Quiz: Corporate Events and Conferences
21 items: 12 multiple choice · 5 true/false · 3 short answer · 1 applied scenario with rubric.
Answers in <details>. Attempt each before opening.
Part 1 — Multiple Choice (12)
Q1. The planner's first job on a corporate event is:
(a) Confirming the dates and the venue shortlist (b) Getting the objective stated in one sentence by the person whose number it is (c) Establishing the budget (d) Meeting the committee
Answer
**(b).** **It is interrogative, not logistical** — because the client usually has not stated an objective. **They have a tradition, a budget, a date, and a hotel they liked last year.**Q2. The more useful of the two opening questions:
(a) "What has to be true in June that isn't true now?" (b) "Who's going to be asked whether it worked, and what will they be asked?" (c) "What's the budget?" (d) "What did you do last year?"
Answer
**(b).** **It converts a vague aspiration into a named person with a specific accountability** — and such a person can tell you what would count as success. **It is also the measurement design, arriving eight months early.**Q3. The only objective type for which lavishness is genuinely the point:
(a) Capability (b) Alignment (c) Relationship (d) Recognition
Answer
**(d).** **And almost all corporate events are budgeted as though they were recognition**, whatever their stated objective.Q4. An "inherited agenda" encodes:
(a) The objective (b) The venue's constraints (c) The org chart (d) Last year's attendee feedback
Answer
**(c).** **Built by asking senior people how long they wanted on stage** — an accurate reflection of who is important, **with no necessary relationship to what the event is for.**Q5. Northwind's draft agenda gave the objective:
(a) 14 hours of 36.5 (b) 8.5 hours of 36.5 (c) 3 hours of 36.5 (d) 7 hours of 36.5
Answer
**(c).** **Three hours out of thirty-six and a half, on the only thing anybody will be measured on** — against fourteen hours of general session.Q6. The largest cost of a corporate event is:
(a) Food and beverage (b) AV (c) The attendees' time (d) The hotel room block
Answer
**(c).** **9,600 person-hours against a $540,000 budget** — never in anybody's budget, **and it is the argument that wins agenda fights:** *"an hour on that stage costs the company thirty-four thousand dollars."*Q7. Of the three attrition-reducing moves, the one worth more than the other two combined at a hotel with strong transient demand:
(a) A lower threshold (b) Damages at the profit rate rather than the room rate (c) A resell credit (d) A shorter cut-off window
Answer
**(c).** **If the hotel resells the room it does not also keep your damages.** Standard, frequently omitted, **and it must be in the contract.**Q8. The banquet multiplier at 24% service and 9% tax is:
(a) 1.33 (b) 1.3516 (c) 1.24 (d) 1.09
Answer
**(b).** **1.24 × 1.09 = 1.3516.** A $58 lunch costs **$78.39.** Northwind's F&B is $388,179, of which **$100,979 is service charge and tax that appeared in no quoted price.**Q9. Not one of the three things that reliably reduce an AV bill:
(a) Fewer room changes (b) A shorter load-in (c) Cheaper equipment (d) Deciding what you are recording before the spec is written
Answer
**(c).** **Every room turn is crew hours**, rigging into a bad room costs a day, **and adding capture afterwards changes the audio design, the lighting, and the crew** — which is where the biggest change orders come from.Q10. Your actual client on a corporate event is:
(a) The programme owner, who does the day-to-day (b) Procurement, who owns the contract (c) The sponsor, whose objective and budget it is (d) The committee
Answer
**(c).** **The programme owner is who you talk to; the sponsor is whose objective it is** — and **an agenda fight can only be won by the sponsor.** Mistaking the two is the commonest error a wedding planner makes here.Q11. "No PO, no payment" means:
(a) Invoices must be submitted within 30 days (b) Work performed before a purchase order is issued may not be payable at all (c) Deposits cannot be taken from corporate clients (d) Procurement must approve every vendor
Answer
**(b).** **Regardless of what anybody agreed verbally.** And terms run **30–60 days from invoice, not from work** — which produces a cash-flow gap that on this event is six figures.Q12. The strongest measure available to a corporate event:
(a) Satisfaction scores (b) Pipeline created in the following 60 days (c) A certification or demonstrated capability (d) Retention
Answer
**(c).** **And it requires designing the assessment before the event.** Pipeline is countable and not attributable; **retention cannot be attributed to an event at all.**Part 2 — True or False (5)
Q13. A wedding planner's core skills transfer poorly to corporate events.
Answer
**False for the core, true for the edges.** **The timeline, the run sheet, triage, the failure playbook, guest experience, and the debrief transfer entirely** — that is why a good wedding planner is a good corporate planner. **Design, brand, the emotional arc, and a client who is a committee are why the transition is not automatic.**Q14. A 15-minute break is a reasonable way to keep a conference day on schedule.
Answer
**False.** **A 15-minute break is a 25-minute break that starts the next session late.** Twenty minutes is the minimum and thirty if there is a queue for anything — **and a fully programmed conference day is over-programmed**, because every one of those numbers is a floor and they compound.Q15. A planner should propose which executive's stage time should be reduced.
Answer
**False, and this is the chapter's sharpest political point.** **The moment you name a VP, you have made it a fight between them and you rather than between them and the objective** — and they will refuse, and the sponsor will not overrule them in public over an outsider's proposal. **You supply the arithmetic and three options. The sponsor supplies the allocation.**Q16. If pipeline rose 22% in the sixty days after an event, the event can be credited with it.
Answer
**False.** **The product launched in the same window, the compensation plan changed, and Q1 is always up.** The professional response is not to abandon the measure — **it is to report the number and name the attribution problem in the same sentence**, and then give the sponsor the measure that *is* attributable.Q17. In-house AV exclusivity is negotiable at the point of use.
Answer
**False.** **It is negotiable at contract and nowhere else.** The three questions are: is AV exclusive or preferred · what is the rigging fee for an outside vendor · what does house power cost. **A planner who discovers a $9,000 rigging fee in week six has lost that money.**Part 3 — Short Answer (3)
Q18. Explain the attrition trap and give the three moves that reduce it, with what each is worth.
Answer
**The block is contracted eight to twelve months out on an estimate; attendance is confirmed six weeks out.** You are guaranteeing a number you cannot yet know, **and you pay damages on the shortfall below the threshold.** **Three moves, all at negotiation:** a **lower threshold** — 80% is standard, 75% is negotiable, and each 5% of 1,050 is 52 room-nights · **damages at the profit rate rather than the room rate**, since a hotel's marginal cost on an empty room is small · **and a resell credit**, which is standard, often omitted, and **worth more than the other two combined** where transient demand is strong. **And the number you must ask for: the hotel's actual pickup for the last three years on events your size.**Q19. State the person-hours argument, and explain why only the sponsor can use it.
Answer
**400 attendees × 3 days × 8 hours = 9,600 person-hours.** At a blended loaded rate of $85, **$816,000 of salary on top of a $540,000 budget** — so **an hour on the stage costs about $34,000** and a ninety-minute slot costs $51,000. **It is the most useful number in the chapter because it prices stage time in a currency the room accepts**, before anybody is asked to give anything up. **Only the sponsor can spend it** because moving ten hours takes time away from six people who will be in the business long after your contract ends. **A planner supplies the arithmetic and three options; the sponsor supplies the allocation.**Q20. Explain the attribution problem and write the shape of an honest report.
Answer
**You can measure that something changed. You cannot show the event caused it**, because other things changed in the same window. **The honest response is to report the number and name the problem in the same sentence, then give the measure that is attributable:** *"Meridian pipeline in the sixty days post-event was $14.2M against $4.1M for the comparable prior launch. **The product also launched in that window, so this is not attributable to the event alone** — the number that is attributable is the certification: 371 of 400 within two weeks, against a target of 340."* **A sponsor handed that paragraph can use it. A sponsor handed "4.6 out of 5" cannot, and knows it.**Part 4 — Applied Scenario (1)
Q21. **Meridian Health Systems. 320 clinical managers. Two and a half days in October. Budget $310,000.** The sponsor is the Chief Nursing Officer, who has been told to reduce agency staffing spend. The draft agenda: **9 hours general session · 2 hours on the new rostering system · 3 hours regional breakouts · 6 hours meals and breaks · 4 hours evening.** The hotel quotes lunch at $54, service 23%, tax 8%. The block is 620 room-nights at $205 with an 80% threshold; forecast pickup is 468.
Produce: the objective and its measure · the person-hours arithmetic and the sentence · the attrition exposure and one move to reduce it · the F&B multiplier and the cost of 320 lunches · and the rebuilt agenda by segment.