Business Development: Stop Rolling Over Last Year’s Event Budget: How to Decide What Stays, What Goes and Where to Leave Room for What’s Next

Budget season has a way of turning last year’s event calendar into next year’s event strategy.

We sponsored this conference last year, so put it back in the budget. We’ve hosted that client event for five years, so add it again. Partners will want money for golf outings, dinners and association events, so estimate what we spent last year.

It’s an efficient way to build a budget. But last year’s spending is historical information, not a recommendation for where next year’s business development dollars should go.

A better place to start is with a simple question: Which event investments deserve funding next year? That means looking at event spending as a portfolio rather than a collection of recurring expenses.

Look at the whole portfolio

The large sponsorships tend to get the most attention, but they may represent only part of what the firm is spending.

Industry conferences and association memberships, firm-hosted seminars and client events, sporting events and golf outings, and smaller expenditures initiated by individual partners or practice groups can all draw from the firm’s business development resources.

The smaller expenditures are particularly easy to overlook. Twenty $2,500 decisions are still $50,000.

And the dollars don’t tell the entire story. A relatively inexpensive firm-hosted event can consume significant staff time to plan, promote and execute. When budgeting, consider both the dollars being spent and the internal resources required to make the event successful.

Before deciding what to fund, understand the full portfolio, including spending that may occur outside the centrally managed marketing or events budget.

Start with where the firm wants to grow.

Before asking which events should stay, ask what the firm is trying to accomplish next year.

Is the firm trying to grow a particular industry or service line, enter a new geographic market or develop relationships with a different type of buyer? Those priorities should influence where event dollars go.

That may mean shifting money away from a perfectly acceptable event the firm has supported for years to an opportunity more closely aligned with where the firm wants to grow.

The question isn’t simply whether something was a good event.

Is this where we should be investing our money now?

Know what job each investment is supposed to do

Not every event investment has the same purpose, and that distinction matters before deciding whether something deserves another year of funding.

Some spending is essentially table stakes. The firm may have supported an important industry organization for years. Major clients are involved. Competitors are visible. Walking away could send a message the firm doesn’t want to send.

Other expenditures may primarily support an important client relationship or demonstrate the firm’s commitment to the community. A charitable event may be worth supporting because the firm believes in the organization and its mission.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those reasons.

The mistake is pretending every expenditure is something it isn’t.

If the primary purpose is community support, say so. If it is maintaining an important client relationship, say so. If it is being funded as a business development investment, define the expected business development outcome.

Some investments will serve more than one purpose. What matters is agreeing on what success should look like before spending the money, rather than creating the justification afterward.

Make existing events earn their way back into the budget

Longevity shouldn’t guarantee renewal.

For every significant recurring event, look at audience quality, conversations with clients and prospects, follow-up meetings, pipeline activity and relationship value. Consider whether the firm gained meaningful visibility or thought-leadership opportunities as well.

Don’t limit the analysis to closed revenue. Business development rarely operates on an event-to-revenue timetable, and pipeline can take months to develop. The better question is whether the investment produced enough evidence to justify continuing it.

That evaluation should lead to one of four decisions: renew, renew with changes, increase the investment or stop.

“Renew with changes” deserves particular attention. An event itself may be worthwhile, while the firm’s execution was poor. Perhaps the wrong people attended. There was no pre-event outreach. Nobody scheduled meetings in advance. Follow-up was inconsistent.

Don’t blame the event for a weak strategy. But don’t keep paying for it without fixing the strategy, either.

Make new opportunities compete for funding

New opportunities should face many of the same tests as existing events: audience fit, strategic relevance, opportunities for meaningful engagement and someone inside the firm willing to take ownership.

But a new opportunity faces an additional test: Is this a better use of the money than something we’re already funding?

A proposed $15,000 sponsorship shouldn’t be evaluated in isolation. It should compete against the other ways the firm could invest that $15,000.

That changes the budgeting conversation. Instead of deciding whether a new event is good enough to add to the budget, the firm is deciding which opportunities represent the best use of a finite pool of business development dollars.

Sometimes the best way to fund something new is to stop doing something old.

Leave room for what’s next

Not every dollar should be committed during budget season.

Firms need room to experiment. A new conference may reach an emerging niche. A different client-event format may create better conversations. A new association may provide access to decision-makers the firm hasn’t been reaching.

Consider reserving 10 to 20 percent of the event budget for experiments and opportunities that emerge during the year.

Some of that money can fund planned experiments. Some can remain in the cookie jar for opportunities nobody could have anticipated during the budgeting process.

That doesn’t mean the money has to be spent. New opportunities should still have to make a compelling business case.

Experiments also shouldn’t automatically become permanent line items. Set expectations before making the investment, then evaluate what happened. If something works, repeat it or scale it. If it shows promise but execution was lacking, modify it. If it doesn’t work, stop.

Budget forward, not backward

The goal isn’t necessarily to spend less on events. It’s to spend more intentionally.

Some long-standing events will continue to deserve funding. Others may need to change or disappear. New opportunities should be able to compete for those dollars. And firms should preserve enough flexibility to pursue opportunities they can’t predict today.

A good event budget should reflect where the firm wants to grow, what has produced value in the past and where the best opportunities appear to be ahead.

Last year’s budget can tell you where the money went. It shouldn’t decide where it goes next.