How to navigate event refunds and cancellations

Issuing admission refunds can be tricky business even during normal times, but the issue has become a common and complicated challenge for event planners during the pandemic.

As planners work to reschedule meetings, many are finding that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for issuing refunds and rethinking pricing. Below are some solutions organisers are implementing.

A menu of options
Establishing the right approach will depend on a variety of factors, notes Gregg Talley, president and CEO of the Talley Management Group. The company, which provides full-service event planning and consulting services to more than 20 associations, has been helping a number of its clients navigate rescheduling and refund tasks.

"It's so hard to generalise on this topic because each event, each organisation and frankly, each audience is so different and unique," said Talley. "You have to have the discussion of who are we, who is our audience, what is our relationship with them and what do we want it to be? It's every variation under the sun based on those factors."

The best course of action for many organisations might be to offer a variety of options to registrants. Doing so can help keep attendees happy and allow organisations to hold on to some of the registration funds, rather than simply issuing a blanket refund to everyone.

"A lot of us are using the revenue coming in from events for cash-flow purposes," said Annette Gregg, senior vice president of experience at Meeting Professionals International, which rescheduled its signature World Education Congress from June to November. "For us, we wanted to create a menu of options for folks and say, 'If you're not comfortable using your registration for WEC, we have 10 other ways you can use that money and leverage your investment with MPI.'"

According to Gregg, it is especially important to adopt a flexible refund policy as many businesses are facing cutbacks, unemployment and furloughs remain high, and gathering restrictions continue to change — all factors that could keep registrants from attending.

Rollover registration
One of the most popular options amongst event planners is to allow guests to roll over their registration to next year's meeting. MPI offered this choice, allowing guests to apply the 2020 registration fee to WEC 2021, which is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, or its 2021 European Meetings & Events Conference.

The Society of Government Meeting Professionals did the same after cancelling its National Education Conference, which was scheduled to take place May 19-21 this year in St. Louis. Registrants had the option to receive a full refund or transfer their registration to next year's NEC, scheduled for May 18-20.

"With the health and safety of our members and conference attendees our highest concern, due to the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the United States, SGMP determined it was best to cancel our NEC," said SGMP executive director Pamela Valenzuela. "For our sponsors, exhibitors and registrants, we have offered them the option to roll over their fees to our 2021 NEC or to receive a refund. Those of us in the meetings industry appreciate in-person opportunities, such as the SGMP NEC, to gather for business, education and developing new connections, so we were sad that was not going to be possible this spring."

Redirecting fees to other benefits
Another option is to allow attendees to apply the registration fee to other association offerings. This could include online courses or certificates programmes, or the extension of their membership for a certain amount of time.

"We'll let them use that investment on anything we have to offer, whether that's a membership extension, anything from our MPI Academy or another event," said Gregg. "What we wanted to do is to be flexible with everyone and say, 'Here's all the different options and if you still don't want to do that and invest in these other ways, then we'll refund your money.'"

Reduced pricing
Lower registration prices can help planners drive up attendance rates during lean times, whether it be for an in-person or virtual event.

MPI's WEC Grapevine event was not only moved to November, but has also been changed to a hybrid format. The price for a live event ticket has been lowered from US$999 to US$799. The price for virtual attendees will be US$299.

According to Talley, planners who move their meetings online should adjust their prices accordingly. After all, the cost of the event is likely to be lower with venue, food-and-beverage and transportation costs no longer necessary. The price of the ticket should reflect the cost of the event and the value of the content, advises Talley.

"When it comes down to pricing, that's where we all have to be realistic that a virtual event should be cheaper to produce than an on-site live event," said Talley. "You should still be able to make a net positive from your event — perhaps not as much as initially anticipated but still a net positive."

Free registration to members
Some event organisers that have had to pivot to digital meetings are eliminating registration fees entirely for their members. Talley notes that doing so can be a smart way for planners to increase brand loyalty while still bringing in revenue.

"If you've got an event where 50% of your attendees are members and 50% are nonmembers, this represents an opportunity," he said. "You might want to do one thing for your members and offer another set of options for nonmembers."

IACC, formerly the International Association of Conference Centers, has applied this thinking to its flagship Americas Connect event. The 2020 conference was scheduled for 30 March to 1 April in Dallas, but had to be cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions. The organization quickly launched IACC Americas Virtual Connect, which took place online 18-21 May.

Registration was free for all IACC association members, as well as for staff members of all currently active IACC-certified venues. Nonmembers were able to purchase a four-day pass to the virtual event for US$300.

"We took the approach that we needed to step up and invest in putting on the virtual event for each and every member at this time, without the possible barrier of paying," said Mark Cooper, IACC CEO. "V-Connect went from US$950 in registration per person, to free for every staff member in the membership organisation. It was a massive undertaking given the importance of association conference revenue for running the business, but at the same time we believe 2020 is our chance to do something special."

Cooper noted that registration soared as a result of the pricing change. IACC Americas Virtual Connect was the largest IACC conference in the association's 39-year history, with 660 attendees (up 187% from the 2019 event). In addition, many guests chose to transfer their registration fees to next year's event, rather than receive the full refund, in order to support the association now.

The American Society of Association Executives also saw a huge spike in attendance for its Annual Meeting & Exposition. Originally scheduled as an in-person event in early August, the meeting was moved online to 10-12 August. ASAE association members were able to register for the event for free; while nonmembers received reduced rates.

The virtual event broke the association's registration records. More than 14,000 industry professionals attended the event, compared with 5,400 at the in-person convention in 2019. According to ASAE, 71% of the 2020 participants were first-time attendees.

Optional donations
It is inspiring how many people will donate their registration funds back to the organisation if given the chance. In addition to IACC, one of the Talley Management Group clients also saw success with this method.

"We had about 30,000 people registered for an event that we had to cancel. Because it's an event that happens every five years, there was no way we could offer to hold or apply those funds," said Talley. "What we did do was say, 'We're going to give a full refund to everybody and those of you who would be willing to donate some portion or all of your registration fee to the organisation, please indicate.'"

The client was pleasantly surprised to find that more than 1,000 people donated some, if not all, of their registration fees back to the association.

Communicate changes in a timely manner
Adjusting the event strategy and updating the pricing and refund policies can take time. Whichever menu of options planners choose to offer, Talley noted that the changes should be communicated with registrants as quickly and clearly as possible.

"The other challenge we're running into with this is when we are communicating what the refund options are. Obviously, the earlier and the more information you can provide, the better," he said. "Be upfront and be realistic about when people can expect to see their refunds because that will help build trust for the long term."

The article was first published on Northstar Meetings Group