PYM: Plan Your Meetings

Bartering: A creative way to stretch your event budget

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Whether you have a small budget and you need to be creative to produce events, or you have a big budget and you want to maximize your budget by reducing expenses, you might want to consider bartering.  Bartering is exchanging goods or services rather than using money to pay for something. (Trade-out is another term sometimes used.)  For example, if your company wants to have a booth at a tradeshow, but doesn’t have money to pay for booth space, it could offer to donate extra promotional specialty items or registration bags it has in stock in exchange for the booth space. Not only would the company get the booth space on trade, it also would benefit from attendees carrying items branded with the company’s message.

Before proposing barter to a strategic partner, consider the value of items being offered. Products and/or services that are being traded do not always have the exact same retail value, but they should have comparable value strategically or otherwise. Examples of potential barter items include:

• Free dinner tickets
• Complimentary conference registration
• Advertising space
• Photography services
• Rental items for events (such as table skirts and raffle drums)
• Ground transportation
• Door prizes (free trips, gift baskets, certificates, etc.)

There is no limit to the variety of products and services that can be traded.  It simply depends if Company A has something of value that Company B wants, and both companies are willing to barter.  Bartering has been around for a long time, but it is still a clever way to save money.

— Jackie Thornton, M.S., CMP

Jackie Thornton, M.S., CMP, is President of Global Marketing and PR Inc., which offers event planning, marketing and public relations services.   She also has taught event planning certificate courses.