A big help in establishing a financial plan is getting a copy of the financial plan from the previous event in the conference series or the plan for a similar event. Settle registration costs At IFIP meetings, the tradition is that all attendees pay, including session chairmen, all speakers, and committee members. Part of the honorarium for tutorial and invited speakers can be in the form of free registration but should be declared as such. A financially responsible but substantial reduction for early registration helps in estimating the final attendance. Too small a reduction will not be used as there is always a chance that a participant must cancel.
Early registrations are a big help in predicting tutorial attendance, too.
If there are industrial financial sponsors, the organizers might want to offer them a reduction in registration fees. One successful recipe was offering five registrations for the price of four. Credit cards are a convenient means of paying registration costs. Note that the credit card companies will keep some 3 to 5 percent of the funds collected in this way. Students are often allowed to register at a reduced cost.