A guide to convincing your company to pay for events, conferences or training

Step 1: Understanding what you are asking and where the money comes from

When you ask your company to use money to do something for you, that money comes from a specific budget or area, that was destined to achieve a specific goal. So the best shot you have to get what you want is making a good case on how your idea on using that money will certainly speed up the goals that its original budget has.

In general there are 6 amount of sources for money for things like this:

• General education budgets: Obtained as a perk in your contract, so as they are written down they are harder to negotiate after, so it’s likely if it exceeds your budget, the money has to come out of the other ones.

• Employee Branding: This is money is dedicated to make the company attractive for existing and future employees. Here is where you can argue why representing your company in an event might bring wins on this aspects. This also includes employee retention, which is key when your position is important in the company. You ask them to do something nice for you, in return for not considering leaving.

• Department operation budgets: Anything that has to do with running, for example, the design team. So you are competing directly with software and perks.

• “Small box” and “emergency funds”: The money set aside for unexpected expenses. Tends to be more for important things, but you can argue your way into it.

• Sales: Refers to the specific investments that would bring sales. Spend money to make money. Here you can argue that the learnings and work you acquire will directly affect customer satisfaction, creating a better image of the product that can transform in sales.

• (For VC funded companies) What looks good in front of investors: This is a more emotional resource, but companies that have investors have to be constantly pleasing them. So sometimes some features or processes that never get done can result in frustrations. Your focus here should be to explain how the skills acquired result in a more attractive product or service that stands out in front of the competition.

Depending on what your company looks like, try to identify where the money comes from and keep it at hand to make your arguments in step 3.

Step 2: Take a good look at the program to find the classes that will unequivocally bring value to your team

Events like our Leadership Ateliers let you mix and match different classes and workshops, because not all leaders have the same needs. Some people feel they need more help with operations, other with conflict resolutions, other with coaching their team.

So the first step to getting that buy-in for the event is checking out the program for Barcelona and the program for Berlin, and marking down those classes that will give you a leap as a leader of your team.

You don’t want to overwhelm your boss / HR team, so it’s best to pick 3 and make a good argument about how you could directly apply the class (💡TIP: Each class page has a “learnings” section that you can pretty much copy paste to list the specific value of that class)

Step 3: Write an email or slack message expressing you would like to attend, and how it would be a great return on investment

Often your boss or company might compare the price of the event to a conference ticket, but this is a flawed comparison.Leadership Ateliers is actually onsite training in the form of an event. By making it clear that you are actually access onsite training, not attending a conference, the price range makes sense in comparison to any other training, except that here you get MULTIPLE classes and topics, in a short time, making it even more worth your while.

You can use something like this (adjust to how formal/informal your tone should be):

Dear [Boss's Name], I am writing to propose an investment in design leadership training for our team, and I believe it is crucial for the continued success and growth of our company. I’ve found a good opportunity called Leadership Ateliers, from the creators of Hatch Conference (The biggest Berlin UX event) and they are doing an event in Berlin and one in Barcelona.

The event has a cost of €1.220, but the value would be tremendous, not just for me personally, but for what I could bring in to the team. Here are several compelling reasons why I strongly recommend allocating resources towards this initiative:

1. Attending this event, I would be able to get training on topics like [Enter here the topics you selected from the program] with classes from top facilitators that are travelling to the event just to teach in small classes. You can see the program yourself here [Link to program]

2. The event is just two days long, but in those two days I would be able to up my skills in a way that otherwise it would take me the same time just to find the right courses and trainers to address those topics.

3. The quality of coaches and participants will also be very high and the possibility to learn how other companies in our space are dealing with the same issues we are like [List some things your company could be doing better]. I particularly found [Class that you feel might touch one of the issues] and just this class seems absolutely worth the time and money.

4. While I would be taking the training, the results would really be for the whole team. By learning how to coach others, run smoother processes, understanding how to align with the rest of the company better, this will bring benefits to all departments and teams, not just me individually.

In conclusion, investing in design leadership training is not just an expense but a strategic investment in the future success of our company. By prioritizing design leadership, we can enhance our competitive edge, drive innovation, improve team collaboration, attract top talent, and ultimately achieve our company's goals more effectively. I urge you to consider allocating resources towards this important initiative.

Thank you for considering my proposal. I am confident that investing in design leadership training will yield significant benefits for our company in the long run.

Step 4: In case they still argue about costs, break it into numbers for them

So you might hear that the event is beyond what your education budget is, or what they are willing to pay. So here is how you can prove in numbers that the value for money is great as an example of our Leadership Ateliers event:

1. The average cost of a simple 8 hour workshop on a single topic onsite is about €700 in western European countries. So two days will always add up to at least €1400.

2. While other trainings might have a qualified facilitator, in the Leadership Ateliers one can really pick between real personalities with fantastic creative leadership background. There are people from AJ&Smart, N26, Typeform, Booking.com, and incredible companies. Most of these facilitators would run single day workshops that exceed the value of what here is offered in 2 workshops.

3. The event includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner so those expenses would be covered. There would be then no food expenses for the two days.

4. (in case you need to travel). I understand that travelling to [city] might bring extra costs, but I have not been able to find such a proposal in the city I/the company is based. In case we can decide to book early, the costs would be reduced and I can commit to a travel budget the company is comfortable with.

5. The impact of the methodologies learnt would expand through our current project and projects to come, making the investment small in relation to the savings produced by a more qualified leadership.

6. (If you’ve pre-registered) I’ve secured a discount that is valid until March 1st, which brings the price to [price with discount], and I would not like to let the opportunity expire.

Step 5: Follow up, with a little urgency

In case it’s been a week or two and you haven’t heard back, push lightly with a message.

Here are some strong argument points:

1. The event has just 60/80 spots, and a long decision time might result in no slots left

2. Even if there might still be slots lefts ,some classes might sell out faster than others and then you might lose the chance to get the full value you expected.

3. If you need to travel, delaying the decision will result in higher costs

4. If you’ve pre-registered, your coupon will expire on March 1st.

You can use something like this:

Hi, I just wanted to follow up on my request. It’s not that I want to add pressure but I am afraid if the decision gets delayed, some of the classes (or even the whole event) might run out of spots, and I wouldn’t have the chance to attend something like this until the next year. On top of that, my €120 voucher for pre-registration expires March 1st, so if the decision wasn’t made before that, the costs would increase. If you still have questions or concerns, maybe we could talk about them? Thanks

Conclusion: Learn to talk Money to ask for Money

As we mentioned, when you ask for money that comes from somewhere, and it’s either an expense or an investment.

Frame your education as an investment, anchor it with KPIs and projects that require that investment and promise attainable goals.

If you are joining or Leadership Ateliers, the return on investment will be very powerful, not only in the content of the classes but in the connections to other leaders and coaches that will now be a part of your network for whenever you need their help, and that’s a really hard thing to put a price tag to.