How Food Can Impact Your Meeting’s Success

When planning menus for their meetings, most meeting planners focus on what sounds good to serve and fits within their budget (I am usually one of them, too). Rarely do they put much thought into how what they choose to serve can impact the success of the meeting. However, what meals you choose to provide to your attendees has the potential to affect their ability to learn as much as the lighting levels, type of room seating, and the room temperature. The good news is – you don’t have to be a nutritionist (or even play one on TV) to make better choices in your menu selections. So how does a planner take all of the diverse factors into account (budget, dietary restrictions, service time, etc.) and still support the learning goals of an event?

The old adage, you are what you eat, is quite relevant here. Studies have backed up what people have long believed: what you eat affects your moods. And, in a meetings setting, your mood can affect how well you learn and process information and how you interact with your fellow participants.

We’re all familiar with the post-Thanksgiving Feast lethargy, yes? You eat a huge meal, then want to spend the rest of the day on the couch watching football (or otherwise being lazy)… We want to avoid a similar response after lunch at a conference because that “tryptophan high”, while feeling good, also impedes your ability to receive and process information. So what’s the solution? Reasonably sized meal portions can help make sure that your attendees are not dozing the afternoon away when you want them engaged and learning. Fortunately, most chefs already provide reasonably sized meals (for plated meals) so you don’t need to worry about this one too often. Do keep it in mind, though, as it can be a factor after buffet lunches.

Providing balanced meals are also important because the body requires a variety of nutrients to function properly. If you are missing key nutrients in what you eat, then your body is forced to draw from its own reserves to fill in those gaps. Why does that matter? Well, the brain cannot store food energy as the rest of the body can. This means that, if it needs a particular nutrient, the brain will need to “steal” it from another part of the body. Depending on the nutrient needed, we may feel hungry, depressed, tense, irritable, etc. as the brain sends out signals to the rest of the body with its needs. All of these moods affect your ability to function effectively and, with the “negative” moods, can make it impossible to participate fully in a meeting or conference. As with meal sizes, your catering chef will help you with this as they create meals for you. You might have noticed that plated entrees always include a protein (usually meat), a starch (rice, potatoes, or pasta), and vegetables. This “triangle of food” is a basic, roughly balanced meal. While you don’t have to worry about providing every nutrient the body needs in each meal, the more variety you include, the better the results can be.

Let’s talk dessert. We have addressed desserts before (here and here) but, in this case, we’re more concerned about what happens with your attendees when you serve dessert. First off, it usually means they are eating a larger meal than they otherwise might since most people do not eat dessert after lunch every day. We’ve increased the meal size, which increases the chance they will become lethargic afterwards. Secondly, the sugars in most desserts are, in many ways, junk. Yes, your body “needs” sugar; it makes you feel good and provides an energy boost. However, that boost from desserts is short-lived and the good feelings drop off just as quickly. When combined with a large meal, this can make your attendees very sleepy just when they need to be most alert. Candy and soft drinks, often served at breaks, can also cause spikes in energy as they provide short, quick boost to blood sugar, then fall below normal levels before stabilizing. This is not to say that you need to remove all sugary foods from your menus – just be aware of what affect they can have on your attendees. This is one factor that you have a lot of control over in menu planning.

So, from a meeting planner’s standpoint, three things to focus on when providing meals that can affect productivity after a meal are meal size, meal composition (balance), and sugar content. So why not look further into the chemistry of the mood-food relationship? Well, for one, there is too much info out there to easily sum up here (especially since I am not a nutritionist) and, for two, there is another factor in this that cannot be easily addressed here: the attendee. Every person responds to food differently. Yes, there are general responses and long-term health effects that are true across the board, but those are less true when applied to specific individuals. One person may be greatly affected by caffeine, for example, while another could drink a pot of coffee right before bed and have no ill effects. And, those with dietary restrictions or allergies, such as lactose intolerance or nut allergies, may respond very differently to the same meals as those without the same conditions. The examples could go on forever – but the point is that a general awareness of how meals can affect your meeting participants will go a long way in making sure that you don’t sabotage your own event by providing meals that undermine your goals.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Why is hotel food so expensive?

Lately, there has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about government excess and the $16 muffins and $8 cups of coffee that the Department of Justice had at a couple of their events (Here is the article that touched it off). Mind you, the article leaves out a lot of details behind the numbers and, instead, focuses on the particular items that are sure to fire people up. After all, they need an attention-grabbing piece to sell the news and including the details explaining how those figures came to be would have turned off most readers. The Meeting Professionals International (MPI) blog posted a response to it here, so I won’t go into that particular issue.

However, I have heard complaints for many years – from conference attendees and funders, mostly – about how expensive hotel food is. It certainly seems that way. $8/person for a coffee break, $22/person for a lunch, $34/person for dinner – you can certainly eat quite well as an individual at those prices, especially when you find out that these prices are “plus-plus”. Let’s examine each of these examples one by one. I’ll start with dinner, since that is the one most often referenced in conversations on this topic.

Dinner, at a hotel, typically includes a soup and/or salad, bread, the entrée (with sides), dessert, and coffee service. All of that is included in the $34/person. Now it isn’t fair to compare this to a fast food joint, like McDonald’s or Carl’s Jr. The two types of meal service aren’t even close. Meals served at conferences are more like eating at a restaurant – and a moderately nice one at that. If I were to get the same menu items at a middle-of-the-road restaurant in the same city as my conference, the prices (before tax and tip) might break down like this:

• Soup (or Salad): $5
• Bread: usually included for free
• Chicken Entrée: $16
• Dessert: $7
• Coffee or Tea: $3

Add that all up and you have…$31. Suddenly, the hotel’s pricing does not seem so out of line as it did before, does it? Yes, it is still a bit higher, but it is not shockingly so, which is what most people react to.

Lunch is very similar to dinner. For a restaurant lunch comparable to what a hotel might serve, you’re looking at prices something along these lines:

• Soup (or Salad): $4
• Bread: usually included for free
• Sandwich Entrée: $10
• Dessert: $5
• Coffee or Tea: $2

The total for a similar lunch at a restaurant is…$21? Yep, we’ve saved an entire dollar compared to the hotel’s pricing. Not much of a difference there…

Finally, let’s look at the $8 coffee. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to into it here but this is the one that seems to generate the most ire from certain folks and it is one area where your local coffee shop is way below the prices charged by hotels. Let’s look at in more detail…at $8/person for coffee service, what do you get? You get coffee service for a fixed amount of time (usually 1/2 hour), during which your attendees can pretty much drink as much coffee or tea as they want. How many of them do you think have just one cup?

When I order “in bulk” for coffee (to save money), I know that one gallon will give me 16-20 cups, depending on the size of the cups used by the hotel (see this post for more details). Will I order one gallon, then, for a group of 20 people? Probably not. I will want to have some extra available in case they drink more than I anticipated, even if this results in leftover coffee that no one drinks.

When ordering a break package, such as coffee service billed “per person” instead of by the gallon, the same principle is at work. The hotel does not want to run out of coffee (it makes them look bad), so they need to prepare more than they think people will drink. Plus, coffee service includes tea and decaf. The hotel needs to make sure that there is enough for people with those preferences as well. Your corner coffee shop (even Starbucks) can make coffee one gallon at a time and still promptly serve their customers. A hotel, trying to serve coffee to several hundred people all at the same time, must make much larger batches.

The upshot of all of this is that there is the potential for considerable leftovers (aka “waste”) with coffee service. Since the hotel must, at least, cover costs for providing it, they must take that into account – which results in higher prices. Even your corner coffee shop does this; their level of “lost product” is simply much smaller. In fact, every business that serves food must take wastage into account with their pricing or they will quickly be out of business. That’s basic economics.

So, does this mean that hotel food in not expensive? No, it’s still pricy – and I still think it’s expensive when I compare it to preparing a meal at home. However, when I compare it to eating out, I find that the prices are not too far off from what I would pay in a restaurant. Restaurants and hotel both need to cover not just the cost of the food, but also the costs of rent, equipment, staff wages, maintenance, and a myriad of other expenses that go into providing a service to the public – which means that it will always be more expensive than what it costs me to make the same dishes at home (assuming I even know how to make and have the time to make said dishes…).

So, the next time you hear a complaint about how expensive hotel food is, look at similar options before joining the chorus. You might find that the claims are right on track – or a bit overblown…

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Why would you serve dessert at an afternoon break?

It is such a simple idea, serving the dessert from lunch at an afternoon break, yet it is a strategy that is often overlooked by novice planners. Indeed, most planners I work with when they are new to the field tend to treat each meal function as a separate event, unconnected to any other on the schedule. Although this is true to some extent, when it comes to lunch and the afternoon break, you have a golden opportunity to save some money while providing timely snacks for your group.

A typical draft agenda schedules lunch from 12:30 – 1:30, with a break (that usually includes more food!) set to occur somewhere around 2:30 or 3pm. Now, I love to eat, especially when someone else is paying for it, but this ends up being a lot of food in a fairly short amount of time. Your attendees will have just had a (hopefully) filling lunch, including dessert, and you are now offering them more food – which is likely to be just as sugary and as high in calories as dessert…

Some people believe that, in a situation like this, people will self-regulate and eat less at the break than they would if the break were served later. From my observations over 17 years, though, that does not seem to generally be the case. People still pile up their plates with cookies (or whatever else is served). They then snack on the pile for a while and end up leaving most of the plate sitting on a table somewhere – uneaten! Not only have we failed to have people take less food but we have also generated a lot of wasted food – and spent a fair amount of money to do so.

The two primary solutions I offer to clients are (1) to change the time of the afternoon break and/or (2) to serve the dessert from lunch at the afternoon break. If they also need to rein in their budget, then I really will push for option #2. In fact, I will often recommend serving dessert at the PM break even if the break already is, or can be, scheduled for a later time.

Pushing the break back a bit in the schedule lets folks have a bit more time to digest lunch (and possibly dessert) before they are presented with more food. However, serving dessert at the afternoon break, in conjunction with a time shift or not, does more than just spread out the calorie intake.

People do eat a bit less at lunch (simply because you are providing less) and their stomachs will not be as full if you omit dessert from lunch. With less calories consumed at lunch, you attendees will more likely be ready for dessert when you serve it later in the afternoon. And, since dessert is typically included in the price of the lunch you provided, you are not spending more to have it brought out at the break. [So long as this option is arranged ahead of time, most hotels are quite willing to work with you on it and do not charge extra for serving dessert separately.] So… not only have we saved some money by not serving a whole new set of snacks but we will also, hopefully, find ourselves with less food left over both after lunch and after the break.

While this solution does not work for all groups in all situations, it is one more option to be aware of that you can use to trim your food costs while still providing your event’s participants with an enjoyable conference food experience – and I frequently recommend it to my clients.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

What are Base Prices and Inclusive Prices?

The simple answer (to me, anyway) is that Base Price and Inclusive Price are on opposite ends of the same equation – with tax and other charges in between. So how does that work if you are catering an event?

On a typical menu with catering pricing for a hotel, you will see a price listed next to each item or package. Often, that price is followed by a “++”. As discussed in my post on hidden charges, the “++” (or “plus-plus”) represents taxes and services charges that are added to the Base Price that is listed on the menu. If you cannot find the rates on the catering menus, ask your CSM for that information – you need to know it!

Now, let’s look at an example (warning – math ahead!)…

I’ve chosen to serve a dinner that is listed as $50 per person on the menu. Remember, that is the Base Price for my choice. For this example, taxes are 7.75% and the hotel will add a 20% service charge to the bill as well. That gives me an Inclusive Price of $64.65/person to serve that menu option. So how did I get to that number? Here’s the equation:

Inclusive Price = Base Price x (1 + Service Charge Rate) x (1 + Tax Rate)

Plugging numbers in yields…

Inclusive Price = $50 x 1.2 x 1.0775 = $64.65

So, if Base Price is the amount without tax and service charges figured in, then Inclusive Price is the amount with tax and service charge included.

Here is a simple price calculator that I’ve cooked up in Excel that you can download and play with. It will calculate either Inclusive Price from a known Base Price or Base Price from a target Inclusive Price. The only other information you’ll need to know is the tax rate and service charge amount and it will do the rest.

By the way, does the Inclusive Price appear excessive to you? If so you’re not alone. It seems that way to many people when they compare it to the cost of eating out. However, the same dynamic is at play there, too – people usually just aren’t consciously aware of it. The restaurant menu lists the Base Price for each item; you pay taxes on top of that, and tip on top of that. If you were to order a $50 meal, by the time you add tax and tip to the bill, your final tab will be similar to the amount calculated above (though, obviously, you can control how much to tip…).

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Healthy Meeting Options – Beverages

The food and beverage choices that you make as a planner can have a huge impact on your attendees. In fact, the food that someone has at a conference can be remembered long after the event is done and that memory may even last longer than whatever they learned in the actual sessions! So what can you do to help your attendees to have a healthier meeting? We have previously discussed healthy options for food; this time, let’s take a look and the other half of that pairing – beverages.

1. One of the most obvious ways to help people drink healthier is to provide water for the meeting participants. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I have been to plenty of meetings where water was not provided. Be sure to provide water at your meetings. The next big question is whether to serve water in pitchers or bottles. I will stay out that debate here, though I will say that I have heard compelling arguments for both sides of the debate. Suffice to say that which one you choose may come down to personal preference, event budget, or other factors as much as it may be driven by environmental concerns.

2. Provide non-caloric options, such as tea and coffee. Remember, these drinks are only non-caloric so long as you do not add anything else to them, which brings us to the next option…

3. Choose nonfat or low-fat milk for folks to use in their coffee or tea.

4. While I have never been able to completely eliminate soda from the day’s menus, it is possible to offer healthier options here, too. Vegetable juice, fruit juice (100%, please!), unsweetened teas, and even carbonated waters are all good options here.

5. Finally, exercise portion control. Yes, this is possible with drinks (bars do it all the time). Asking the hotel or caterer for smaller cups (an 6.4 ounce cup instead of an 8 ounce or larger mug, for example) means that, at minimum, an attendee needs to walk a bit more to get the same amount of beverage, which burns that many more calories. It may not seem like much, but it does add up.

Providing healthier options for beverages at a meeting may seem like it would yield only minimal benefits - and that may be true if it is the only approach used. However, when used in conjunction with healthier meal options and increased exercise during meetings, it can greatly support the overall goal of healthier meetings.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Healthy Meeting Options – Meals & Snacks

When planning meals and snacks for meetings, it can be hard to provide healthy options to participants. Actually, the hardest part is getting people to choose healthy options but, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. So what’s a meeting planner to do? Make sure the options exist. Here are some of the ways I strive to provide healthier meal and snack options for attendees at my meetings.

1. Make sure that fruit and/or vegetables are available as much as possible within the constraints of the menu. For me, this usually means whole fruit for breaks, particularly in the afternoon, since they last longer on display and can easily be taken by those who want a healthy snack later on. I typically include a vegetable-based item for receptions.

2. For any meal where fowl or red meat is a main component, be sure to include a vegetarian option. For lunch buffets, this could mean including entrées that are based on non-meat proteins such as beans or tofu, or alternate meats such as fish, depending on the needs of your diners. At receptions, including multiple dishes that do not contain meat gives participants additional choices.

3. Control meal portions. This is nearly impossible to do with buffets, but is quite easy to do with plated lunches (read this post for more info on plated vs. buffet meals). You can control portions at receptions through choices of items or by having servers walk around the room instead of simply putting all of the food out at once (which I discuss briefly here).

4. Talk to the chef about lean meat options so that those who choose meat dishes still get a healthier meal. The chef can often even work with limited budgets to still make this happen.

5. If possible, choose snacks that are low in fat and salt and that contain no added sugar.

Now, I don’t always use every one of these ideas but even choosing just one or two of them will help you provide healthy meals or snacks for your events. Use the ones that make sense for your budget and particular situation – and, above all else, that make sense for your group. If the attendees won't eat a particular item, then providing it is a waste of food and money. However, that does not mean I can't provide healthy options to that group…it just means I need to work a little more to find something they will like.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Ed. Note: A follow up post on beverages - the other half of F&B - can be found here.

How much coffee do I need for my group?

This is an excellent question, especially for anyone planning a meeting that has an early morning start. Figuring out how much coffee (or tea, or decaf, or any beverage really) to serve a group is one of the most common tasks that meeting planners are asked to do – and the answer can be more art than science.

First, the science…
One gallon (of coffee, decaf, or tea) contains 128 ounces of your chosen beverage. The typical hotel coffee cup is usually either 8 ounces or 6.4 ounces. This means that, on average, you should get 16 to 20 cups of coffee per gallon. If everyone attending your meeting has just one cup of coffee and the coffee cups are 6.4 ounces, then you will need one gallon of coffee for every 20 people attending. So, my group of 100 people needs 5 gallons of coffee, yes? I wish it were always that simple.

Now, the art…
There are many factors that can influence how much coffee you will need but I find that they can be condensed down into essentially three main areas: the time the coffee is being served, the length of time the coffee will be available, and the group’s “coffee preference”.

1. What time is coffee being served? Are you serving coffee first thing in the morning, later in the morning, or at some point in the afternoon? People will generally drink more coffee first thing in the morning than at other times. Afternoons are often the next highest time of coffee consumption as attendees look to combat the post-lunch lull.

2. How long will coffee service be available? If people only have 5-10 minutes to get their coffee, then most people will just drink one cup and may even choose to not have any coffee at all. On the other hand, if coffee is available for a half-hour or more, then your coffee drinkers will go back time and again for refills. The longer the coffee is out, the more refills they can get. A typical break is 15-30 minutes, which is plenty of time for people to have one or two cups of coffee.

3. What is the group’s “coffee preference”? This can be the trickiest to answer. Basically, it comes down to what percentage of the group drinks coffee, tea, or decaf (as opposed to other beverages, like water or juice) and how many cups will the average member of the group drink. I have some groups who drink very little coffee (or tea for that matter), so I adjust the total order for caffeinated beverages downward. For my hardcore coffee fiends, I increase the order significantly since I know that they might average 4-5 cups of coffee during a 30-minute break.

Also consider other possible impacts on your coffee needs… How about the coffeehouse across the street? Or, does your group like to stay out late the night before the meeting?

In any case, the more you know about your group’s behavior and preferences, the closer you will be able to estimate how much coffee you will need to provide to them so that they can be satisfied with the service yet not have a large amount left over.

When I don’t know much about a group’s preferences or behavior – such as when working with a group for the first time – I fall back on the “science”. Using an estimate of one cup per person and 16 cups per gallon gives me a solid number to start with. I can then adjust the figure up or down from there based on the timing of the service and any other information I can glean by talking with my client about the group’s coffee habits.

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Should I order a break package or should I order items "a la carte" for my Break?

The answer, as with so many things in this industry, is “it depends”. Both methods of ordering F&B (Food & Beverage) service for your event have their advantages and drawbacks. Which one you choose depends on your specific circumstances and needs.

A service package from the hotel gives you a set menu for a set amount of time for a set price (typically per person). For example, a hotel might offer a “Chocolate Lover’s Break”. For the price listed, you would get chocolate chip cookies, brownies, chocolate bars, coffee, tea, decaf, and sodas for, say, half an hour. They pretty much guarantee that there will be enough food for everyone. They will maintain enough food and drinks (within reason) for everyone to partake the duration of your break. When the time is up, everything is removed. Using packages can be a huge time-saver for the meeting planner. The hotel does all of the calculations for how much to serve and the planner knows that there will be enough food for everyone. This approach also works well in situations where you do not know the eating habits of the group or there are enough people eating so as to even out the variations of individual preferences. Please note, though, that ordering a package does not allow you to get more than you pay for. If you guarantee for 75 and 100 people show up, the hotel will only put out what they calculate to be enough for 75 – unless you increase your order to 100.

If you were to order the same break a la carte (or “in bulk”), you would specify to the hotel exactly how many cookies you wanted to have served, how many brownies, how much coffee, and so forth. The hotel would not set out any more than what you ordered (though you could always order more). This approach works well if you do not want all of the items in a set package or if the hotel does not have a package that has the items you need. It does require a little more work from the planner as well. You need to figure out exactly how much of each item your group will consume and order accordingly. The plus side to this is that you can tailor your break (in this case) to be more in tune with what your group actually wants. If my group doesn’t eat brownies but loves cookies, then I can order just cookies – instead of having a lot of brownies left over after the break is done (which then might just get thrown away). You can also have your food and/or drinks out for longer than you might get with a package.

When deciding which approach to use for my groups, I look at several factors: how well do I know the food preferences of the group, how large is the group, and (most importantly for groups on a tight budget) which is the better price value. If I know the group well, then I lean towards a la carte ordering. If it is a large group with diverse preferences, I look to packages to provide what I need. Ultimately, though, I sit down and do the math. I will calculate the total cost of the break both with the package and with the a la carte items I would provide if I were to order in bulk. This takes a bit of time to work out but allows me to know if the package is cheaper, more expensive, or the same cost as my expected bulk order.

Ultimately, though, my final decision is based on the needs of the group and which approach is the best way to fulfill those needs. But, by spending the time to compare approaches, I am better able to determine whether I should order a package or a la carte for my client’s food functions. I am also better able to work with the caterer/hotel to ensure that my group gets the best food options possible at the best price I can arrange.

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director

Ordering Items "On Consumption"

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned a few ways to gain a measure of control over your F&B budget at your meetings, conferences, and events. Ordering some of your items “on consumption” is another easy way to manage your costs.

“On consumption” is a term that essentially means that you only pay for what your attendees actually take or consume, instead of paying for everything that the hotel puts out for them to choose from. When you order sodas “on consumption” for your group of 40 people, for example, the hotel might put out 40 cans but, if only 15 sodas are taken by your participants, then you only pay the hotel for those 15 instead of the 40 they put out on the table. When you scale this up to a large event, the potential savings can be huge. But, before you get too excited about the possibilities, please bear in mind that there are a few limits as to what this can be applied to.

This approach really only works with pre-packaged items that do not spoil or otherwise become unsafe to serve again at a later date. For example: bottles or cans of soda, water, or other beverages; candy or snack bars; ice cream bars; or bags of chips or nuts – these are all good candidates for being ordered “on consumption”. The hotel can take any "left over" items and sell them to another group. Whole fruit is also often a viable possibility as well (they come pre-packaged by nature) as there are many uses for fruit that the hotel can take advantage of before they spoil.

It cannot be done with items such as pastries, breads, carving stations, coffee or tea, fresh-baked cookies, etc. These items, once made for you, are yours. The hotel cannot repackage them to sell (or give!) to another group – in fact, in many cases, they legally are forbidden from doing so.

So what about the other end of the spectrum? What if the group decides to take a lot more that what we can pay for? Let’s use our group of 40 people as the example again. To prevent our example group from taking way more than what we are prepared (or able) to pay for, we set an upper limit with the hotel. By instructing them to put out no more than 45 sodas, we have effectively capped the total amount that we would have to pay for these drinks – which means we can know with certainty how much of our budget is committed to this item.

As a meeting planner, wise use of “on consumption” can really help you to manage your F&B budget – but you have to ask for it. Few catering departments will offer it to you. As always, though, the hotel is your partner in this. Work with them to determine which of their F&B items are best suited to order “on consumption” and which items are best suited for your group and their needs.

- Karl Baur, CMP, Project Director

A Quick Tip...

for reducing your meeting’s food and beverage bill.

Serve dessert at your afternoon break.

It is such a simple concept, yet it is one that is often overlooked by novice planners. Indeed, most planners I work with when they are new to the field tend to treat each meal function as a separate event, unconnected to any other on the schedule. Although this is true to some extent, when it comes to breaks, you have a golden opportunity to save some money while providing timely snacks to your group.

I have often seen draft agendas that have lunch from 12:30 – 1:30, with a break (including more food!) set to occur at 2 or 2:30. Now, I love to eat, especially when someone else is paying for it, but this is a lot of food in a very short time. Your attendees will have just had lunch, including dessert, and you are now offering them more food – which is likely to be just as sugary as dessert…

Some planners believe that, in a situation like this, people will self-regulate and eat less at the break than they would if the break were served later. From my observations, though, that does not seem to generally be the case. People still pile up their plates with cookies (or whatever else is served). They then snack on the pile for a while and end up leaving most of the plate sitting on a table somewhere – uneaten! Not only have we failed to have people take less food but we have also generated a lot of wasted food – and spent a fair amount of money to do so.

The two primary solutions I offer to clients are (1) to change the time of the afternoon break and/or (2) to serve the dessert from lunch at the afternoon break. If they also need to rein in their budget, then I really will push for option #2. In fact, I will often recommend option #2 even if the break is or can be scheduled at a later time.

Serving dessert at the break instead of immediately after lunch helps spread out the meal a bit. People eat a bit less (or there is less wasted food) at lunch and their stomachs will not be as full – they will be ready for dessert when you serve it later. And, since dessert is typically included in the price of the lunch you provided, you are not spending more to have it brought out at the break. [So long as this option is arranged ahead of time, most hotels are quite willing to work with you on it and do not charge extra for serving dessert separately.] So… not only have we saved some money by not serving a whole new set of snacks but we will also, hopefully, find ourselves with less food left over both after lunch and after the break.

While this solution does not work for all groups in all situations, it is one more option to be aware of that you can use to trim your food costs while still providing your event’s participants with an enjoyable conference food experience.

- Karl Baur, CMP, Project Director