Choosing with judgement
Every company organising an event chooses between three models. The lowest apparent cost is almost always separate suppliers; the real cost depends on how many of your team’s hours it takes to hold the pieces together and on what happens when something jams.
| Criterion | Single agency (Open Eventi) | Separate suppliers or in-house | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Responsibility for the result | includedOne agency answers for the whole project, joints included. | Each supplier answers only for their piece; the joints stay uncovered. | It’s exactly where events’ problems arise. |
| Schedule | includedOne shared plan for build, technical, staff and communication. | Separate plans that turn out incompatible at build time. | Overlaps at build cost hours and nerves. |
| Budget | includedConsolidated, by item, with margins of variation declared in advance. | A sum of heterogeneous quotes, hard to compare and report. | It determines your ability to get the spend approved internally. |
| Internal working hours | includedA single contact: your team decides, it doesn’t coordinate. | Coordinating between suppliers falls entirely on one internal person. | It’s the cost that never appears in the quotes. |
| Managing the unexpected | includedOn-site direction with decision-making power and suppliers under one contract. | Crossed phone calls while the event has already started. | An unexpected event handled well is invisible; handled badly it’s the only thing remembered. |
| Public-administration purchasing | includedListed on MePA: direct negotiation or RFQ with a single award. | Multiple awards, each with its own procedure. | It sharply cuts administrative time for bodies. |
| Apparent cost | includedHigher in the proposal, inclusive of coordination and responsibility. | Lower summing the quotes, with indirect costs on your time. | An honest comparison includes internal hours and risk. |
Open Eventi
One agency answers for the whole project, joints included.
Alternative
Each supplier answers only for their piece; the joints stay uncovered.
It’s exactly where events’ problems arise.
Open Eventi
One shared plan for build, technical, staff and communication.
Alternative
Separate plans that turn out incompatible at build time.
Overlaps at build cost hours and nerves.
Open Eventi
Consolidated, by item, with margins of variation declared in advance.
Alternative
A sum of heterogeneous quotes, hard to compare and report.
It determines your ability to get the spend approved internally.
Open Eventi
A single contact: your team decides, it doesn’t coordinate.
Alternative
Coordinating between suppliers falls entirely on one internal person.
It’s the cost that never appears in the quotes.
Open Eventi
On-site direction with decision-making power and suppliers under one contract.
Alternative
Crossed phone calls while the event has already started.
An unexpected event handled well is invisible; handled badly it’s the only thing remembered.
Open Eventi
Listed on MePA: direct negotiation or RFQ with a single award.
Alternative
Multiple awards, each with its own procedure.
It sharply cuts administrative time for bodies.
Open Eventi
Higher in the proposal, inclusive of coordination and responsibility.
Alternative
Lower summing the quotes, with indirect costs on your time.
An honest comparison includes internal hours and risk.
If your team already has a dedicated event person and a settled supplier base, the separate-suppliers model works well. If the event is complex, if the client is a public body, or if no one internally can give it six weeks, the single agency is what makes the project governable.
Budget
We don’t publish a price list because it would be false: an event’s cost changes with venue, format, technical production and hospitality. Instead we publish the items that make up any serious budget, so you can compare different proposals at equal content.
Venue rental, extra opening hours, security, cleaning and utilities. It’s the single most variable item and the one to lock first.
Stage, audio, lights, video, streaming, structures and set, with build and dismantle. It grows much faster than the number of participants.
Accreditation, welcome, floor, cloakroom, interpreters and coordination, inclusive of contracts, paperwork and insurance cover.
Coffee breaks, lunches, dinners, transfers and accommodation. If participants come from out of town, it often exceeds technical production.
Video, photography, press office and materials. It’s the investment that makes the event live on in the following months, and the first cut by mistake.
The project direction and the margin for the unexpected. If it isn’t in a quote, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist: it means you’ll pay for it later.
Compare the cost per participant at equal included services, not the total. Then check three things: who answers for the overall result, whether coordination is an explicit item and what happens if the event runs over. If the answers aren’t written down, the price difference you see isn’t a real difference.
Direct answers
Open Eventi is the showcase of OPEN S.r.l., an events agency also trading as Stay Open, based in Rome at Piazzale Luigi Sturzo 15 and active across the whole country. It handles corporate, institutional and congress events: design and creative direction, location scouting, build and technical direction, staff and secretariat, communication and press office, sponsorship and team building. It is listed on MePA.
The budget depends on the number of participants, duration, venue, level of technical build and included services. The variables that weigh most are the venue, technical production and any participant hospitality. OPEN S.r.l. works on a detailed budget by item, delivered with the proposal within three working days of the brief, with margins of variation stated in advance rather than discovered at the final statement.
For a complex event — convention, congress, institutional event — the recommended window is two to four months, above all to secure the venue. For established formats or later roadshow stops, three weeks are enough. Urgent requests are assessed case by case: the critical element is almost always venue availability, not ours.
Yes. Many clients already have the venue or the creative agency and entrust us only some areas: staff and welcome, technical direction, press office or content production. The quote is built on the services actually requested, with no compulsory packages.
Yes. OPEN S.r.l. is listed on the Italian public-administration marketplace (MePA): bodies, state-owned companies and administrations can proceed with direct negotiation or a request for quotation, quoting the CIG and tender references. We prepare the necessary documentation and respect the payment terms set by law.
The base is in Rome, but we operate across the whole country. For events out of base we work with staff and suppliers selected in the city of the event, to contain travel costs while keeping the same service spec.
Keep exploring
You get a proposal with concept, included services and a detailed budget by item. Comparable line by line with any other offer.