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Does this sound familiar?
- Speakers are asking endless questions about parking, logistics, and more and then show up with a new presentation and a request for a microphone you didn’t plan to provide.
- Nobody is quite sure what last year’s hotel contract said about attrition. And what is attrition again?
- CE or CLE credit applications are always finished at the last minute.
- Tracking and delivering sponsor benefits is a turning into a full time job.
- Your ED spends the whole conference fixing problems instead of talking to members.
If even one of these is true, we can help.
A Successful Nonprofit Event Doesn’t Just Happen
The logistics of planning and executing a successful nonprofit or association event can be overwhelming, especially if your passion and talents lie with the mission of the organization and not with event planning.
Events and conferences can be a critical part of your organization’s mission and a great marketing tool for your work, but even the smallest gathering has a lot of moving parts and can be difficult to manage without experience. Having a professional nonprofit event organizer run your event allows you to focus on other work knowing your event is in great hands.
Your events are where members learn, earn their credits, reconnect with colleagues and renew their membership.
It’s also where sponsors decide whether to come back,
and it may be your biggest source of revenue all year.
Behind it are hundreds of hours of work: hotel negotiations,
a call for proposals, CE paperwork, sponsor follow-up,
registration questions, catering orders and a dozen things
that come up at 7 a.m. on day one.
What we handle
Everything it takes, from contract to certificate. Choose the whole list or just the parts you need help with.
Venue and hotel
- Venue scouting and hotel RFPs
- Contract negotiation, including room rates, attrition and food-and-beverage minimums
- Room block setup, monitoring and pickup reports
Program and speakers
- Call for proposals and support for your program committee
- Speaker agreements, travel, audiovisual needs and session materials
- Schedule building and session room planning
Credits and compliance
- CE and CLE credit applications
- Attendance tracking and certificates after the event
Registration and attendees
- Registration setup in your system or ours
- Member and nonmember pricing, early-bird deadlines and group rates
- Attendee questions, confirmations and reminder emails
Sponsors and exhibitors
- Sponsorship packages and program ad sales materials
- Exhibitor setup, logistics and benefit fulfillment
- Recognition in the program, on signs and from the stage
Food, AV and special events
- Menus, banquet orders and dietary needs
- Audiovisual planning and hybrid or recorded sessions
- Receptions, tours, offsite events and silent auctions
Onsite
- Registration desk, speaker check-in and room setup
- One point of contact for the hotel and vendors
- Problem-solving all day, so you don’t have to
After the event
- Attendee and sponsor surveys
- Invoice review and budget reconciliation
- A wrap-up report with what worked and what to change next year
Two packages. One flat fee. No surprises.
Every conference is different, so we confirm your fee after a 30-minute call. These starting prices give you a realistic number to take to your board.
| Logistics | Full Service | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Associations with a strong program committee that need the operations handled | Associations that want the whole conference off their plate |
| Starting at | $8,000 per conference | $14,000 per conference |
| Hotel RFPs and contract negotiation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Room block management | ✓ | ✓ |
| Registration setup and attendee support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Food, beverage and AV planning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Onsite lead for the full event | ✓ | ✓ |
| Call for proposals and speaker management | ✓ | |
| CE and CLE credit applications and certificates | ✓ | |
| Sponsor and exhibitor fulfillment | ✓ | |
| Program book, signs and attendee emails | ✓ | |
| Receptions, tours and silent auction | ✓ | |
| Surveys and a wrap-up report | ✓ | |
Starting prices are for a conference of up to 150 attendees and 3 days. Travel and lodging for onsite staff are billed at cost. Fees are paid in four installments, from signing through the week after your event.
Add-ons
- Additional onsite staff: [$700] per person per day
- Sponsorship sales: we find and sign sponsors for a commission on what we bring in
- Multi-year planning: book future hotels now and lock in this year’s rate
.
How your conference comes together
Intro: Most annual meetings take 12 to 18 months to plan. Here’s what happens when. Starting later? We’ll build a timeline that fits.
- Discovery call (anytime): We talk through your goals, attendance, budget and what your committee wants to keep doing itself.
- 12 to 18 months out: We send hotel RFPs, compare offers and negotiate the contract.
- 9 to 12 months out: We set the budget and timeline, open the call for proposals and start sponsor outreach.
- 6 to 9 months out: We select speakers with your committee, file CE or CLE applications and open registration.
- 2 to 6 months out: We finalize the program, menus, AV and special events, and keep an eye on the room block.
- Event week: We’re onsite from setup to teardown, so your team can be with your members.
- After the event: We send surveys, reconcile invoices, issue certificates and deliver a wrap-up report.
Experience you can count on
We’ve organized local, national and international conferences for 50 to 5,000 attendees. Because we’ve also served as volunteers, staff, executive directors and board members, we know what your committee needs and what your members expect.
“When we had to pull off a large event with several partners, I saw the team step into a completely different level of optimization and am excited to utilize their services again for other projects.” Joe Reed, Exponent Group
Conference example:
- 350 person international membership association
- Held in a different city each year for approximately 100 attendees
- Managed the entire event including silent auction, banquet and awards, two offsite events, and additional meetings
- First year we ran the event sponsor revenue was up 100%. The second year sponsor revenue increased 150%.
- 92% satisfaction on post-event survey
Questions associations ask us
How far ahead should we contact you? Ideally 12 to 18 months before your conference, so we can negotiate the best hotel terms. If your date is sooner, book a call anyway. We can often step into a conference that’s already under way.
Our hotel contract is already signed. Can you still help? Yes. We’ll review it, track your room block and attrition dates, and manage the hotel relationship from there.
Do you earn a commission from the hotel? No.
What if our attendance changes? Your fee is based on an expected attendance range. If you grow well beyond it, we’ll talk before anything changes, never after.
Can our committee keep doing some of the work? Absolutely. Many associations keep the program or speaker selection and hand us everything else. That’s exactly what the Logistics package is for.
Do you work with our registration or membership system? Yes. We use Wild Apricot, MemberClicks, Salesforce and most other platforms, and we’re happy to learn yours.
You’re a remote team. How does onsite work? We plan remotely all year and travel to your event. Onsite staffing is part of every package, and travel is billed at cost.
Can we sign up for more than one year? Yes, and we recommend it. A multi-year agreement lets us book future hotels early, keeps your planning consistent through board changes and makes budgeting easier.
Let’s make next year’s conference the easiest one yet.
Book a free 30-minute call. We’ll check your date, talk through what you need and send you a quote within [3 business days].