Event expenses, based on Miller Tanner Associates (MTA) data, have shown a continual downward trend in per attendee overall spend. This per attendee spend metric includes items such as airfare, ground transportation, accommodations, meals, collateral, audio visual options, management and on-site costs, along with attendee expense reimbursement.
This trend highlights the fact that event planning has become an increasingly cost-conscience effort by our client base, and affords MTA a great opportunity to utilize our resources and skills to achieve great results for our clients. MTA continues to track this trend and hopes to be a great partner to each of our clients in managing this change in the event planning climate.
3 Ways We Keep Your Event’s Cost Per Attendee Low
Here are three ways in which Miller Tanner Associates can assist in providing a great event for an appropriate per attendee cost in this cost-conscience environment.
Vendor Partnerships
First, Miller Tanner can utilize its vendor partnerships and volume usage to negotiate pricing that benefits all MTA clients both large and small.
These vendor partnerships that MTA works to maintain provide not only great service to our clients but, due to our volume of usage, may provide special pricing or discounts on some of the event pass-through cost aspects.
When those MTA vendor partnerships provide special or discount pricing to Miller Tanner, those benefits are passed along to our clients allowing them to not only remain cost conscience in planning their event but also achieve a great vendor partner in MTA and MTA’s vendors.
Expertise in Event Planning
Second, in addition to our partnerships, Miller Tanner can assist in managing the cost per attendee by utilizing our wealth of knowledge to suggest the best locations and times of year in which to provide the most cost-effective event.
Our goal is to provide options that will not only meet the needs of the client but also provide ones which align with any budget constraints our client has for their event.
In addition to selecting the proper venue and meeting dates, we also work to assist our clients in expense management by ensuring the airfare and other event-related costs are booked in the appropriate time frame to reap the most cost-effective benefits.
Multi-level Review Process of Expenses
Third, we can assist in managing the cost per attendee by providing a multi-level review of meeting expenses.
This ensures that all contracted and provided services are appropriately billed at the proper rates and protects the client from erroneous charges or improperly charged rates on pass-through costs.
Additionally, MTA provides an extensive review process of all attendee reimbursements to ensure all reimbursed funds are in alignment with client expense reimbursement directives.
As we see this ongoing trend in per attendee metrics, Miller Tanner Associates hopes to be a great partner in multiple ways to manage the per person metric while providing excellent service.
If you’d like to learn more about how Miller Tanner Associates can keep costs low for your meetings and events, contact us today!
