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Innovative pricing drives participation, profit

Innovative pricing models can make meetings more attractive to participants, more profitable for host organizations, and more sensitive to the needs of different audience segments, presenter Mariela McIlwraith, CMP, CMM, principal of Vancouver-based McIlwraith Consulting, told participants in a Monday morning breakout session.

Conference registration fees can either be set on a cost-plus basis, with the planner adding a revenue share to the cost of organizing the event, or through a value-based approach that recognizes what participants get out of their attendance. The more market-oriented strategy involves “looking at who’s out there, what they need, and what’s the right price,” McIlwraith said.

Pricing is ultimately a matter of reconciling cost and value, but “what’s great about that is that it considers what the attendee values and what the meeting is worth to them, including the value of the content and the meeting’s impact,” she said. “We need to start thinking about what it’s worth to bring a group of people together, and for those people to have the opportunity to interact. The value of face-to-face is more than just the inputs” that go into the event.

McIlwraith said registration discounts can backfire in several ways. They’re hard to reverse once participants learn to expect them, and while a competitor will be quick to match the initial discount, they may respond more slowly when the organization that originally cut its price tries to restore it.

Discounts and extended early bird deadlines also send the signal that registrations are down, and can harm conference cash flow if a deadline was set with a major payment in mind.

As an alternative, McIlwraith suggested a variety of incentives and pricing strategies designed to engage participants with a meeting in the way they find most useful, and that best suits their budget. Students or other participants can be invited to earn registration discounts by volunteering part of their time onsite, and hotels may willingly offer draw prizes that will encourage participants to register early and book inside the block.

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