Oftentimes, ticket sales can cover only a portion of the costs of running an event. Hence it becomes necessary to seek for alternative avenues of money to fund the event, and even more so if it’s free to attend.

Here are five suggestions (alternative to seeking for corporate cash sponsors) that can increase your event’s revenue and at the same time, add value to those in attendance.

1. Sell merchandise
Be it event apparel, books, posters, and more, the important thing is to stock merchandise that your attendees will want! Otherwise, it might be more of a hard-sell and a waste of your resources. Attendees purchase merchandise for various reasons, it could be for its informational value, as a keepsake, or even as a badge of honour of sorts in showing others that they’ve been privileged enough to attend your event. You could even set up a ticket category bundling discounted merchandise with tickets to directly entice attendees at the point of ticket purchase. Pop-folk artist, Joel Tan of Gentle Bones, does precisely that with the release of his debut album along with tickets to its launch at TAB.

2. Conduct an auction or raffle
Give attendees a reason to part with their money. By offering them good or exclusive prizes to bid or raffle for, it increases the likelihood that they will enter into it for the possibility of obtaining it. Get these prizes sponsored by approaching businesses that would find your event’s audience relevant to whom they’re vying for with their product or service. In this sense, they can use your event as a platform for promotion should they sponsor a prize. Everybody wins!

3. Sell premium attendee experiences
Music gigs do this really well in selling limited VIP tickets, giving attendees the privilege of meeting with the artistes at a premium ticket price often sold-out in a jiffy. Consider doing this for your event too! It could be a premium ticket to meet with the speakers one-on-one or at a lunch networking session. It could be offering attendees the chance to pitch to a group of industry influencers. It could include conducting a separate and more intimately-sized workshop with your keynote speaker for attendees keen on delving into more content and gaining meaningful interactions. It could mean having an exclusive photograph or getting merchandise signed. The possibilities are endless, simply put yourself in the shoes of your attendee and consider what would add more value to their overall event experience – and sell that to them at a premium ticket price.

4. Curate and engage with relevant exhibitors
Beyond showcasing your event’s in-kind sponsors, how about allowing other businesses to also showcase their products or services to your attendees for a fee? As you curate and gather the right crowd and ratio of attendees to vendors, you help create a valuable networking environment for both parties. This can add credence and entice attendees to return for your next event.

Top Image Credit: Aaron G