The purpose of this post is to provide some information to help those planning the ITR Expo 2003, to look forward instead of trying to perpetuate a flame war. I don’t care whether or not you like what I have to say, but if you try to listen instead of just flaming, you might learn something that will be helpful for the event. Or, you can just flame me.

Many people here have claimed that you can hold your own event (IOW, organized and run by volunteers here) as the first ITR Expo was done. That’s fine – but I would suggest doing a lot of advance planning, and in particular, a budget. And to prepare a budget, you need to start making all kinds of assumptions on how the event will be held. Making those assumptions means making the decisions about what will be spent and what will be collected. You can put the entire budget into a single Excel file. Spreadsheet software is a wonderful thing because it lets you change a single assumption or a single amount and see the effect it has everywhere else.

I would also suggest that a budget be very conservative and realistic in its assumptions. People around here apparently think that you can just assume that a track will cost $2,000 per day, get 80 people to attend, and you only have to charge everyone $50 to attend and the two-day event will break even, when in fact none of these assumptions are realistic. Don’t assume there will be 80 people willing to sign up for the event at any reasonable registration fee; we already know from the first two Expos that that’s just not realistic. Don’t assume that there will be substantial amounts available for sponsorship; that’s what people thought when we were first planning ITR Expo 2002, and several folks even volunteered at the time to work on recruiting sponsors. As it turns out, the only sponsorship was the keychains and pit pass holders from King Motorsports and posters from Realtime Racing. While these items were nice, they didn’t support the budget or reduce the registration fees for everyone to attend. So unless you have sponsors who are firmly committed to specific amounts of monetary support, don’t include any numbers for sponsorship in the budget. Also, you’ll need to find out ACTUAL NUMBERS for track rentals and associated expenses, not wild-*** guesses.

People have learned about EMT and insurance expenses because those were unexpected surprises with ITR Expo 2002. Here are some of the other questions that you’ll need to ask when figuring out a budget:

1. Attendance. How many people will attend? Be conservative, and use past events as a guide. If it’s a “honda-tech.com event” open to any model of car, you may get a bunch of Civics and hybrids, but you may find that you don’t get as many ITRs because not as many ITR drivers will drive halfway across the country for an event with lots of different kinds of cars in it, such as last year’s NASA event at VIR. If it’s an ITR-only event, how many can you expect? There were 40 cars at ITR Expo 2002, but some of them were instructors (who may have been had part or all of their registration fee waived), and some of them were non-ITR cars who drove on Monday only (who only paid a one-day registration). (Yes, there were 43 ITRs at the event, but some of them were not signed up to drive on the track and so did not pay to register.)

What we do for NSXPO is we prepare a budget that has several different assumptions for attendance – a “low estimate” (the lowest number we think is possible will attend), a “best guess”, and a “high estimate” (the highest number we think is possible, which is our event capacity). We make sure that the registration fees are set high enough so that even if our attendance is at the low estimate, the budget will break even. (Actually, we allow a moderate loss, since we can subsidize the event from the club membership dues, but the ITR Expo doesn’t have this luxury.)

2. Instructors. How many? (One per every two students is typical.) Will they receive free registration? If so, you have to make sure you exclude them when assuming how many people will be paying to attend. Will they receive any other form of reimbursement? (It is customary to pay for instructor hotel rooms in track events on the West Coast, not elsewhere though.)

3. Organizers. Will any of the people who work on the event be permitted to attend without paying the full amount of the registration fee? If so, you have to make sure you exclude them when assuming how many people will be paying to attend.

4. Other free registrations and meals. If other attendees, such as the event photographer, the sponsors, the corner workers, etc, are provided with free lunches or free banquet attendance or free registration in the track event, that should be reflected in the budget as well.

5. Track rental. How much? This may vary depending on the day of the week and the time of the year, so those are assumptions that must be made as well. (We can assume for the purpose of the event planning that you will be able to get the dates you’re asking about and that the track doesn’t reject the group’s application after checking with tracks where previous events were held, as is normal procedure in the business, and finding a bad reference.)

6. Insurance. How much? Whose insurance policy will be used? Since the “ITRCA” doesn’t exist as a legal entity, a policy can’t be written for ITRCA. Will you be able to get a rider to the track’s existing policy, as was done for ITR Expo 2002? How much will it cost? If not, what other options are available, and how much do they cost?

7. Ambulance/EMT. What kind? How much?

8. Corner workers. How many? How much? Are they included with the track rental fee? (At some tracks they are, at others they aren’t.)

9. Tow truck. How much?

10. Banquet. Included, or extra cost? Require payment in advance? How will you keep an accurate count of how many people will be there? How do you prevent 100 people from saying they’ll be at the banquet, but only 40 showing up, and the event getting stuck paying for 100 dinners without collecting any money to cover them? Or, how do you prevent 40 people from saying they’re coming to the banquet, but 80 people show up wanting to join in (i.e. 40 extra at the last minute), and there isn’t enough food?

11. Other expenses. These might include the cost of information packets and tech sheets that are printed and mailed to folks (rather than e-mailed), telephone calls by the event organizers, event stickers, name tags, other mementos, a security guard for the parking lot, etc.

12. Sponsorship. This money can be shown in the budget, so that it has the effect of reducing the amount of the registration fee each person pays. But it should be realistic. I strongly recommend not including anything for sponsorship unless there is a hard commitment from companies or individuals for specific amounts to be used to subsidize the event.

13. Finances. Who is going to handle the money? Money coming in and out should all go through a single bank account. Whose? What kind of accounting will take place? Are there tax implications? Let’s say John Doe agrees to set up a bank account for the ITR Expo. Will the IRS consider the money as taxable income for John?

14. Deposits. The track and possibly the banquet caterer will want partial payment in advance. Where will the money come from?

15. Registration fee. This per-person amount will determine how much money comes in to pay for the event. It should be decided last, after you have all the other numbers, so that you can figure out how much to charge for the event to break even with your lowest expected attendance estimate.

Once you have a budget, you can determine whether the event is feasible. For example, let’s say the track charges $5K per day rental, and the other expenses are $2K per day, so the total cost of a two-day track event is $14K. Let’s say you charge $300 to register, and you think you will get a minimum of 40 people but 10 of them are instructors and get free registration, and 10 of the others are given a special half-price rate for a one-day registration. Your total money coming in is (20 x $300) + (10 x $150) = $7,500. So you’re looking at a $6500 loss. You’ll need to figure out how to cover that $6500 loss, or you might be better off cancelling the event. But at least you will know how much you’re likely to have to charge and how much the event might lose – and well ahead of time, so it will give you the chance to change your plans to make it work (or cancel entirely).

While people seem to be looking for every possible way to flame CGI for the ITR Expo 2002, including wild guesses at how much money CGI may or may not have made (without taking into account the various expenses and other calculations that are outlined above), everyone seems to be forgetting that the main reason for using a third party to hold this event was that there was no financial risk to anyone else in doing so. If you are going to hold a track event yourself, someone is going to be making a commitment to pay for the event expenses, with the hope of covering them with the income from the event. You’ve got a choice here. You can (a) do some conservative planning and budgeting in advance, so you can come up with realistic estimates of how much money the event will bring in, and see if you can set the event fees at a level so that you have a good chance of breaking even; or you can (b) hold the event by committing to spending a whole lot of money without figuring out how to make it work financially, and risk putting yourself in the same position as the first ITR Expo, where after the event you’re praying for a savior or two to cover a sizable loss that no one was expecting. Your choice.

If you find that you can’t make the numbers work to hold the event yourselves, you can consider other options. For example, you can hold a joint event with another club, or you can hold the event as part of someone else’s event, such as the h-t.com run group at last year’s NASA event at VIR. You might not get as many attendees that way (perhaps the 20 or so such as at VIR), but at least no one would need to be exposed to substantial financial risk.

Okay, I’m done with this post. If you like, now you can all flame me again for offering information that might be helpful, and accuse me of telling lies … but that’s not going to change the financial aspects of holding an event. You can figure out ahead of time how much it’s going to cost and how you’re going to pay for it, or you can let it be a big surprise for the person holding the bill at the end of the night.



[Modified by nsxtcjr, 3:12 PM 6/3/2002]

 

 

can someone provide cliff notes for those of us too lazy to read it?

-Dave, who edited this post. nothing to see here yo, move on.


[Modified by 01_Yeller_ITR, 4:09 PM 6/4/2002]

 

Before holding the event, figure out how much the event is going to cost and how much you're going to charge to attend, so that you don't end up losing money.

 

Oh geez.....

Craig - Who puts on his nomex suit and is in before the lock

 

Those surprises should not have been unexpected and should have been taken care of by CGI.

My 'flame' (was there one?) was the poor 'event' skills that GCI showed me at the track event. I could have paid $200 or $500 for a driving 'event' but the way the 'money' (who cares how much it was) was not used effectively.

A 3rd person planning system is the best way... keeps things simple and in the hands of someone who is versed at handling things like track 'events'.

Will

 

Thanks for the Cliff Notes, and

-Dave, who edited this post. nothing to see here yo, move on.


[Modified by 01_Yeller_ITR, 4:09 PM 6/4/2002]

 

Be careful dealing w/ the West Coast. We are notorious flakers. The S2000 Club tried to host a "national meet" up north and 4 weeks before the event took place they only had 7-8 paid attendees! Now the Club is on the hook for over 30k in reservations and what not. Sucks. We are used to everything being withing 20 minutes of our house

Ryan

 

if you want to organize an event, this is definite a good read.

 

it said(and ill paraphrase) "poor phil and I.......we only made a 6k plus profit.......whaaaaa. dont get mad at us because the money we make ripping others off at the last minute bought us our NSX's and fat phils scooter."

 

Plus S2k Owners are all stunnas! (broad stereotype used to **** off s2k owners )

Seriously though, I can see why a lot of people can't make it to a "national event" but I think two at the same time would work.. but then it's hard to get sponsers/big names at both.. If they are held around the same time of year then king, etc couldn't be at both, nor would media coverage (PHIL SUCKS in SCC would own though! haha). Personally I think there needs to be a "central" east coast and a "central" west coast location, screws the midwest guys but sorry.. It's hard enough to make people drive 1000 miles so it's better (imo) to only make midwest guys do it vs west coast and east coast people.. hell I have to drive at least 500ish miles to get to any non florida track anyways. I'll probably fly in for the next one though soooo...

 

Thanks for the excellent info Ken!!!!

Albino Dragon-who hopes the 2003 expo will be on the East Coast and only on the East Coast

 

Indeed.

 

But would we, myself living in the middle, drive a thousand mile to the East Coast Expo or the West Coast Expo??? It isnt really a Type R expo then because the hole country isnt included only one half. I think everyone should get there chance but only one a year...just my .02 dollars. Maybe it will make more local people act because they will know they have to wait three more years if they miss it.

 

That would be a choice you'd have to make. Maybe you like VIR more than Buttonwillow, etc. I mean let's face it, it was only half the country on this expo anyways minus KitKatR.. to my knowledge no one else came from the west coast.

One event does have more "prestige" to it I guess..

 

This is a pretty tough part..... Deposits/reservations have to be made before accepting registrations because we need confirmed dates. Who is willing to front that chunk of doe?

 

I nominate Phil! He has enough cash from the last time he ripped us... err.. sorry..

Whoever takes up the slack for organizing it will have to figure that out, it needs to start being planned ASAP though to get good dates.

 

That was pretty much what I was trying to say I think that some of the West Coast guys were going to come but ended up having a problem with actual date of the expo, if I remember correctly...

 

yup, my friend's wedding on the 27th

 

Well you and Fais better make it to the 03 event you JDM wh0re

 

With respect to sponsorship....

Not much effort was put into it from a planning perspective. We are lucky that Scott Z. is a nice guy and saw the value in attending. In my mind King contributed much more than key chains... keep in mind that they transported a race car, flew in their driver from CA, paid for race gas, tires, brakes, a broken drive shaft, etc... They provided two attendees with top notch instruction and added an invaluable amount to the event in terms of camaraderie. They were also their to answer questions about car prep and set up....

At any rate I think it will be somewhat difficult for an organization to anty up any cash... the return just won't be there in the end for them. If we were to solicit and actually receive sposorship dollars my gut says that it would pretty much be charity and not a sound business decision.... the event is not, and most likely will not ever be big enough to warrant sponsorship.

I'm not trying to say that sponsorship won't happen, I'm saying that to count on it to foot some of the bill would be a mistake. Product and celebrity attendance will be most of what we get.

Despite that I offer my time to head up sponsorship.

Clayton

 

Just let Jon F. run the show next year

 

I could use all the help I could get!!!

A hundred to Scott, Bob and King Motorsports!

Albino Dragon - who was one of the lucky attendees

 

I am also willing to spend time on the Expo foir 2003... but we need someone (cough cough mike cough cough) to tell us what's needed.. I really do think planning needs to start happening ASAP to select a good date at whatever track is selected by whoever... unless Jon F wants to "donate" one of his dates for Get Fast to the Expo..

 

I will LOVE to come...you gonna let me bum a ride in your R?

Fais-who misses his ITR, and thinks 1 expo is a good idea.





[Modified by SpeedPak, 2:15 PM 6/3/2002]