Analysis for procurement teams treating events as a category
Long-form thinking on the commercial mechanics of corporate events — from why event spend hides to how to measure the savings once you take control.
Why Corporate Event Spend Is Often Invisible to Procurement
In most organisations, procurement can tell you to the pound what it spends on IT, travel or professional services. Ask the same about events, and the answer is usually a shrug. Here's why.
Is Event Spend the Forgotten Procurement Category?
Ask a procurement leader to list their managed categories and you'll hear IT, travel, facilities, professional services, marketing. Events? Rarely. Yet the numbers often rival categories that get far more attention.
Read articleSeven Ways Procurement Teams Can Reduce Corporate Event Costs
Reducing event costs is rarely about buying cheaper. It's about paying the right price on the right terms. Here are seven procurement-led levers, roughly in the order we'd apply them.
Read articleShould Companies Have a Preferred Venue Supplier?
Preferred suppliers are standard practice in most procurement categories. Venues are different — location, capacity and character vary hugely event to event. So does a preferred venue supplier make sense?
Read articleHow to Consolidate Event Suppliers Without Restricting Employee Choice
The biggest objection to supplier consolidation isn't commercial — it's cultural. Teams fear losing the flexibility to run the events they want. The resolution is a single idea: centralise the sourcing route, not the venue market.
Read articleWhat Should Be Included in an Event RFP?
A weak RFP produces a pile of quotes you can't compare. A strong one produces genuinely comparable bids and real competitive tension. The difference is in what you include.
Read articleHow to Measure Event Procurement Savings
Savings are the currency of procurement — but event savings are notoriously slippery to measure. Here's how to define and evidence them in a way finance will trust.
Read articleVenue Commission Explained: What Procurement Teams Need to Know
Venue commission is one of the most misunderstood mechanics in event procurement. Understanding it explains how venue sourcing can often carry no additional client cost — and, just as importantly, where that doesn't apply.
Read articleCentralised vs Decentralised Event Purchasing
Should event buying be pulled into the centre or left with the teams? It's one of the defining questions in event procurement — and the answer is rarely a pure model.
Read articleThe Hidden Cost of Maverick Event Spend
Maverick spend — purchasing made outside agreed processes — is a familiar problem in procurement. In events, it's often the norm rather than the exception, and its cost runs deeper than price.
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Request an Event Procurement Review
Find out where your organisation's event spend is going, how events are currently sourced, and whether one central sourcing route could save your teams time and give procurement clearer visibility — without restricting venue choice.