How to write an event proposal a client can approve

What an event proposal is for

A proposal turns a brief into a decision. The client has told you what they want; the proposal shows them how you will deliver it, where, and for how much, in a form they can approve or push back on.

Most proposals that stall do so because the client cannot tell what they are being asked to decide. Make the decision obvious: one recommendation, the alternatives beside it, and a clear next step.

An event proposal template you can copy

The sections, in the order a client reads them:

• 1. The recommendation: one paragraph naming the venue and dates you recommend, the total cost, and why it fits the brief.
• 2. The brief as you understood it: objectives, audience, numbers, dates and must-haves. If this is wrong, everything after it is too, so it comes first.
• 3. Venue options: two or three, each with photos, capacity of the main room, location and travel, bedrooms, and the cost on the same lines as the others.
• 4. The event outline: arrival, the shape of each day, catering, evening plans, and anything that makes it memorable.
• 5. Costs: a line per item (venue hire, day delegate rate, bedrooms, catering, AV, transfers, your fee), with VAT shown separately and a total.
• 6. What is included and what is not: travel, extras on the bedroom bill, drinks beyond the package, and any contingency.
• 7. Terms: deposit, payment schedule, cancellation terms, and how long the venue is holding the space.
• 8. Next step: what the client needs to do to approve (sign, confirm numbers, pay a deposit) and by when.

Present venue options so they can be compared

Show each option with the same cost lines, the same delegate numbers and the same VAT treatment. If one venue quoted a package and another quoted line by line, break the package down or note exactly what it covers. A client comparing a package against itemised costs is comparing guesses.

Keep options to two or three. Put your recommendation first and say why. Clients who are given six options usually ask for a seventh.

Show the money clearly

Put the total near the top and the detail in the costs section. Show figures ex VAT with VAT as its own line, because many corporate clients reclaim it and budget ex VAT. Say whether your management fee is a fixed fee, a percentage, or built into the rates, and be consistent across every option.

Make sure the numbers in the proposal are the numbers you will invoice. A proposal priced in a separate spreadsheet from the budget is a second set of figures that someone has to reconcile when the invoice goes out.

Common mistakes

The ones that cost the most time:

• No clear recommendation, so the client has to do the analysis you were paid to do.
• Venue options costed on different assumptions (numbers, VAT, what is included).
• Exclusions left out, so the final invoice looks higher than the proposal.
• No hold date, so the venue releases the space while the client is reading.
• Several versions in circulation, and the client replying to an old one.

How eventru handles it

In eventru the proposal is built from the venue shortlist and the budget you already have, so the costs a client sees are the costs the event will be billed on, with commission and VAT handled in the budget. Clients open it on a private link with nothing to sign up for. Publish a new version and the same link serves it, so there is one current proposal at one address.