RE: Justification for attending Enterprise Data World ConferenceApril 29 – May 3, 2012

I would like to attend Enterprise Data World (formerly the DAMA International Symposium & Wilshire Meta-Data Conference) because it is the most comprehensive educational conference in my field. The conference features a large number of presentations and case studies that are directly applicable to our current projects. I’m also able to network with experts in the field who can provide advice on some of our current sticking points. These experts often charge $500 an hour to consult on projects. Many of the technical presentations provide specific techniques for lowering costs, streamlining processes, or dealing with governance issues. We need current information for our projects on [insert several relevant topic areas, such as Big Data, SOA, MDM, Data Integration, Semantics, NoSQL, Metadata] and Enterprise Data World is really the only conference that covers all those topics in one place.

The full-price conference fee is [insert full price for your registration option] but this can be reduced through the use of a coupon code and early registration discount to a cost of [insert early + coupon cost of your registration option] if I register and pay by March 23rd. [If your organization will send multiple people, factor in the team discount. Groups of 5 or more receive a 20% discount.]

Here are the estimated conference costs:

Airfare:

Transportation:

Hotel: ($159 a night)

Meals: (continental breakfast and lunch are served at the conference most days)

Conference Fee:

The estimated total travel costs are [$XXXX]. Adding this to the discounted registration fee, there is a total conference cost of [$XXXX]. Other conferences in this field cost considerably more, for example, the conference fee at another 5-day conference dealing with some of the same topics is $3,200 and that does not include all of the documentation and meals provided at Enterprise Data World.

There are a number of presentations and classes I would attend that will give me information I can immediately put to use with the [current project]. These presentations are from experts and from peers working in organizations like ours on projects like ours. Getting the information in this way will greatly reduce research time and costs, and save us from repeating the missteps of others. I’m only listing a few of the classes I would attend, to include them all would make this letter much too long.

[Insert at least three sessions or longer classes and describe how they are directly related to current projects your team is working on or initiatives your company is considering.]

[Session 1]

[Session 2]

[Session 3]

In addition, many of our vendor partners such as[insert partners] will be in attendance. This means I can compare some of the tools we are considering and talk to peers about their experiences with the tools. I can also give feedback to vendors and find out about planned future developments that will impact our company.

The opportunity for me to speak with the experts in the field and to gain knowledge in specific areas of data management makes my attendance at Enterprise Data World a wise investment. I [or we, if proposing a team] will, of course, provide a trip report and give at least one presentation to our group after the conference—to ensure that what I learn at the conference is quickly spread throughout the team and the company.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]