5 Examples Of Winning “Convince Your Boss” Event Templates

We all know why attending at least one annual conference is a great idea. An opportunity to network, learn, share, present, raise profile, make sales – the list of positive benefits attributes is long. On the minus side is expense and time spent out of the regular work environment. Travel, accommodation and registration fees can be hefty expenses and not everyone has an automatic budget for this kind of work. Workloads can topple out of balance when key members are away for even a handful of days.

For many employees, “convincing the boss” that attending a conference is a wise investment – not just for professional development purposes but potentially for the company bottom line as well.

Increasingly, conferences themselves are providing draft “convince-the-boss” letters and templates aimed at helping potential delegates to persuade supervisors to fund conference attendance.

We’ve collected a handful of the most thoughtful convince your boss email templates to inspire event attendees and event organizers alike:

1. Dreamforce

Cloud software provider, Salesforce throws one of the biggest annual US events in cloud computing – Dreamforce happens this year October 4 to 7 in San Francisco. This conference goes the extra mile to help potential delegates.

They’ve designed an online ROI calculator to help you identify, define and articulate the tangible benefits of attendance for your company. Simply plug in values such as which sector you work in (sales, marketing, customer support), which area of business you hope to impact, by how much, etc. and the calculator estimates a dollar or percentage value ROI.

Above: An example of the read-out the ROI calculator provides potential attendees.

Not only does the Dreamforce calculator estimate the ROI attendees will receive based on a number of different parameters. It also provides attendees hoping to justify the trip a pre-written convince your boss template.

Above: An example of the convince your boss template potential attendees of the 2015 Dreamforce conference would see after using the ROI calculator.

2. SHRM

The SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition is the largest conference for HR professionals; it takes place this year from June 19 to 22 in Washington, DC. In the “Attend” section of their website, the conference outlines key reasons for attending, ranging from networking opportunities to skills development.  Additionally, they devote an entire page to “Convincing the Boss”, listing possible strategies and guiding research in the extensive conference archive that could bolster a potential attendee’s case. And yes, they also provide a letter template that includes the requisite persuasive language, space for an expense breakdown and areas to fill in your own personal plan for ROI.

3. Inbound

Taking place this year November 8 to 11 in Boston, Inbound, is all about business innovation for sales and marketing professionals from around the world. A recent article by Elijah Clark-Ginsberg posted to the Inbound blog provides tips and testimonials about the benefits of attending Inbound. The post also includes a Word document template with sections for goals and rationales to be filled in by potential delegates and shared with their supervisors.

Above: An example of Inbound’s convince your boss template.

4. Mobile App Europe

This is a large gathering of mobile app developers that takes place in Potsdam, Germany November 2–3. They’ve put together “The Ultimate Guide to Convince Your Boss” available on their website for potential delegates to access. The guide outlines in detail the advantages of attendance both for the delegate and their supervisor/company (sample pro tip: “Tell your manager how you plan to meet people. Ask if there are specific contacts it would be beneficial for your firm to make.”), and includes a toolkit of documents to help you strategize. The kit includes a conference expense worksheet, a company benefits worksheet and a sample letter.

5. LinuxCon North America

Taking place in Toronto, August 22 to 24, LinuxCon also provides an online template that includes links to past sessions and keynote videos and offers early bird registration pricing. It’s hard not to love these guys as they so clearly care about making things as simple and easy for delegates as possible.

Above: LinuxCon’s Convince Your Boss letter

This technology conference even provides visa request letters for international attendees.  In addition to outlining benefits in detail for underserved tech sector demographics such as women and kids (complimentary childcare, sponsored programming for school-aged children), their extensive website outlines scholarship opportunities and a host of practical travel information for potential attendees, as well as fully archiving the proceedings from the past five conferences.

Next Steps

Planning and event and still want to learn how to increase event registration rates? Providing possible attendees with a compelling convince your boss template is one way to do that. Another way is to improve your overall event marketing strategy. Download a 30+ page eBook on event marketing by clicking the button below!