Training budgets have been suffering for the past couple of years. In fact, in the UK, they’ve been slashed by a fifth over the past decade, and Forrester predicted employee engagement would face declining investment in 2024. So, getting the opportunity to learn from other experts in your field is becoming tougher as bosses refuse to pay the associated costs.
Conferences are a great way to plug learning gaps and keep up to date with trends in your industry. Getting budget approval for those can be difficult, too. That’s why our CEO, Asher Mathew, has come up with some pretty genius ways of obtaining funding for that conference you’d love a ticket to (like Catalyst, for example)
There are various buckets of budget that you can use to fund your trip:
- Partner Referral Fees: You can use your partner referral fees to bring yourself and your partner to Catalyst. This is free money sitting in a finance account that will solidify the partnership you’ve nurtured and that drives revenue for your company.
- Travel & Entertainment (T&E): One thing many companies understand is that entertaining your partners is still valuable. Make plans to meet multiple partners in one place at a conference – what could be a more efficient use of T&E funds?
- Learning & Development (L&D): This bucket is reserved for education activities tied to helping you increase performance. When you’re making a budget request, highlight the educational opportunities – for example, at Catalyst, we have world-class speakers, hands-on workshops, and meeting experts in the field.
- Partner Programs: This budget is for researching improvements to your partner program. When you’re making a request, highlight access to multiple top tech vendors, consultants, and prospective employees that you’ll meet at Catalyst.
Armed with these tactics, getting budget for your next conference should be easy. (If not, Asher can put a word in for you.)
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