dlussier/archive/2014/05/27/156612.aspx

I tweeted this the other day…

…and I had some people tweet back questioning/asking about the profit number. So here’s how I came to that figure.

Total Revenue

Let’s talk total revenue first. This conference has a huge list of companies/organizations paying some amount for sponsorship.

Platinum ($1500) x 5 = $7500

Gold ($1000) x 3 = $3000

Silver ($500) x 9 = $4500

Bronze ($250) x 13 = $3250

There’s also a title sponsor level but there’s no mention of how much that is…more than $1500 though, so let’s just say $2500.

Total Sponsorship Revenue: $20750.00

For registrations, this conference is claiming over 300 attendees. We’ll just calculate at 300 and the discounted “member rate” – $249.

Total Registration Revenue: $74700.00

Booth space is also sold for a vendor area, but let’s just leave that out of the calculation.

Total Event Revenue: $95450.00

Now that we know how much money we’re playing with, let’s knock out the costs for the event.

Total Costs

Hard Costs

Audio/Visual Services $2000

Conference Rooms (4 Breakouts + Plenary) $2500

Insurance $700

Printing/Signage $1500

Travel/Hotel Rooms $2000

Keynotes $2000

So let’s talk about these hard costs first. First you may be asking about the Audio Visual. Yes those services can be that high, actually higher. But since there’s an A/V company touted as the official A/V provider, I gotta think there’s some discount for being branded as such.

Conference rooms are actually an inflated amount of $500 per. Venues make money on the food they sell at events, not on room rentals. The more food, the cheaper the rooms tend to be offered at. Still, for the sake of argument, let’s set the rooms at $500 each knowing that they could be lower.

For travel and hotel rooms…it appears that most of the speakers at this conference are local, meaning there’s no travel or hotel cost. But a few of them I wasn’t too sure…so let’s factor in enough to cover two outside speakers (airfare and hotel).

There are two keynotes for this event and depending on the event those may be paid gigs. I’m not sure if they are or not, but considering the closing one is a comedian I’m going to add some funds here for that just in case.

Total Hard Costs: $10700

Now that the hard costs are out of the way, let’s talk about the food costs.

Food Costs

The conference is providing a continental breakfast (YEEEESH!), some level of luncheon, and I have to assume coffee breaks in between. Let’s look at those costs.

Continental Breakfast $12 per person

Lunch Buffet $18 per person

Coffee Breaks (2) $6 per person (or $3 a cup)

Snacks (2) $10 per person (or $5 each)

Note that the lunch buffet assumes a *good* lunch buffet – two entrees, starch, vegetable, salads, and bread. Not sure if there’ll be snacks during coffee breaks but let’s assume so.

Total Food Cost Per Person: $46

Food Cost: $14950

Gratuity: $2691

Total Food Cost: $17641

Total food cost is based on the $46 per person cost x 325. 300 for attendance, 12 for speakers, extra 13 for volunteers/organizers. Gratuity is 18%.

Grand Totals

So let’s sum things up here.

Total Costs

Hard Costs: $10700.00

Food Costs: $17641.00

Total:          $28341.00

Taxes:         $3685.00

Grand Total  $32026.00

Total Revenue

Sponsorship  $20750

Registration   $74700

Grand Total   $95450.00

Total Profit

$63424.00

Now what if the registration numbers were lower and they only got 100 people to show up. In that scenario there’d still be a profit of just under $26000.

Closing Comments

A couple of things to note:

- I haven’t factored in anything for prizes. Not sure if any will be given out

- We didn’t add in the booth space revenue

- We’re assuming speakers aren’t getting paid, but even if they were at the high end its $12000 ($1000 per session), which is probably an inflated number for local speakers.

- Note that all registrations were set to the “member” discounted price. The non-member registration price is higher. There is also an option for those that just want to show up for the opening keynote.

There you have it! Let me know if you have any questions.

D