HighTraffic Summit™ Bangalore: Transparency Report

I have always loved going through financial reports of other businesses and entrepreneurs. And I have a huge respect for people who are transparent. Sometimes, it is better to be transparent, especially when you have critics. Being transparent builds a strong brand. In fact, public companies cannot operate without transparency in accounting – so let’s say I am building that habit from now!

So as a first time exercise, I decided to release a financial report for my HighTraffic Summit™ powered by ResellerClub which was conducted in Bangalore on February 24th.

I was motivated to do this report because I got a lot of replies saying that the ticket price is too high and I should be charging less and I should do the event at a cheaper venue.

It is a mammoth task to do an event successfully because there are so many moving parts. There are so many things that have a potential to go wrong. The mic could stop working, the lights could go off, the food won’t be prepared on time and there are 100 such things. All that headache is removed when you do it at a good venue and get a reliable event management company.

At a good venue, like a 4-star hotel, you pay only for the food, and the venue comes free. People spend ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 for a dinner date easily and if you can spend ₹3,000 for an event where we have the food, the ambience and so much to learn from experts and network with like minded people – It is a offer you cannot refuse 🙂

So here’s a glimpse of the accounts we finalized for HighTraffic Summit™ Bangalore. We are at a loss of ₹6,833. But we are doing this for the first time and we are building our brand and the community.

You can click on the image above to look at the Google sheet with actual invoices and proof of income and expenses.

Hotel and the event management that includes setting up the whole event alone cost 87%. And hotel is 46.6% of the cost. If we had got a cheaper venue, we still would have paid around ₹50,000 for the event space and then there would not be any food covered in it.

By paying around 1.5 Lakh INR for the hotel, we got the space for free and we had to pay only for the food. Food expenses for 115 attendees is around 1 lakh and that’s less than ₹1,000 per head. In my opinion, that’s a great deal and it makes sense to get a good venue like this.

Some people suggested that folders, badges and other things could have been eliminated to reduce cost, but that’s just 4% of the overall cost and it is something that is important for an event.

So you might wonder… why are we doing the event in the first place?

For Branding

I will not try to hide my intentions here. We are doing this for branding and to get more people to know us. This will eventually help us with our primary business that is selling courses and training. We will be able to convert visitors from this event into long term students, agency clients and hiring partners.

We invite speakers who are experts in their area of work and also have a following of their own. When they announce that they are speaking at HighTraffic Summit™ their followers get to know about us and might become our customers in the future. And in turn we give visibility to the influencers and speakers to our BIG follower base. It’s a win-win for everyone.

To Build the Community

Online communities are great but we also love to build communities offline. There is nothing like meeting someone in person and that creates a lot of value. When you want to form partnerships, get clients at higher engagement and transaction values, an in person meeting is important to create the foundation of trust.

These events give an opportunity for people to meet and greet each other in person, exchange business cards and create something out of nothing. Almost every business associate I know today – I met them in person, somewhere in a physical setting.

For Fun & Personal Growth

I wouldn’t hesitate to admit that doing events is a lot of fun. It is a lot of work and a lot of stress but its fun to speak in front of an audience, meet followers in person and the energy levels & the vibe at such an event is something that cannot be put in words. People who have been there would know what I am talking about. It is also a great experience to talk on a stage. That helps you become more confident and communicate better.

The Feedback

I can go on and on about how we did the event and end of the day if the participants were not happy with their investment of time, energy and money, then we would have to accept failure.

Fortunately, the event went flawlessly and we were able to get amazing reviews from the participants.

Here are some of the reviews we have received. You can check out more video and text reviews here.

Sutheesh discovered how digital marketing could grow a business…

Dinesh was impressed by the detail of content from each speakers…

Shibaram loved the networking opportunity, the content and the panel discussion.

And Gaurav, being a digital marketing himself, has 10 points on why HighTraffic Summit is a must attend event!

And here are some awesome video testimonials from the event!

Gaurav Madaan, one of our speakers…

Abhay Sharma, one of the participants…

Shivaram, one of the participants…

Biswajeeta, one of the participants and soon to be a member of our team!

Want to attend one of our summits in the future? Stay tuned for announcements 🙂