Congress Initiative Bavaria

Funding conditions

Recipients of funding are event organizers or persons verifiably appointed by them who plan and carry out events in Bavaria.

Eligible applicants are

• Legal entities under private and public law,
• partnerships with legal capacity,
• self-employed and freelance professionals.

Funding is available for conferences and congresses that are aimed at a specialist audience as closed events. This also includes conferences and congresses that take place in connection with trade fairs and also those that take place in connection with (legally required) general meetings.

Funding is available for events that meet the following requirements:

• The event takes place in Bavaria. The location of the organizer is irrelevant for funding purposes.
• The event is being held for the first time or at least one of the three previous events has not taken place in Bavaria or, in the case of events that have only been held once or twice before, at least one event has not taken place in Bavaria. Events can be funded up to twice in five consecutive years.
• The event must last at least two days with a program of at least four hours each. The substantive program does not include breaks and parts of the program that are essentially for entertainment purposes.
• The event must have at least 100-300 participants on site on each day, depending on the venue. Hybrid events are eligible for funding, but online participants are not counted when determining the number of participants.
• The event venue must not be provided or rented out by the applicant itself or by an organizational unit legally affiliated with it (e.g. subsidiary).

Only expenses incurred directly in connection with the organization of the event are eligible for funding. Expenses for a supporting program are not eligible. The supporting program is defined as parts of the event that take place alongside the main technical program and do not serve the purpose of professional exchange. Eligible expenses (in categories) are

• Rent for event rooms including operating and ancillary costs,
• Expenses for hospitality (catering),
• Expenses for technology, equipment, etc,
• fees, travel expenses, accommodation and meals for moderators, speakers and interpreters,
• Expenses for general organization,
• Registration/hostesses on site,
• Expenses for public relations work,
• Expenses for security,
• protective and hygiene measures.

VAT is only eligible for funding if the funding recipient is not entitled to deduct input tax for the funded event.