Csp Congress: Council Update

THE CHARTERED SOCIETY OF PHYSIOTHERAPY

COUNCIL Paper No C(08)117

TITLE: CSP CONGRESS: COUNCIL UPDATE

STATUS: For information

SUMMARY: This paper provides a summary of the outcomes of Congress 2008 and of planning for Congress 2009.

ACTION: To note

Overview Congress 2008 was attended by 1,258 delegates, and the feedback to date has been very positive (see appendix 2 for the delegate feedback report, based on 312 responses).

The event was budgeted to break even, with this outcome dependent on the correct assessment of a number of variables:  Paying delegate total (1,300 budget; 1,100 actual – the second largest ever achieved)  1-day/2-day booking split (75%/25% budgeted; 81%/19% actual)  The resultant delegate revenue (£169,000 budgeted, £139,000 actual)  Commercial income (£120,000 in original budget, £123,000 achieved)  Various event considerations (IT/AV expenses, catering costs, staff costs etc)

At the time of writing, the final tally of 1,100 looks set to deliver a net cost to the CSP of around £10,000. This comes close to a total reversal of 2006’s recorded cost of more than £180,000. This has been achieved by:  Saving money on the rental cost of the venue (£100,000)  Raising the value of each delegate from £89 to more than £120 through a ticket price restructure, thereby doubling the number of delegates booking for the whole two days;  Achieving the highest commercial income since 2005

Income & expenditure The 1,100 delegate paid an average of more than £120 plus VAT each. The £139,000 projected total (payments are still being processed by the CSP account department) is the highest ever recorded, in spite of the delegate count itself being eclipsed in 2006.

Exhibition and sponsorship income targets (which were set prior to the decision to outsource to Ten Alps Publishing) were exceeded by 2.5%. This included the sale of every available space within the exhibition hall. The sales commission to be paid is around 19% (£23,000). Expenditure is expected to total £273,000, which represents a reduction of more than £50,000 on 2006. The initial saving made by changing venue was approaching £100,000 and this has helped to more than cover the cost of Ten Alps’s commission, increased catering costs (approximately £10,000) and a higher-than-expected print and design bill.

A full breakdown of expenditure and income is attached to this paper (appendix 3).

Planning for Congress 2009 The current budget suggests that Congress 2009 will break even. This assumes a 14% increase in costs (up £42,000 to £317,000, primarily due to rises in the costs of catering, staff travel and IT/AV) and a 21% increase in income, based upon a delegate target 10% higher than 2008.

Congress Management Group will be discussing ticket prices, venue requirements and design costs this month and this will also affect the proposed budget.

Commercial sales targets The exhibition at Liverpool will enable Ten Alps to offer nearly 100m extra stand space in 2009. This, together with a 60% increase in sponsorship targets (£50,000 compared to 2008’s total of £31,000) will deliver a total of £159,000 compared to this year’s £123,000.

Programme planning Each of the five themes for 2009 (cardio-respiratory, health work & wellbeing, neurology, musculoskeletal and education) have been assigned a co-ordinator from the CSP membership and draft programmes are taking shape. It is planned that this outline programme will be unveiled before the end of the year.

Quadruple Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent has been confirmed as the 2009 Founders’ Lecture speaker.

Steve Mann Head of Business Development 17 November 2008

2 Appendix 1: Draft budget, Congress 2009

VENUE HIRE 67782.00 EXHIBITION COST 45491.88 IT & AV 27600.00 SPONSORSHIP/ PROMOTIONAL ITEMS 3000.00 STATIONERY 1300.00 PRINTING 18000.00 DESIGN WORK 5000.00 STAFF COSTS 15700.00 STAFF TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION 18000.00 CI/OG COSTS 1000.00 CAPITATION 0.00 CMG/PDG COSTS 6000.00 CATERING 76424.94 SUNDRY EXPENDITURE 1000.00 SPEAKERS 30500.00

316798.82

DELEGATE INCOME 159532.00 EXHIBITION INCOME 112852.00 SPONSORSHIP/ PROMOTIONAL INCOME 45000.00 CLINICS IN MOTION CPD INCOME 317384.00

SURPLUS/COST 585.18

3 Appendix 2: Delegates feedback

1 Programme & speakers Overall the delegates were attracted to Congress by the promise of hearing the latest research. In total, 93% of delegates had their objective for coming to Congress fulfilled, although several comments were received that the content had been ‘dumbed down’ on several occasions.

More than half of delegates (57%) were attending Congress for the first time.

What is the m ain reason you cam e to Congress?

100% 90% 80% 70% 64% 60% 50% 40% 30% 25% 20% 7% 4% 10% 0% 0% To hear the latest To gain CPD evidence To meet up w ith my To visit the trade Others research prof coll exhibition

All speakers were rated at least 6.8 out of 10, although keynote/invited speakers scored 8.4. Related comments from the feedback forms:

Speakers: - Generally good response for lectures and keynote speakers.

Research Presentation: - Some researches were presented with incomplete evaluation/evidence. - Deemed non-conclusive and irrelevant.

Poster: - Location of posters not good. Too far out and cast away from Congress. - Difficult to locate poster

Posters Discussion Sessions: - Not advertised enough to gain exposure - Many delegate responded with no knowledge of the location/time/session - Posters should be first displayed in public area before they are moved to the respective location for the session

4 Congress Programme (1=Poor, 10=Excellent) 10 9 8.3 8.4 8.3 8 7.4 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.3 7.2 7.1 6.8 6.8 7 6.5 6.6 6.5 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Speakers Research presentation Posters Posters discussion World Café sessions Quality of content Quality of presentation Relevance of presentation Ave

2 Marketing Congress

The majority of respondents (43%) cited Frontline as the source of their information about Congress. A further 30% listed the website as their main source. Colleagues (i.e. word of mouth) accounted for 8% of the respondents.

The main reason for booking (53%) was given as being the programme content. A further 30% said they booked because of the early bird offer, and it may possible to assume that these may not have booked at the early bird rate had the programme not been sufficiently enticing.

46% of delegates were paid for by their employer, (37% NHS, 9% other) and 45% paid for themselves (21% working in the NHS, 24% elsewhere)

3 Administration & registration

In order to assess the delegates’ experience outside of the programme content, respondents were asked to rate:

- Pre-event programme promotion* - The booking confirmation process - Pre-event delegate information* - On-site registration/arrival process - CSP staff support on-site - Printed programme content - Congress catering*

All bar those marked * were rated around 8/10, with the remainder being rated 7.4, 6.4 and 5.3 respectively, the latter being for catering, its low mark seemingly due to portion size rather than food quality.

Related comments from the feedback forms:

Pre-event Programme Promo & Info: - Would have like to received programme prior to event. - Although programme is available in website, it wasn’t printer-friendly.

Booking confirmation process: - There were some problems with online booking initially - Need more choices/cheaper accommodation options

Pre-event delegate information: - Name badge/lunch tickets not received in time - More information in pocket guide – maps, address, parking directions, etc.

On-site registration/arrival process: - Would like clearer directions for the Congress area

5 CSP Staff support during event: - Staff needs to be aware of changes/cancellation to avoid directing delegates to incorrect places.

Content of printed programme: - Would like cross-reference between programme & proceeding books.

Catering: - Could be improved, coffee/tea/biscuits to be available throughout the breaks.

4 Trade exhibition

Every delegate who responded visited the exhibition, with the majority (61%) visiting up to ten stands. 95% said their main objective for visiting the stands (see below) was fulfilled.

What is your aim in visiting the exhibition?

50% 37% 40% 33% 30% 23% 20%

10% 7% 0% 0% No specific aim Research specific New contacts Renew contacts Prize draw only equip /serv

Related comments from the feedback forms:

- More exhibitors relating to community services, elderly patients, chest related products, alternative therapies, electrotherapy equipment, etc. - Related association such as arthritis, stroke, university. - More stands for Cardio, Neuro, Respiratory – current exhibition more biased towards MSK. - Requests for book stands

6 THE CHARTERED SOCIETY OF PHYSIOTHERAPY

Appendix 3: Congress 2008 budget

CSP CONGRESS 2008: BUDGET/ACTUAL AS AT: 31/10/08 9:47

CURRENT PROJECTED SURPLUS/COST: (10,676)

PROJ Item BUDGET ACT COMMENTS/REASON FOR VARIANCE VENUE HIRE 78500.00 74150.00 Lower insurance quote; electricity supply charge reduced EXHIBITION COST 19500.00 15321.00 Reduced price on stand lighting and electrics; various other small savings IT & AV 24200.00 22274.00 Extra charge for Clinics in Motion filming, but net reduction made through savings on CSP IT costs SPONSORSHIP/ PROMOTIONAL ITEMS 3000.00 1733.00 Cost neutral delegate bags obtained STATIONERY 1700.00 1792.00 PRINTING 14556.00 20547.00 More content than in previous years so extra costs incurred with more paper. Perfect binding required. DESIGN WORK 2400.00 0.00 Carried out in-house. STAFF COSTS 21400.00 11614.00 Initial temp staff requirements cut. At-event expenses reduced. STAFF TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION 16000.00 8957.00 Possible inaccurate initial estimate. CI/OG COSTS 300.00 0.00 ADDITIONAL CI/OG PAYMENTS 18900.00 0.00 CMG/PDG COSTS 5000.00 3482.00 CATERING 65145.00 61774.00 Final spend dependant on delegate numbers, so variance always likely. SUNDRY EXPENDITURE 1000.00 26038.00 Ten Alps commission (approximately 19%) SPEAKERS 18000.00 25000.00 Corresponding underspend in 'Additional CI/OG payments' (previously 'capitation')

289601.0 272682.0 0 0

168919.0 139147.0 DELEGATE INCOME 0 0 Original delegate estimate was 1,300 102240.0 EXHIBITION INCOME 0 92316.00 Smaller exhibition due to MC's catering layout requirements. SPONSORSHIP/ PROMOTIONAL INCOME 18000.00 31044.00 289159.0 262507.0 0 0