Conference budget template
- Total cost
- $94,300
- Cost per delegate
- $314.33
- Income, tickets and sponsors
- $160,000
- Surplus or deficit
- $65,700
Every figure on this page is worked out from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. Lanyardo publishes no venue directory, no speaker list and no industry cost per head: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own numbers, and the delegate count is always yours.
The figures above start from a worked example ($94,300). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Conference budget template worked example (CSV)
A conference budget template is seven cost lines and two income lines, and the only figure that matters is the last one: how many delegates have to turn up for the event to close. Venue, AV and staging, catering per head per day, speakers, badges and print per head, staff and insurance, and marketing on one side; ticket income per delegate and sponsorship on the other. This template works the total, the cost per delegate, the surplus at the expected number and the break-even delegate count from what you type, because a budget that does not print the break-even is a budget that is discovered on the day.
Fixed costs are the ones you pay if nobody comes
Venue, AV, speakers, staff and marketing are committed before the first ticket sells, and the template prints them as their own line. Catering and print scale with the delegate count and are the per head lines. A budget that treats catering as fixed overstates the loss on a small turnout and understates it on a large one.
Break even is fixed costs less sponsors, divided by the margin per delegate
Each delegate brings the ticket price and costs catering for the days plus their badge and print; the difference is the margin per delegate. Fixed costs less the sponsorship already signed, divided by that margin, is the number of paying delegates the event needs. On the worked example it is well under the expected three hundred, which is what a viable plan looks like; a break-even above the expected count is the signal to renegotiate the venue before the contract, not after.
Sponsorship is income, and it is also risk
The template takes sponsorship as one figure and sets it against the fixed costs, so the break-even falls as sponsors sign. Enter only what is signed, not what is hoped for, and rerun the sheet as each contract lands; the break-even count moving down through the spring is the honest measure of the sales effort.
Conference budget template: common questions
Where do booking platform fees go?
As a per head cost. Most platforms charge a share of each paid ticket, so take it off the average ticket income per delegate rather than adding a fixed line; the margin per delegate is then the real one.
What about a contingency?
Add it to the staff and insurance line, or to whichever line you trust least. Ten percent of the fixed costs is a common contingency for a first edition and less for a repeat, and the template's break-even count is the figure it protects.
Does this save the budget anywhere?
Not on its own. The template computes in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. Lanyardo Pro saves the budget against the event, keeps the actuals beside it as invoices arrive, and exports it for the finance team.
Where the constants in this tool come from
SBA, calculate your startup costs: the fixed-versus-per-head split the break-even reads from.
PCI DSS, the standard the ticket and sponsor payments must be taken under.