Below is our total expenses and budget for the 2020 Our Voices conference. In the interest of preserving anonymity, we have not included details about the travel stipends awarded, but we were able to cover all the travel and lodging expenses of presenters that were not covered by their institutions, which ended up being 16 presenters. We ended up with $2,270.85 in our bank account, which will give us significantly more leeway on our finances for next year’s conference.
This was only made possible because we did not need to pay for a venue or the required security guard to allow for Sunday building access (both of which were provided by Columbia’s Classics Department and their Graduate Research Colloquium). We also benefited from Columbia Classics providing coffee for both days of the conference.
| Expenses | Incoming money | |
| Stipends for presenters | 2755.82 | |
| Registration fees | 3197.71 (80 attendees who could afford to pay) | |
| Copying (Books) | 242.58 | |
| Marketing and promo/swag | 132.19 | |
| Lunch Day 1 | 228.47 | |
| Dinner (Vegan) | 224.83 | |
| Lunch Day 2 | 189.27 | |
| Dinner (Pizza/Salad) | 742.50 | |
| Bagels (Sat) | 203.24 | |
| Donuts (Sun) | 129.86 | |
| Water | 16.75 | |
| Tip on lunch orders | 20 | |
| Donations | 3058.65 (65+ people) | |
| Non-alcoholic beverages | 100 | |
| WCC | 500 | |
| CANE | 500 | |
| 4985.51 | 7256.36 |
Out of our total budget, 55% went to travel subsidies for presenters, and yet we were still able to keep the costs to participants low. The average money paid by each participant was less than $30/person and the overall cost of the conference ($4,985.51 for 115 in-person participants) came to approximately $52 per in-person participant. If we account for those who live-streamed the content, the cost per participant was potentially as low as $25. We think this demonstrates how much can be done on a relatively small conference budget and that this could be a model for other conferences.