---
title: "Event Planning Part One: The Business Case"
description: Many events go ahead without a business case — some very successfully! But miss this step and you risk wasting a lot of time down the track and missing opportunities to maximise your return on investment.
---

[The Joi Blog](https://blog.joi.events)

# [Event Planning Part One: The Business Case](https://blog.joi.events/event-planning-part-one-the-business-case)

 Written by [Rob Vass](https://blog.joi.events/author/rob-vass) | May 10, 2024, 5:58:28 AM

## Step 1: write the business case for your event

Many events go ahead without a business case — some very successfully! But miss this step and you risk wasting a lot of time down the track and missing opportunities to maximise your return on investment. A good business case will give the planning process direction and clarity as well as help you make decisions on content, promotion and logistics.

### Business Case Questions

##### 1. What is the business objective?

Keep your answer high level: increase sales, improve morale etc. — you can go into more detail when you define your event objectives.

##### 2. What is the business environment?

Consider the economic environment: is your target audience doing well or is business tough? What is the political environment like — is it stable or uncertain? Consider what your competitors are doing.

Answering this will give you a sense of whether it is the right time to hold the events.

##### 3. What are the learnings from previous events?

What worked? What failed? What was the return on investment?

Again — valuable information in deciding not only whether to hold your event but also what content you should have and how to promote it.

##### 4. Who are the audience?

Who are they? Consider rating from 1-10: how hard will it be to get them to attend the event? What will be their motivation to attend?

##### 5. What are the event objectives?

Or to put it another way: what do we want the audience to do as a result of attending the event?

Defining objectives can be hard and a bit confusing. Answer the question “what do I want the audience to do” and the process becomes much clearer. This is where you get granular — things like agree to a meeting, take part in focus groups or post positive comments online. It’s worth brainstorming and thinking outside the box because this will have a *massive* influence on content.

##### 6. What is the return on investment (ROI)?

If the business objective is to sell then the ROI is the amount you will sell. If the objective is to build a strong company culture, then the ROI could be measure in staff retention. This question is a whole lot easier to answer if you’ve established detailed event objectives. Try to apply a value to what the audience will do and you can work out your return.

##### 7. What is the budget?

This question is relative to your ROI. At this stage it’s not a case of working out how much the event will cost — it’s more a case of stating how much you can afford to spend to *get* the ROI. If you think you’ll make $50,000.00 in sales and you want a 100% ROI then your budget will be $25,000.00 to deliver the event.

##### 8. Who are the stakeholders and will we have their support?

Your stakeholders may be the executive team — if it’s a marketing event, the stakeholders could be the sales team. Ask yourself: do you have their full support and commitment?

##### 9. Should we have sponsors and/or exhibitors?

This may be a given with some events, but is also worth considering on small events — it can be a way to get a bigger budget for the event (as long as it doesn’t conflict with your objectives).

##### 10. Should we hold the event?

Assess your ROI vs. business environment and likelihood of getting the audience — then you can decide if it will be worth holding the event or not.

Go to our [full article](https://www.joi.events/how-to-plan-an-event) on [How to Plan an Event](https://www.joi.events/how-to-plan-an-event) where you can download the 'Event Business Case Template'.

 

[View full post](https://blog.joi.events/event-planning-part-one-the-business-case)

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