Ask the Treasurer: MLA Conference Expenses

Submitted by: Kate Flewelling

Welcome to Ask the Treasurer, a periodic column in which Treasurer Kate Flewelling takes your questions about MLA finances.

An anonymous member asks: “Can we receive a breakdown of the costs for the annual meeting? Such as: amounts spent on facilities, food, staff, logistics, etc. Even a pie graph of percentage would be nice, but exact figures would be preferable.”

Thanks for the question! Based on the budget for the 2025 meeting and the actual costs of the 2023 and 2024 conferences, the average post-COVID conference costs MLA about $600,000 in direct costs and about $585,000 in staffing. 

Direct costs include:

• Hospitality (32% of direct expenses in 2025) includes any Food and Beverage (F&B) fees as well as transportation expenses (e.g., buses) and member accessibility rentals. Generally, venues require the use of their contracted catering company and require a minimum spend.
• A/V Equipment (37%) includes any onsite equipment rental such as plenary stage/lighting set-up & furniture, streaming costs, projectors & microphones in session rooms, Internet and PC rentals, plus set up, tear-down, labor costs, etc. I am also including the virtual conference/submission portal here, but that cost is only about 4% of the budget.
• Exhibit Hall (15%) includes costs from the decorator, the facility, marketing costs, and required security and medical services contracts.

These are in negotiated pricing contracts with the facility, the catering company, external vendors (e.g., security & EMS), and the selected AV company, so the budget typically doesn’t have much “give.” As much as we benefit from multiple quotes from different cities and MCI’s negotiating power, these costs are pretty fixed.

The remaining 16% includes many smaller expenses, such as registration services, staff travel, and printing.

Staffing costs include MLA staff time spent and portions of MCI specialized staff for Event Management, Registration, Exhibits Management, Creative Services, and Sales for each meeting. The conference involves significant staff time, not only during the conference but behind the scenes. As a former National Programming Committee co-chair, I have had a front row seat to the staff’s myriad roles. Programming committees consult on the schedule and contributed content, but everything else is the responsibility of staff: negotiating and securing the venue (and rooms and transportation and food and technology); creating the schedule and assigning rooms (a herculean task); managing content submission and review, speaker relations, marketing, communications; and a million other tasks. And they put on two conferences simultaneously – virtual and in-person! This column would be pages long if I were to list all the roles staff fill in a successful conference.

Related – MLA Finances 101: Understanding Conference Registration Fees

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