We know it can be challenging to persuade management that the benefits of attending a conference can more than make up for the costs. The information you will take back to work should more than justify the expense, but how can you explain this to others?

Our Conference ROI Toolkit can help you do this by providing

• a customizable letter to your boss (Word Document)
  
• worksheets for noting the valuable information you gather at the conference (Word Document)
  
• a template for creating a post-event report that will document what you and your organization have gained from this conference (Word Document)
  
• a write-up by a previous conference participant about his own experience in demonstrating conference ROI (PDF)

A Questionmark Users Conference participant has used the following five-step process to quantify the potential benefits of attending the conference and demonstrate that the value of participation exceeded the cost.

1. Determine your costs: What is the cost of your participation, including registration fees, travel expenses and time away from work? Consider the tangible value you can achieve from being at the conference. Will this value meet or exceed your costs?
2. Pick High-value Targets: Explore assessment-related issues in your organization that need to be addressed and identify where you can make your organization's administration of Questionmark more efficient. Then see what conference sessions will help you address those issues. Choose those that will give you information you can take back and put into practice.
3. Monetize the Targets: Estimate how much each of these issues is costing your organization – and how much it would take to develop the ability to address them yourself. How many hours would it take? What would that cost?
4. Gain Agreement: Share the information you have gathered with your sponsoring organization. Show that your cost estimates are sound and get their agreement that the sessions you want to attend will provide relevant,
   actionable results that will help solve the issues you have identified. Show that the conference is the best-cost option versus other alternatives.
5. Deliver on Agreements: At the conference, follow through on your plan, being willing to change it if you feel the change will better help you meet your goals. Let your expected results drive your decisions about where you should invest your time. Post-conference, report back to your sponsors about the specific actions you are implementing as a result of your attendance. If there are additional benefits from the conference that you hadn’t anticipated, tell your sponsors about them, too!