We understand that many travel and training budgets have been slashed; which means that regardless of the merits of a conference, you’ll probably need to justify the expense. So here are some things you might want to consider:

• Focus on what you will specifically bring back to the organization as return for the investment.
• Offer to prepare and deliver a short presentation and Q&A to your colleagues to share what you learned. That way others in your unit will get the benefits of your attendance, too.
• Share the syllabus and speaker handouts with your colleagues. As an attendee, you have unlimited access to materials posted by speakers.  
• Be ready with a plan that shows who will cover for you while you are attending the conference.
• Offer to share a room to reduce hotel expenses...And remember it only takes a 3 night stay to experience the entire conference this year!
• Be sure to check out the registration page where all the various rates are listed to see if you qualify for any of the lower rates or discounts.

Use this letter to present to your supervisor outlining the costs and benfits of attending the conference.

 Testimonials

"I took the justification letter on your website and made some modifications – and it was based on that I received approval...in my justification letter I took it one step further – I took the total amount it is going to cost for my travel, accommodations, meals etc (total of $2400.00) and divided it by the number of communicators/supervisors we have at our police service (which is 61 people).  It broke down to an individual training cost of $35 +/- per person for what I told them would be used for a year’s worth of training topics.......How can they say no to that?!"

~Steve VanDyk, 2010 Attendee