How to plan a paid conference alongside an established trade show

So you've found a trade show that already attracts the people you want in your conference room. The organiser has spare meeting space, you have a programme those visitors might pay for, and sharing the venue sounds much easier than building an event on your own. Then the questions start. Who sells the tickets? Does a conference ticket include the exhibition? What happens if the show moves?

Plan the commercial agreement before you announce the conference. You need a clear offer for buyers, a budget that works for your business, and written commitments from the show organiser about the space, access and promotion you're buying. Sharing a date and venue can help, but it doesn't turn the show's visitors into your customers or settle who pays when something changes.

This guide is for an independent organiser adding a paid conference alongside an established trade show. We'll work through the partnership, ticket access, programme, shared services and settlement, using a fictional conference budget to show where the decision changes. The aim is to launch something both businesses can deliver without leaving buyers to work out how the partnership works.

Decide what you're actually sharing

Co-location means events take place together, but the arrangement can be quite limited. You might hire a room during the show and operate your conference separately. You might share promotion and let your delegates enter the exhibition. Or you might sell a combined pass and share its income. Those are different businesses to run, even when the conference logo appears on the same show website.

For a first edition, I would start with separate budgets and a clearly priced agreement for the services you need. That makes it easier to see whether your conference can pay for itself. A shared budget may be sensible when both organisers fund and control the programme, but it also requires agreement on spending authority and losses. Don't choose it just because splitting the eventual profit sounds friendly.

Write a short description that both teams can approve. For example, your business produces and sells a one-day technical conference in a named meeting room during the host's exhibition. Conference delegates also receive exhibition access under an agreed registration process. The host supplies specified venue services and agreed promotion. Each organiser remains responsible for its own programme and customer commitments, subject to the actual contract and applicable law.

Then describe what remains separate. Does the host continue selling exhibition sponsorship while you sell conference sponsorship? Who books speakers? Can either party offer a discount? Can the host schedule a competing seminar next door? These aren't details to resolve after launch. They affect the product you sell and the income available to pay for it.

If you control both activities and simply want to combine them into one experience, our guide to combining two paid event formats addresses that decision. Here, the extra difficulty is that another business controls part of your delivery. Your agreement has to make its promises specific enough for your team to plan around them.

Check whether the trade show's audience will buy your conference

The first thing you want to establish is why someone would leave the exhibition and pay for your programme. A show can attract the right industry while serving a different purpose. Visitors may be there to meet suppliers, inspect equipment or fulfil purchasing appointments. That doesn't automatically leave them time or budget for a full day of learning.

Ask the host for evidence about the people you want to reach. Relevant job roles and reasons for attending are more useful than the largest attendance figure on the sponsorship deck. Clarify whether a number means registered people, people who attended, visits across several days or everyone onsite, including exhibitors. You need to understand the opportunity without treating a headline total as a sales forecast.

You don't need the host's entire contact list to investigate demand. Ask for an introduction to a suitable advisory group, an approved research invitation or aggregate information the host can legitimately share. Speak with prospective buyers about a specific topic, date, duration and intended price. Ask what they would miss at the exhibition to attend, and who would approve the expense.

Also ask whether people already have an education budget committed elsewhere during the show. Your competition may be a free theatre session, a supplier lunch or the employer's own meetings. If your proposed speakers cover material available on the show floor, explain what the paid conference adds. Perhaps buyers get detailed working sessions, independent discussion or access to specialists who aren't presenting elsewhere.

Treat the host's marketing commitment separately from demand. A promise to feature the conference in an email tells you a message will be sent, subject to agreed conditions. It doesn't establish how many tickets it will sell. Request the relevant audience and reporting available, agree the placement, then build a sales plan that can survive a weaker response.

Be willing to shorten or postpone the conference if the audience doesn't want the proposed day. A focused morning may fit the show better than a full programme. That changes your costs and price, so test the revised offer before assuming the original budget still applies. Co-location is useful when it improves a conference people want to buy.

Agree the host's offer before comparing the price

Ask for a written service schedule alongside the commercial proposal. It should identify the room, dates, permitted uses and access times, including setup and removal. Confirm the layout, usable capacity, furniture and accessible routes with the people responsible for the venue. A room name on a floor plan doesn't establish whether your stage, screens and audience fit.

Check what the host is entitled to provide. The show may control an exhibition hall without controlling every meeting room, entrance or catering service. Your arrangement may need venue approval or a separate supplier contract. Ask who can authorise signage, registration equipment, food service and entry outside exhibition opening hours. An enthusiastic contact may still need someone else's permission.

Get each included service described in usable terms. For audiovisual support, specify equipment and technician coverage rather than accepting a general promise of AV. For security, establish which entrances and hours the service covers. For cleaning, agree when the room is cleaned and who deals with a spill during a session. Include the point of contact when the service doesn't arrive.

The same applies to promotion. Name the channel, placement, audience, delivery window and supplied material. A conference page buried in an exhibitor directory is different from a dedicated programme announcement. Agree who writes and approves the message, where the ticket link goes and what happens if an agreed placement is missed. Avoid valuing a vague promotional promise as guaranteed revenue.

Ask about compulsory suppliers and costs that arrive later. Catering restrictions, internet access, electrical work, overtime and access passes can change the comparison. Request a complete schedule of included items, exclusions and chargeable changes. Where a price depends on consumption or attendance, establish the measurement and approval process before either team places an order.

Finally, identify what would make the location unacceptable. A replacement room might be smaller, noisy or far from the exhibition. Define a process for approving changes and the remedies available if the agreed service cannot be delivered. Your lawyer should turn the agreed business position into suitable terms for the jurisdiction and contracts involved.

Compare the commercial models using the same sales assumptions

A fixed host fee makes the payment predictable while leaving more of the attendance risk with you. A percentage of ticket revenue can reduce the cost of a quiet conference, but the amount rises with sales. A minimum payment plus a percentage may combine both risks. Compare the actual proposals at several sales levels, using the same ticket price and service scope.

Be precise about the percentage. Does it apply to the ticket's advertised price, the amount collected after refunds, or money remaining after particular costs? Does it include sponsorship, upgrades or tickets sold by the host? Write the calculation in ordinary language and ask both finance teams to calculate the same example. Matching percentages with different deductions can produce very different payments.

The U.S. Small Business Administration's break-even explanation uses fixed costs divided by the amount each sale leaves after variable costs. A host's share changes that amount when it is charged on every ticket. Use the principle to compare proposals, while including the actual costs and taxes relevant to your event.

Consider an invented conference with 200 paid places. All figures in this example are USD, purely illustrative, and not supplier quotes, Loopyah fees or market benchmarks. Assume the venue team has confirmed a safe layout for those delegates plus the separately planned speakers and staff. Every retained paid ticket brings in $300, and costs that rise with each ticket total $60. That allowance includes all per-ticket delivery and transaction costs assumed here.

Under a fixed-fee proposal, the host charges $12,000 for the room, agreed entrance coverage and promotion. Audiovisual production is excluded from that package and contracted separately. Your other fixed costs are $6,000 for programme delivery, $4,000 for audiovisual work, $3,000 for staffing, $2,000 for marketing and a $3,000 contingency assumed fully spent. Total fixed costs are $30,000. Purchase taxes are included in the assumed costs, no sales tax is assumed on receipts, and income tax and borrowing are excluded. Organiser labour is included in staffing, and costs for non-paying speakers and working staff are covered within the fixed allowances. There is no sponsorship or other income. The model assumes no unrecovered costs from refunded or disputed transactions; add those if they occur.

Each $300 ticket leaves $240 after the $60 variable allowance. You need 125 retained paid tickets to cover the $30,000 fixed costs. At 160 tickets, revenue is $48,000, variable costs are $9,600 and the operating surplus is $8,400. At 120 tickets, you lose $1,200. A target surplus of $6,000 requires 150 tickets under these assumptions.

Now suppose the host offers exactly the same services for 20% of retained ticket revenue, with no minimum and no $12,000 fixed fee. The other fixed costs remain $18,000. The share applies to every retained paid conference ticket, through any authorised sales route. The host takes $60 from each $300 ticket, leaving $180 after the separate $60 variable allowance. Break-even is 100 tickets. At 160 tickets, the surplus is $10,800; at 120, it is $3,600. Reaching a $6,000 target requires at least 134 tickets.

Be careful if the host instead proposes a commission only on sales it introduces. That is a different offer. You need a method for identifying those sales, a rule for buyers who encounter both organisers' marketing, and an agreed period in which a sale qualifies. Decide how discounts, refunds and later upgrades affect the commission. A tracked link can support the evidence, but both teams still need the same definition of a qualifying sale.

The host's two charges become equal at 200 tickets, when 20% of $60,000 is $12,000. That's also the paid capacity in this example. The percentage proposal therefore costs no more across the available sales range, provided every other term really is identical. If the host adds a minimum, changes the room or includes sponsorship in the calculation, redo the comparison. The percentage alone doesn't tell you which deal is better.

Separate shared costs from costs caused by your conference

Once the commercial model looks workable, check whether both teams have counted the same service. If the host fee includes entrance staff, you shouldn't also receive an unexplained share of the show's entire security bill. If your conference needs a separate entrance before the exhibition opens, the extra shift may be a legitimate additional cost. Describe that difference before choosing who pays.

For each shared service, record the supplier, total scope, your allocation and its basis. A charge might follow the hours you use a technician, a separately ordered catering quantity or an agreed fixed contribution. The basis should reflect the arrangement and be understandable to both parties. Equal division is a choice to justify, rather than a default for every invoice.

Set spending authority too. Your producer should know whether they can approve a small operational change and when finance approval is required. The host shouldn't be able to add a premium service to your bill merely because it was available. Equally, your team shouldn't order changes through the venue and expect the host to absorb them without agreement.

Use one cost schedule with version dates. Record what the host fee covers, what you contract directly and what remains provisional. Update it when the programme changes. An extra workshop can add room hours, food and technical support even when no new venue hire appears. Your event profit and loss template can hold the overall event result, while the shared-cost schedule explains the invoices between organisers.

A workable budget still needs enough cash at the right time. Suppose, separately from the sales comparison above, $15,000 of already budgeted commitments fall due before your next receipts, and you have $10,000 available for them. The gap is $5,000. These are payment timings within existing costs, not another $15,000 expense. Resolve the timing with available business funds, revised payment terms or another confirmed arrangement before committing.

Don't assume the host can advance your ticket receipts, or that a strong final surplus will pay an invoice due next week. Agree settlement dates, required statements and any permitted withholding. If you cannot fund the agreed schedule, change the schedule or the proposal while you still have that option.

Define exactly what each ticket admits someone to

Start with access, then choose ticket names. A conference delegate may need entry to the exhibition building, the conference room and a lunch area. An exhibition visitor may have access to the hall but no paid conference place. An exhibitor badge may permit a staff member to work on a stand without entitling them to leave it for your programme. Write each rule down.

In our fictional arrangement, the conference ticket includes the paid conference and exhibition entry during the exhibition's public opening hours. Exhibition-only registration doesn't include the conference. Speakers and working staff use separate credentials with the access their roles require. These are proposed arrangements for the example, not standard rights that follow from attending any trade show.

Now check whether the host can deliver the exhibition access you've promised. Does every delegate need a separate registration record? Can someone be refused under the show's admission rules? Are age, professional eligibility or identity requirements relevant? Tell buyers about applicable conditions before payment and agree a workable process for handling someone who is eligible for your conference but ineligible for the exhibition.

Decide which business contracts with the ticket buyer and appears on the receipt. If you sell the conference, establish whether the host acts only as a service supplier, also sells tickets as your agent, or sells a different combined product. Have the legal and finance teams confirm the consequences. Buyers should know who answers purchase questions and handles a refund request without being passed between organisations.

Loopyah's ticketing tools let you create ticket types with prices and quantities, and buyers receive confirmation emails linking to their QR tickets. Use clear names and descriptions for the conference access you control. Any recognition of those tickets by the host's registration or entry system needs a separately confirmed process and test.

Don't promise automatic cross-event access because both organisers can issue a QR code. Test a conference purchase, an exhibition-only registration, a cancelled conference ticket and a replacement credential. Check what staff see at each entrance and who can correct a mistake. The badge is useful only when the people and systems checking it apply the access you sold.

Handle upgrades without selling the same access twice

An exhibition visitor may decide to join your conference after registering for the show. Agree whether they buy a conference ticket at the normal price or a defined upgrade. Show what the additional payment buys and whether it changes the original exhibition registration. If two separate systems are involved, confirm who updates each record and how quickly the change becomes usable.

Keep conference places controlled across every sales route. Tickets sold by your team, the host and any approved partners all consume the same available conference inventory. A host allocation isn't spare capacity. Reserve it within the agreed paid limit or use a tested arrangement that keeps the total accurate. Define when unused allocations return to general sale.

Distinguish paid inventory from complimentary access. In the fictional budget, the 200 places are available for paid delegates after the actual room plan has separately allowed for speakers and working staff. If you give away a paid place, it reduces the remaining paid inventory and may still create delivery costs. Revise the budget rather than counting the same seat as both a gift and an expected sale.

A person with several credentials also shouldn't become several people in your report. Agree how you will distinguish orders, paid places, conference attendance and exhibition attendance. You can count the same person in each event's properly labelled attendance total, but a combined unique-person figure needs a method that removes duplication. Don't add two registration totals and call the result your shared audience.

Give delegates time to use both events

A combined access promise is less useful if your programme occupies every hour the exhibition is open. Start with the host's public schedule and the people you want to attract. Ask when they need to meet exhibitors, attend appointments and travel. Then build the conference around a realistic choice, including the time to move between spaces.

For an original scheduling example, suppose the exhibition opens at 9am and closes at 5pm. You could open conference registration at 9am, begin sessions at 9:30am, break from noon until 1:30pm and finish the paid programme at 3:30pm. That leaves opportunities to visit the exhibition, although lunch and walking time reduce the midday period. These times are planning assumptions to test, not a recommended timetable for every show.

Walk the route yourself. A room described as adjacent may be several floors away, beyond a security check or along a crowded corridor. Ask someone using the accessible route to assess the journey with the venue team. Include toilets, food service and the return to the conference. Don't schedule a short break using the quickest route an unencumbered staff member can walk.

Compare your sessions with the host's key commitments. An exhibition opening, major keynote or buyer appointment block may matter to the same delegates. You won't remove every conflict, but you should identify them before booking speakers. Agree how programme changes are shared so a late host announcement doesn't quietly make your central session much harder to attend.

Protect the paid offer as well. A host may want your most popular speaker to repeat the talk on a free show-floor stage. That could help promotion, or it could remove the reason to buy. Decide what material can be shared, when it appears and how the free session differs. Explain the difference honestly rather than selling exclusivity your agreement doesn't support.

Set programme ownership and recording permissions separately

Agree who selects speakers, approves topics and signs speaker contracts. The host may need to check venue rules or genuine sponsor restrictions, but that doesn't automatically mean it should rewrite your editorial programme. Decide which approvals are required, the deadline for decisions and what happens if the parties disagree. An unresolved approval can delay both speaker booking and ticket sales.

Keep the conference's learning promise credible. If you advertise independent technical discussion, explain how sponsored sessions are labelled and who controls their content. A host's exhibitor relationship shouldn't quietly become a right to remove criticism or insert a sales presentation. If the programme is commercially sponsored throughout, describe that model clearly so delegates can decide whether it suits them.

Content permissions need their own agreement. The World Intellectual Property Organization's copyright guidance explains that protected work generally needs permission for use unless an applicable licence or legal exception allows it. A speaker agreeing to appear doesn't by itself tell you what either organiser may record, publish or edit. Confirm the relevant rights and local rules with appropriate advice.

Decide whether the conference will be recorded, who receives the files and what uses are allowed. A private replay for delegates is different from a public promotional clip or a paid course. Speakers may also use third-party images or confidential examples that require separate treatment. Get permissions for the actual intended uses rather than a vague promise that the host can use event content.

Agree the rights to your conference name, artwork and promotional material too. State how each party may describe the relationship and what happens after the event. A permission to promote this edition shouldn't leave everyone guessing whether the host can advertise the same conference brand next year. Resolve any renewal, exclusivity or future-use terms before the brand acquires value through your work.

Sell sponsorship against a shared inventory of rights

Before either sales team starts pitching, compare what each organiser has already promised. The host may have an exclusive sponsor in a category your conference depends on. Your proposed conference sponsor may expect signs in a foyer controlled by the host. Both teams can sell honestly in isolation and still promise incompatible benefits to different companies.

Create one shared record of rights that need coordination. Include naming, category exclusivity, room signs, stage appearances, delegate communications, exhibition access and any shared hospitality. Identify which organiser can sell each right, where it applies and who approves exceptions. Keep confidential commercial details restricted to the people who need them, while making the operational boundaries clear to delivery staff.

Define categories narrowly enough that both sales teams can apply them. A broad term such as technology may cover much of the exhibition. Describe the products and locations involved, check existing agreements, and get an authorised decision on disputed cases. Our guide to managing competing event sponsors develops the sponsor-policy detail; co-location adds another organiser whose commitments must also be checked.

For a fictional example, a conference sponsor could receive signs inside the paid conference room and a labelled acknowledgement in the conference programme, with no rights over exhibition entrances. A separate host sponsor could retain the exhibition's entrance branding. Whether those arrangements can coexist depends on the actual agreements. A marked floor plan and approved wording help both parties understand the proposed limits.

Be careful with audience promises. Sponsorship of the conference doesn't automatically provide the host's visitor list, and sponsoring the show doesn't automatically provide your delegate details. Offer only the contact, reporting or meeting rights you can lawfully and operationally deliver. If sponsors expect introductions, agree who arranges them and avoid promising that particular people will attend.

Agree how attendee information will move between organisers

Start with the job the information needs to do. The host may need to confirm that a conference delegate qualifies for exhibition entry. Your team may need to know that an upgrade has been paid. Those tasks don't necessarily require every field collected by either business. Define the necessary records, recipients and permitted uses before anyone exports a list.

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office recommends data sharing agreements that explain purposes, responsibilities and how information is handled. Under UK GDPR, organisations that jointly decide how and why personal data is used must set out their responsibilities in a joint arrangement. The guidance is under review, so check the current position and the rules applying to your event.

For the practical handover, agree a named contact in each organisation, the information exchanged, a secure transfer method and the response when records change. Include cancellations, corrections and replacement credentials. Decide how long each party needs the records and how attendee questions or incidents reach the responsible person. A spreadsheet sent once before doors open may be out of date by lunchtime.

Separate entry administration from later promotion. Someone registering for exhibition access shouldn't have to guess which organisation will send them future marketing. Make the intended uses clear in the relevant notices and apply the appropriate permissions or other lawful basis. Don't describe a commercial wish to keep the audience as ownership of the people on a list.

Loopyah's attendee email tools let you build messages and choose audiences for your emails. Use them for the conference communications you're responsible for, with the right audience and message purpose. Information the host sends to its own visitors still needs an agreed sender, approval and delivery process.

Check the result from a delegate's perspective. Do the conference confirmation and exhibition confirmation give the same entrance and hours? If the room changes, which team updates both sets of instructions? Agree one approved version of the practical information and a process for correcting it wherever buyers received it. Two accurate systems can still send contradictory messages if their owners aren't coordinating.

Write down what happens when either event changes

Consider disruption before you accept non-refundable obligations. The exhibition might change dates, reduce its hours or move to another venue. Your speaker might withdraw, or your conference sales might fall short. Each situation affects different promises. Decide what your business can change independently and what requires agreement because it affects the other event or the package buyers purchased.

Ask specifically what happens if the host cancels while your conference could still run. Do you retain the room? Can delegates enter the building without the exhibition? Are shared security and registration services still available, and at what cost? A conference that technically has permission to continue may be commercially unworkable once the audience and shared services disappear.

Test the reverse too. If you cancel the conference, can your delegates still attend the exhibition, and what choices must you offer them? Who handles the messages, refunds and associated fees? Your internal agreement should address the allocation of costs, but it doesn't decide every obligation you owe buyers. Have the applicable customer terms and legal duties checked for the actual sales arrangement.

Set a decision date linked to rising commitments and agreed sales evidence. Use the budget for the deal you choose, including any minimum payment and cancellation charges. A threshold is useful when it identifies a decision you can still act on. Reaching a date after every supplier is fully committed gives you information without much room to reduce the loss.

For changes that can be repaired, agree a response process. A room substitution needs assessment of capacity, accessibility, location and technical suitability. A missing promotional placement needs a discussion about the actual remedy in the agreement. Keep a written record of the accepted change and its cost, then update buyer information where relevant. Don't let a series of small substitutions remove the value you paid for.

Use one operating plan for the shared venue

Your conference needs its own production detail and a clear connection to the host's venue operation. Agree who controls room access, who manages a queue outside it and who receives an urgent call. Include opening, delivery, public operation and removal. Different teams can lead different areas, but staff need to know where responsibility changes and how to get help.

Great Britain's Health and Safety Executive says event organisers must coordinate activities and maintain overall safety, including during setup and breakdown. That guidance applies within its jurisdiction; use the relevant local requirements elsewhere. Treat the shared venue as an operating responsibility to resolve with competent people, rather than assuming the host's experience covers every conference activity.

Hold a joint walkthrough with the venue, host and your producer. Check the real conference layout, sound from the exhibition, loading arrangements and routes between programmes. Confirm accessible arrival and evacuation arrangements with the responsible teams. Establish how staff respond when an entrance is unavailable or a queue starts blocking circulation. Record actions and owners while the people who can resolve them are present.

Then rehearse the customer problems likely to expose a gap. Someone arrives before the exhibition opens with a valid conference ticket. A visitor presents an exhibition badge at the conference room. A delegate's replacement ticket isn't recognised. Ask the staff involved to explain what they would do, who can authorise a correction and where the person waits without obstructing others.

Prepare a short door briefing using those answers. It should name the valid access types, opening times, escalation contact and current exceptions. Avoid expecting temporary staff to interpret the commercial agreement. If several people give different answers in rehearsal, fix the process and test it again before selling a more complicated ticket arrangement.

Approve the launch and settle the edition properly

Before sales open, put the final decision in writing. Confirm that both authorised parties have agreed the commercial model, service schedule, access, programme rights, sponsor boundaries and change process. Check that the venue and suppliers have accepted the parts they must deliver. Your planning discussion becomes useful when the promised arrangements have responsible people and confirmed terms behind them.

Review the public description with the host. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance says advertising claims must be truthful, non-deceptive and supported by evidence. That's a U.S. reference, and local rules also matter. Apply the practical discipline to your launch copy: describe the relationship accurately, explain inclusions and avoid implying that access, endorsement or attendance is guaranteed when it isn't.

For a reusable approval note, record the edition and dates, contracting businesses, room and operating hours, ticket seller, included access and excluded access. Add the chosen fee calculation, payment dates, shared-cost approvals, promotional commitments and named decision-makers. Reference the signed schedules for programme rights, data and disruption. This note helps the teams operate the agreement; it doesn't replace the underlying legal documents.

A filled approval note for the fictional conference

Here is how the business decisions could read after negotiation. This is an original planning example to adapt with your advisers, not a complete contract. It selects the percentage proposal above and leaves the conference budget unchanged. The room name and time allowances are invented too.

• Your conference business sells the $300 conference ticket and handles its purchase questions. The host continues selling exhibition admission separately. The host may sell conference places only through an agreed allocation within the conference's available inventory.

• The host supplies Meeting Room Cedar, approved entrance coverage and the agreed promotional placements for 20% of retained paid conference ticket receipts. There is no minimum. Sponsorship and exhibition income are outside that calculation. Separate audiovisual production remains your cost.

• The conference has 200 paid places, within a layout that separately accommodates its speakers and working staff. Any complimentary delegate places reduce the paid inventory, with their delivery cost added to the revised budget.

• Conference registration opens at 9am, sessions begin at 9:30am and finish at 3:30pm, with a noon to 1:30pm break. Setup access begins at 7am, subject to the venue's approved work arrangements. Exhibition access runs only during its 9am to 5pm public hours.

• Before either page goes live, both teams approve the ticket inclusions, registration handover, room route and customer contact details. The host confirms any exhibition eligibility conditions that buyers must satisfy.

• Your programme lead selects speakers. Any host approval is limited to the checks specified in the agreement. Recording and later use require the permissions recorded for each contribution; neither team promises a replay before those permissions are confirmed.

• Your producer and the host's operations lead approve shared-service changes before ordering them. Venue safety decisions follow the agreed venue arrangements. A conference sponsor receives only the specifically approved conference rights.

Attach the missing specifics before approval. Promotional placements need actual delivery dates, material deadlines and a remedy for missed delivery. The access process needs a tested procedure. Payment, cancellation and date-change provisions need agreed wording and dates in the signed schedules. Naming an item in this note doesn't settle it.

Use the note in a handover meeting. Ask the registration manager to explain the access rule, the finance contact to calculate the host's payment and the producer to identify who approves a room change. If their answers differ, resolve that particular decision and update the relevant schedule. It's a useful way to find a misunderstanding while the people who negotiated the deal are still available.

Settle the money and decide whether to return

Agree the closing statement before the event too. Define when sales and refunds are reported, how disputed transactions are handled, what evidence supports shared costs and when payments are due. If refunds or disputes remain open, set an agreed later adjustment process. Reconcile money collected through each authorised sales route without treating an unpaid order or a complimentary place as ticket revenue.

Review performance separately from settlement. The host needs to know whether the conference helped its show; you need to know whether the conference earned enough for the work and risk. Compare actual costs and retained sales with the chosen budget, then review delegate movement, access problems and the promised promotion. Ask buyers whether the exhibition access helped their decision and whether they had time to use it.

For the next edition, negotiate using that evidence. Keep the services that buyers used, price the work that actually occurred and resolve the problems staff recorded. If the host can't confirm essential access or your conference only works with sales the room cannot accommodate, pause the launch. Your next step is to change those terms or the conference plan before another ticket goes on sale.