Return on Investment

Professional conferences can be expensive and not all managers understand their importance or the benefits derived by attending them. The information provided here can help you justify the expense of attending a conference and provides some handy worksheets you can use to do so. To gain approval (or approve for your employees) any allocation of resources to a given project or program, two components must be understood:

  • Expense (the “investment”)
  • Return on investment (ROI)

Here are some easy-to-use tools to help you calculate the investment and identify your ROI from attending the 2011 Annual Conference.

Understanding Your Conference Expenses
A number of factors can affect conference expenses. Before you begin to justify conference expenses, you need to calculate those expenses. To do so, use the following Expenses Worksheet to develop a cost estimate for attending the conference.

Expenses Worksheet

Expense

Explanation

Amount

Registration fee

Look at all the fees, and determine the one that will provide the greatest savings.

 

Pre- and post-conference activities

Optional

 

Materials

Books, materials, media

 

Airfare

Take advantage of AHA savings with preferred airlines or use one of the Web-based services.

 

Lodging

$214 (plus tax, at the Sharaton) per night

 

Ground transportation (includes parking)

Consider the costs associated with getting to the airport and the hotel as well as other ground transportation needs.

 

Mileage reimbursement

If you are driving to the conference, use MapQuest to calculate miles then multiply by your facility’s mileage reimbursement rate.

 

Per diem

Indicate the number of food functions included with your registration fee and estimate additional expenses.

 

Miscellaneous expenses

Luggage fees, tips, etc.

 

Total

 

Understanding the Benefits
Many benefits of conference attendance are hard to quantify. For example, many experts agree that the top benefit of conference attendance is networking value. Where else can you find so many industry contacts facing the same issues as your organization? Will they offer solutions you were not aware of? When you submit a proposal to attend a conference, don’t focus on how much you want to go or the cost; focus on the specifics of what you will bring back to the organization as payback for the investment.

Some details you’ll need to identify include the following:

  • Session content. What sessions have particular relevance to your organization’s work? Specifically, identify:
    • Tools
    • Technologies
    • Processes
  • Vendor contacts. Will the conference showcase vendors with tools you use or are evaluating for potential future use? Is this an opportunity for you to compare competing tools?
  • Best practices. Will the sessions offered provide information that can immediately benefit your organization?
  • Codes and standards. Will changes be identified that will affect your department and the facility in terms of compliance costs?
  • Training. Will there be workshops designed to teach attendees a special skill and/or help your team overcome current or future challenges?

Quantifying the Benefits
Although you might understand the benefits of the conference that interest you, your manager may not. Therefore, to be most effective in justifying the conference, you need to clearly articulate the connection between your organization’s knowledge requirements and the conference program. DO NOT assume that your manager will automatically be able to make those connections.

Your Organization’s Benefits: Specific Needs and the Conference Sessions and Training That Meet Them
Networking benefits — This conference will allow [specific team members] to network with other professionals and vendors in the industry. We will be able to take the pulse of what is new in tools, technologies, and processes, and hear ideas we had not known about before.

Team-building (if sending a big part of your group) — This conference will help build our team, providing a forum for team members to discuss tools, technologies, and processes and how we might apply them in our facility to improve our information products, workflow, and processes.

  • Current tools
    • Future tools exploration
  • Current technologies
    • Future technologies exploration
  • Current processes
    • Future processes exploration
  • Vendors with tools and technologies you are exploring