There is no single answer, and any supplier who gives you one before asking about your venue and your date is guessing. What we can do is show you the shape of the number, so that when three quotations come back you can tell which one is complete and which one has left something out.
A corporate event quotation has twelve line items
Almost every corporate event in Singapore breaks down into the same components. Some will be zero for your event; none of them should be missing from the quotation without a reason.
| Line item | What sits inside it |
|---|---|
| Venue | Room hire, minimum spend, corkage, overtime beyond the contracted hours |
| Food & beverage | Per-head catering, service charge, GST, dietary variants, crew meals |
| AV | Screens or LED, sound, microphones, lighting, technician on site |
| Staging | Stage, truss, backdrop structure, rigging, power distribution |
| Design & print | Key visual, backdrop artwork, signage, name tags, menus, collateral |
| Décor | Floral, table styling, entrance treatment, photo moment |
| Manpower | MC, ushers, registration crew, event managers, riggers, load-in and load-out hours |
| Media | Photography, videography, instant prints, live streaming |
| Entertainment | Performers, band, host, games, prizes |
| Gifts | Door gifts, awards, lucky draw prizes, VIP gifts |
| Logistics | Transport, storage, delivery windows, permits where the venue requires them |
| Management fee | Planning, coordination, run-sheet, rehearsals, on-site management |
Four things move the number more than anything else
1. The venue tier, and whether it carries a minimum spend
A hotel ballroom with a food and beverage minimum behaves completely differently from a raw event space where you bring in your own caterer. The hotel looks more expensive per head and is often cheaper overall once you count the AV, the staffing and the fact that the kitchen is already there. A raw space looks cheap until you price the generator, the kitchen access and the extra crew hours.
2. Headcount, but in steps rather than smoothly
Going from 80 to 120 guests may cost you only the extra covers. Going from 120 to 180 can force a bigger room, a second screen, more crew and a different stage. Costs on an event move in steps, and the steps sit at the capacity limits of rooms and equipment.
3. The date
November and December are the hardest weeks of the year to book in Singapore. Everyone runs their D&D in the same six weeks, and venues, AV crews and photographers are gone early. The same event in March is materially cheaper and easier to staff.
4. How much is custom
A standard backdrop from stock sizing costs a fraction of a fabricated set. A rented centrepiece costs a fraction of a built one. Neither is wrong — but “we want it to look bespoke” is the single sentence that most changes a budget, so it is worth being explicit about where bespoke actually matters to you.
What the cheap quotation usually left out
- Service charge and GST on food and beverage, which are not small.
- Overtime. Venues contract a window. Rehearsal in the morning and teardown at midnight are often two separate charges.
- Load-in and load-out labour, especially where the venue has a goods lift booking system.
- Technician standby — the AV rental price is not the same as having someone there to run it.
- Crew meals, which the venue will charge for.
- Contingency. If nobody has put a line in for it, it will come out of your budget anyway, just later and with less warning.
How to brief so the first quotation is accurate
Send a supplier these seven things and you will get a quotation you can actually compare against another one:
- Date, or the two-week window you are working within
- Guest count, and whether it is confirmed or a best guess
- Venue, or the type of venue you have in mind
- Start and end time, including whether you need a rehearsal
- What has to happen during the event — speeches, awards, a launch moment, dinner, dancing
- Whether the branding is fixed or still being designed
- Your budget range, honestly
That last one is where most people hesitate, and it is the one that helps most. A supplier who knows your range designs to it. A supplier who does not will either over-specify and lose the job, or under-specify and surprise you later.
Get a real number
We quote corporate events in Singapore every week, itemised line by line, so you can see what each part costs and take things out if you need to. Send us the seven answers above and we will come back within one business day.
