Organising a Successful Event on a Budget

Event

25th anniversary International Council Meeting.

Requirements

This international students association required accommodation and venues for an eight-day academic and social programme for over 270 delegates from 31 countries. Sessions needed to be held as close as possible to central London, but within a very tight budget.

Event Solution

ELSA chose London as the location for their International Council Meeting in their 25th anniversary year, because of the city’s diversity and because of its proven ability to attract the maximum number of delegates.

“We chose London because it’s London,” said ELSA representative Josephine Bjorkland. “We felt that as an exciting, dynamic and multicultural city, it mirrored our association perfectly. The city gave added value and meant there was more interest in the event itself”

With tight budget restrictions to meet, Visit London’s associations team helped ELSA tap into London’s huge potential for corporate and civic partnerships. Nearly 2,000 UK headquartered companies are listed on the London markets, and 75% of the world’s top 500 companies maintain an office in the city.

With our help, ELSA was able to garner support from a host of London-based corporate partners and sponsors who in turn offered catering and venue sponsorship

As a result, workshops and plenary sessions were held throughout London including at the Law Society of London, London South Bank University and BPP and PricewaterhouseCoopers offices.

The generous support of corporate sponsors meant that ELSA could offer delegates an extremely low registration fee that included accommodation, lunches and dinners - all in central London.

With delegates’ accommodated close to the city centre, they were able to take advantage of London’s excellent public transport system, further cutting costs.

In addition, the UK’s generous tax refund scheme meant that ELSA could reclaim 17.5% of expenses incurred for accommodation, meals, entertaining, telecommunications and more.