When to Comp a Conference Attendee

As a seasoned meeting planner you are already familiar with many instances when it’s proper (if not expected) to comp an attendee at your events (whether it’s a room, a meal, a flight, or another convention item). This includes board members, keynote speakers, special guests, and people who are important to the continued success of the event who might otherwise not attend (read more about getting attendees to your conference). The great thing about these situations is that you can effectively plan and budget for their time and expense at your conference.

But there are situations which arise that may cause you to think about offering comps to otherwise normal attendees. These are the instances when your head is telling you to stay within budget, but your heart is telling you that the attendee deserves something for the situation. A few examples that come to mind are:

1) An attendee helps out with a big project a month before the event with no form of compensation.
2) A small group of attendees is unable to fit in the room during a lunch presentation.
3) A member flies across the country for the convention, but the plane is late and the member misses the group trip off site.

You can probably rattle off a few examples of your own. In each case, the attendees may or may not expect to receive a comp, and the situations weren’t necessarily your fault. But as part of a business, association or organization you understand the value of keeping current customers happy. You need to weigh the cost of an attendee or group of attendees going away unsatisfied with the conference and what that means to the business vs what it is that you can afford to comp.

What you also need to keep in mind when dealing with each situation is that although each is unique in its own right, outsiders (whether it’s other attendees, board members or co-workers) looking in at each situation may see them as similar instances. It is easy for us to justify that if we give ’X’ away for scenario 1 this time we will do it again next time. What might be harder to explain is if we don’t give ‘X’ away for a situation similar to scenario 1 the next time (even if the person in the first case invested 10 hours, and the person in the second case only invested 5 minutes).

There are no hard fast rules to go by when it comes to comps, but you want to be aware of everything involved and be able to justify your reasoning. These comp situations that pop-up are the perfect reason to get the most out of negotiating with the conference location at the beginning. If you are able to get a few extra comps (whether its room nights, meals, or an event) out of the negotiations, you will be able to please your attendees and your bottom line at the same time.

If you have any questions regarding comping for an event or meeting, please contact us at [email protected]