BSides Belfast is a Voluntarily operated Community Interest Company, and while we have statutory requirements to file accounts with Companies House each year, the board feels it’s important to provide the Community a transparent (and hopefully, interesting) view into the running of the Conference.
This is not a statutory report like a charities commission statement, but a practical and pragmatic view at what it costs to run BSides Belfast, where that money comes from and where it goes.
There may be rounding or categorical ‘adjustments’ that might not stand up to actuarial scrutiny and might not match the numbers on companies house exactly (we have accountants for that), but this is how the board thinks about the conference from day to day.
BSides Belfast 2026 will return on the 10th of September, and if you’d like to support this, please do so by sponsoring and/or sharing this post, and we’ll see you all in September!
The Summary
BSidesBelfast 2025 cost £38k to operate, raised £41k (from Sponsors [£33k] and Ticket Revenue [£8.75k]), and expect to pay around £1k tax on retained revenue from the previous year.
Those 11 sponsors consisted of 1 ‘Tera’ (£5k), 4 ‘Giga’ (£3k), 4 ‘Mega’ (£2k) and 1 ‘Kilo’ (£1k) as well as complete sponsors for add-ons for Accessibility / Childcare / After-Party sponsorships.
There were 687 tickets issued; of those were:
- 600 Attendees
- 59 Exhibitors/Sponsors
- 20 Speakers
- 11 Organisers
- 10 Volunteers
- 8 Tickets gifted to various community groups for prizes not operated by BSides Belfast
On a ‘per attendee’ basis, the most expensive line item Costs were
- Coffee Breaks (£6/head)
- Lunchtime Catering (£10/head)
- Venue hire (£10/head)
On a ‘per attendee’ basis, Revenue from
- Sponsorship (£55/head)
- Tickets (£15/head)
The Numbers
Below is the ‘highlights’ of our accounts for Conference-to-conference costs (i.e. not our financial reporting years)
| Category | 2024 | Per Attendee | 2025 | Per Attendee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Sponsorship | £41,000.00 | £68.33 | £33,000 | £55.00 |
| Tickets | £5,460.00 | £9.10 | £8,750.00 | £14.58 | |
| Total | £46,460.00 | £77.43 | £41,750.00 | £69.58 |
Costs
| Category | 2024 | Per Attendee | 2025 | Per Attendee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket Handling | Ticket Refunds | -£150.00 | -£0.25 | -£130.00 | -£0.22 |
| Payment Fees | -£176.41 | -£0.29 | -£291.58 | -£0.49 | |
| Ticket Handling Fees | -£136.87 | -£0.23 | -£243.58 | -£0.41 | |
| CFP/Scheduling | -£97.98 | -£0.16 | -£97.98 | -£0.16 | |
| Xero Fees | -£217.20 | -£0.36 | -£217.20 | -£0.36 |
| Merchandise | Speaker/Org Hoodies | -£1,024.20 | -£1.71 | -£1,092.48 | -£1.82 |
| Crew Tees | -£266.88 | -£0.44 | -£190.80 | -£0.32 | |
| Attendee Tees | -£4,284.00 | -£7.14 | -£4,641.00 | -£7.74 | |
| Lanyards | -£612.00 | -£1.02 | -£777.60 | -£1.30 | |
| Bags | -£1,980.00 | -£3.30 | -£1,650.00 | -£2.75 | |
| Challenge Coins | -£915.30 | -£1.53 | -£753.90 | -£1.26 | |
| Pop-up banners / Lectern | -£542.40 | -£0.90 | -£292.12 | -£0.49 | |
| Brochure & badges | -£3,032.40 | -£5.05 | -£978.00 | -£1.63 |
| Venue Costs | Hire | -£6,000.00 | -£10.00 | -£6,000.00 | -£10.00 |
| Coffee Breaks | -£9,600.00 | -£16.00 | -£3,900.00 | -£6.50 | |
| Main Meal | -£6,500.00 | -£10.83 | -£6,500.00 | -£10.83 | |
| Childcare* | -£1,295.00 | -£2.16 | -£1,575.00 | -£2.63 |
| Speaker Costs | Speaker/Org Hotels | -£1,621.68 | -£2.70 | -£1,040.00 | -£1.73 |
| After Party Costs | Booking Hire | -£1,200.00 | -£2.00 | -£1,200.00 | -£2.00 |
| Bar Tab | -£3,000.00 | -£5.00 | -£2,000.00 | -£3.33 | |
| Wristbands | -£15.00 | -£0.03 | -£15.00 | -£0.03 |
| Admin | Event Insurance | -£178.00 | -£0.30 | -£178.00 | -£0.30 |
| Corporation Tax | -£2,059.03 | £3.43 | -£1000.00* | £0.83 | |
| Accountant | -£1,200.00 | -£2.00 | -£1,320.00 | -£2.20 | |
| Hosting | -£200.00 | -£0.33 | -£200.00 | -£0.33 |
| Total | -£46,304.35 | -£77.17 | -£35,784.24 | -£59.64 |
Net Revenue
| Category | 2024 | Per Attendee | 2025 | Per Attendee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £46,460.00 | £77.43 | £41,750.00 | £69.58 | |
| Costs | -£46,304.35 | -£77.17 | -£35,784.24 | -£59.64 | |
| Total | £155.65 | £0.26 | £5,965.76 | £9.94 |
Notes on the numbers… *
We didn’t include Childcare costs last year in the transparency report as it was billed after the conference, we’re corrected this in this report for meaningful comparisons going forward.
Also we’re publishing this Transparency Report much earlier in the year than last year, so we’ve not completed our Corporation Tax Return yet (due End of March), but we’re estimating £500-1000.
2025 ➡2026
Sponsorship revenue was significantly softer (11 sponsors, £33k) this year than in 2024, where 15 Sponsors contributed £41k.
The significant decrease in Coffee Break costs (~£10k 📉 ~£4k) and increase in Ticket Sales revenue (~£5k📈~£8k) reflect decisions made by the board to reduce catering provisions and increase General Admission default “Suggested Donation” from £10 to £20 in response to decreased Sponsorship revenue observed in the run up to the conference, and we will carry both these changes forward to ensure we continue to be resilient in the face of changing Sponsorship capacity.
Our decision last year to remove Lanyard and Bag sponsorships led to significantly less ‘wastage’, and all paraphernalia acquired for 2025 will be able to be used/reused in 2026, significantly reducing our environmental footprint, potentially at a cost to some Sponsorship opportunities.
We have made no structural changes to the Sponsorship ranges on offer; however to improve simplicity of the Sponsorship process, we split the ‘Sponsorship Agreement’ (which contains the minimal details required to action and approve a sponsorship) out from the full ‘Sponsorship Brochure’.
Last year, we introduced the ability for sponsors to purchase additional GA tickets, where sponsors could purchase up-to their allocated ticket counts (i.e. Tera sponsors could buy 10 additional tickets as well as the 10 that are included in that level). This was highly subscribed; however, at the time of publication of the Sponsorship levels, these were priced at 2x the planned GA base price (£20/ticket). Given that we later raised the GA ‘Suggested Donation’ level to £20, this did not represent the ‘lowering of barriers to entry for attendees’ that we hold ourselves to, so in 2026 the Sponsor Topup will be raised from £20/ticket to £40/ticket.
We still believe that this level represents a huge value for Sponsors who wish to support their staff to attend the event on their behalf as part of their commitments to continuous professional development.
Conclusion
Last year’s Transparency Report was very well received both by sponsors, attendees, and the wider community, particularly the wider community of other local conferences and international BSides, and we plan to continue to share our experiences, and learn from the experiences of others.
We are acutely aware of the overall trend in lower commercial/corporate support, from ~£80/attendee in 2023, ~£70/attendee in 2024 and now £55/attendee in 2025. We are informed by peers in other local community conference organisations (in response to last year’s Transparency report, in fact) that these are consistent with what they’re seeing. If this trend continues, the scale, scope and audience of the conference may need to radically change in 2027.
BSides Belfast 2026 will return on the 10th of September, and if you’d like to support this, please do so by sponsoring and/or sharing this post, and we’ll see you all in September!