More Than a Line Item: Budgeting Strategies That Drive Impact (Repeats Tuesday)

Event budgets keep getting tighter—but expectations aren’t going down. How do you plan smart, cut strategically, and still show up strong? In this session, we’ll look at how budgeting becomes a leadership tool that helps you align with executives, communicate your priorities, and make tough trade-offs with confidence. From what to flex (and what not to) to communicating value to leadership, this session blends big-picture strategy with practical application so you can lead your events forward even when facing constraints.

Learning Objectives:
- Build and manage budgets that consider today’s constraints while supporting long-term goals.
- Determine what to cut or reallocate, and how to do it without compromising event impact.
- Use language that resonates with the C-suite, framing budget conversations around risk, ROI, and value.
- Create and leverage templates to forecast, flex, and manage budgets more clearly.
- Identify areas for innovation, even when spend is down.

For the best experience, we recommend bringing a laptop or tablet to this session