You've developed your meeting's budget based on the financial objectives of the meeting, and put into place reports that enable you to monitor the meeting's financial performance. What do you do when the reports show that income is lower and/or expenses are higher than expected? Here's how to turn analysis into action.

When income and/or expenses are not performing as planned in your budget, the first reaction of most meeting managers is to immediately look for ways to cut expenses. That would absolutely be the wrong instinct: Cutting expenses in almost every manner will impact attendees. The first inclination should always be to research opportunities to increase income to correct any potential budget deficit. These include:

 ‰ Growing registration - consider other related organizations or audiences that could be potential attendees for the meeting. Look at the content of the program to determine if it is relevant to other groups. For example, medical meetings may not be marketed to nurses, technicians, or students. But if the program content provides education for these related audiences, marketing directly to them may create additional registration income necessary to offset a budget problem. Keep in mind that it takes time to find these groups and market to them, so this is a process that needs to be identified early. ‰ Increasing exhibit and/or sponsorship income - are there new vendors of related products or services that you have not solicited to participate? Are there organizations that might benefit from exposure to your attendees, which can increase sponsorship income?

‰ Advertising in your on-site program book - consider ad opportunities in other meeting marketing pieces, and on the meeting Web site. After all potential avenues of increasing income have been explored, you may still need to reduce expenses to bring the budget back in line. However, try to cut costs in areas that will least impact attendees' experiences at the meeting. Because it is typically the largest (or one of the largest) line item of a meeting, the instinct is to cut food and beverage costs first. However, this is an area that directly and visibly impacts attendees. If your meeting has always offered a continental breakfast each day, reducing that to coffee only will definitely be noticed. Therefore, it is important to scrutinize all other line items in the expense budget first before reducing any money spent on food and beverage. Here are some ways to reduce expenses without affecting the attendees' experience.

‰ Circulate written guidelines for staff and speakers regarding travel and expenses - for example, the types of airline tickets that can be booked (coach class only) and when flights should be booked (at least 21 days in advance). Spell out: ground transportation allowed (facility shuttle or taxi, no limo service); reasonable "caps" to meal expenditures (breakfast reimbursement up to $15 per day, alcoholic beverages will not be reimbursed). Make sure to provide these guidelines to the speakers as part of the written speaker agreement.

‰ Review speaker fees - if possible, use an organization member, volunteer, or industry leader who lives in the meeting city, or a university professor, or other non-paid or lesser-paid speakers in place of high-priced speakers for some or all of the program.

‰ Negotiate discounts and complimentary items with your audiovisual provider - review all AV orders (equipment, services, and labor costs) prior to signing for accuracy. Labor to tear down equipment (strike labor) should only be approximately 50 percent of the labor required to set up equipment. Also instruct speakers and the AV provider that no equipment can be added on site without authorization. ‰ Schedule printing of on-site program books, materials, and signage well in advance of the date needed - and consider working with a printer and signage vendor in the meeting's destination to avoid high shipping fees and reduce the cost of sign production and delivery.

‰ Get control of on-site reproduction costs - make sure speakers are aware (in the speaker agreement) that only those handouts submitted in time for copying in your office or at a low-cost copy center in the city of the meeting will be reproduced. Those that are submitted late will not be reproduced or will be reproduced at the speaker's expense. Make sure the facility has a list of only those staff members who are authorized to charge on-site copying to the master account. If time/size of job permits, it may be more cost-effective to take copy jobs off-site to area copy centers.

‰ Reduce shipping expenses - have shipments prepared early enough to take advantage of the lowest-cost shipping method available. n Editor's Note: Next month's column will focus entirely on tips for cutting food and beverage costs, with as little impact as possible on attendees.