An event management company, or your own team with AI?
A UK event management company typically charges a management fee of around 10 to 15% of the event budget, or a flat project fee, and in return takes on creative, production, supplier management and delivery on the day. An AI like Comtev costs £250 per event and gives your own team the legwork an agency would otherwise do: sourcing and negotiating venues, suppliers and attendee travel, keeping a living event document, and chasing stakeholders for decisions, while the team keeps every call. Hire an agency when the event needs creative production and on-site delivery you do not have. Use Comtev when the team can run the event and needs the hours back.
What each one actually does
| Feature | Comtev (your team with AI) | Event management company |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | AI that does the legwork for an in-house event team: one living event document, agents that source and negotiate, stakeholder chasing, and a budget the team controls. | An external team that plans and delivers the event: creative concept, production, supplier management, on-site running. |
| Cost | £250 per event, every planning tool included. Enterprise for year-round teams. No commission from venues or suppliers. | Commonly a management fee of 10 to 15% of the event budget, or a flat project fee for well-scoped events; agency guidance puts the planning fee at 8 to 15% of a conference budget. |
| Speed to first quotes | Hours. Comtev fans out sourcing in parallel from one brief and brings back normalised quotes. | Days to weeks, depending on the agency's pipeline. |
| Who holds the decisions | Your team. Every booking waits for your named approver; every stakeholder ask is tracked and chased for you. | Shared. The agency recommends; you approve; chasing internal stakeholders is usually still your job. |
| Supplier relationships | Open market, ranked on fit for your brief, no commission. | The agency's own network, which can be a strength (trusted) and a bias (familiar). |
| Creative and production | Not offered. Comtev sources the production suppliers; it does not design the show. | Core strength. |
| On the day | Guest check-in, run of show and door staff tools for your team. | Agency staff on site. |
| Budget transparency | Every quote is a line in one live budget with committed, forecast and headroom; freeze a versioned proposal for finance. | Depends on the agency; markups on suppliers are common in the industry. |
Checked 2 September 2026. Claims about other products come from their own pages, linked under Sources below. Tell us if something has changed.
Where an event management company wins
Creative, production and delivery. If the event is a brand moment that needs a concept, staging, content and a crew on the day, a good agency brings people and judgement no software has. Established agencies also carry supplier relationships that can unlock dates and rates a cold brief cannot.
Where your team with Comtev wins
Most corporate events are not brand moments. They are offsites, all-hands, sales kickoffs, client dinners and conferences that an in-house team can run well if the legwork is taken off them. Comtev takes it: sourcing and negotiating in parallel, pricing travel for the named attendees, keeping one document of what is decided, and chasing the exec sponsor and finance until they answer. The team stays in charge, the budget stays visible, and the cost is £250 rather than a percentage of everything you spend.
Using both
Teams that hire an agency for the flagship event still run a dozen smaller ones a year themselves. Comtev is built for those, and its budget proposal is a clean brief to hand an agency when you do hire one.
Questions buyers ask
How much does an event management company charge in the UK?
The most commonly quoted model is a management fee of around 10 to 15% of the total event budget, though flat project fees are common for well-scoped events. UK agency guidance puts the agency or planning fee at 8 to 15% of a conference budget.
Can AI replace an event planner?
Not the creative and on-site parts, and Comtev does not try to. It replaces the legwork: sourcing, negotiating, pricing travel, tracking decisions and chasing stakeholders, so a small in-house team can run events it would otherwise outsource.
What does Comtev cost compared with an agency fee?
£250 per event, flat, with every planning tool included. On a £50,000 event a 12% agency fee is £6,000.
Does Comtev replace our event team?
No. Comtev works for the team. It does the legwork (sourcing, negotiating, pricing travel, chasing stakeholders for decisions) and the team keeps every call. Nothing is booked or spent until a named person approves it.
See the legwork done on your next event.
Bring a real brief. We will show you the shortlist, the quotes, the travel and the Event Document, and you keep every decision. £250 per event, in pounds.