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

Five Types of Vegetarians that Planners Should Know About

If meals are provided as part of your conference or event, you should make sure that, somewhere on the registration form, there is a place for attendees to notify you of their dietary preferences. The typical meal at a conference will include a protein (such as chicken, beef, or fish), a starch (potatoes or rice are most common), and a selection of vegetables – but that won’t do for everyone. Though there are plenty of diets out there that all planners should be aware of (and I don’t mean diets to lose weight…), the vegetarian varieties are among the most common. Here is a brief description of each type.

Vegetarian: At this point, I think everyone knows about this option. Essentially, vegetarians do not eat meat but will consume eggs and dairy products. Sometimes, this type will also be called “lacto-ovo-vegetarian”.

Pescatarian: This is a person who abstains from eating animal flesh (meat), with the exception of fish. Depending on the individual, they may or may not eat eggs or dairy products.

Lacto-Vegetarian: A lacto-vegetarian does not eat meat or eggs, but will consume dairy products (such as cheese or milk-based dishes).

Ovo-Vegetarian: This diner does not eat meat of any kind, nor dairy products – but does eat eggs.

Vegan: A vegan avoids meat, dairy, eggs, and every other animal-based food product. Most of the time, they will also avoid eating any food that contains an animal-derived ingredient as well.

The very short list above is hardly the end all be all of dietary restrictions. Add in food allergies such as nuts or gluten, and religious strictures such as those for the Jewish and Muslim faiths, and the list of diets that a planner may need to accommodate at their event can grow considerably. However, becoming familiar with the five types of vegetarians listed here will be a good place to start.

There was a time in our industry when the vegetarian option for a conference was just a plate of pasta in a cream sauce or steamed vegetables on a bed of rice. As diners (and Chefs!) have become more sophisticated, many more options have become available to planners for their conference menus. Use their expertise and let the Chef come up with something brilliant for you – but be sure to ask your attendees ahead of time what their preferences are…

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Ed. Note: Check out these related posts for more event dining ideas.

Creating a Wonderful Dining Experience on a Budget
How to Lower Costs for Small Group Meal Functions
Healthy Meeting Options – Meals & Snacks

What is “Conference Chicken”? And why serve it?

Planning a small meeting or a large conference can be a challenge when it comes to choosing the correct food & beverage for the event. So many attendees have various and unusual tastes in foods, not to mention sever allergies to certain kinds of foods. Some of these food challenges may include allergies to glutton, sugar, salt, and MSG. Strict diets that some attendees must adhere to, like diabetic, vegan, and vegetarian. Or all the people that have very specific food dislikes. Often clients want to serve their attendees something that they may personally enjoy without taking all of the above into consideration. Usually, fish & red meat are not the best ideas, although clients do choose them.

We often recommend a safer choice that most people will enjoy and that a good chef can prepare in a delicious fashion. That entrée choice is what has become known as “Conference Chicken”! Now, some of you might think that chicken can be boring, but a good chef can do wonders with flavor & presentation of the conference favorite. So, when planning your next event, here are some delicious & fun recipes from Cooking Light that you might want to think of serving your guests – or to use as ideas for larger meal functions. Share your ideas with the Chef as you prepare the menu. They can be very helpful in making your meal wishes come to fruition. Here’s to the success of your meals!

~ Cyndy Hutchinson • Executive Director, RDL enterprises

Ed. Note: Working with the chef is a key component of producing great meals for any event on a budget. For more of a look at that concept, click here.

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

How long does it take to serve lunch for 100 people?

When I first heard this question, my immediate reaction based on experience was to say “about one hour” and leave it at that. However, this question actually opens up several issues that I think are important to consider as well when you are planning a lunch (or any meal) for your group. To address those issues, I contacted one of my counterparts on the hotel side of the equation to get her thoughts as well. Megan Chappell is a Director of Convention Services and she deals with timing and staffing issues for banquet services constantly. She was kind enough to share her guidelines with me, which I have incorporated into my thoughts below.

Before addressing how long people take to eat their meal, though, let’s look at plated and buffet lunches and see how those affect staffing. After all, the number of staff working your event can impact how long it takes to serve the meal.

For plated lunches (let’s assume a three-course meal), a hotel will typically provide one server for every 30 people. They may change that figure to one per 20 people for high-end events (such as weddings or VIP lunches). On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve worked with hotels that would staff one per 40 people for larger conferences. So, for 100 people dining, I would expect to see 3-5 servers working the room.

The calculation for buffets works a little differently. Here, a hotel will plan to do a single-sided buffet for up to 75 people. Typically, one server will man the line. For 75-150 people, they will do a double-sided buffet and add a second server to staff the line. So, if you’re planning a buffet lunch for 100 people, I would look to have a double-sided buffet line and two servers to manage it.

Of course, the base calculations for both plated and buffet meals use a default time of one hour for the meal service, so what about the actual serving of the meal? How can that be done faster?

Well, there are a couple of things you can do that can speed up delivery of the meal. The first option is to have certain parts of the meal pre-set, meaning that those items are already on the table when the meal is served. Salad and dessert are commonly done this way when serving plated meals for lunch events on a short timetable. With buffets, there is not much that can be pre-set since the whole idea of a buffet is to let diners choose what they get for their meal. Another option available is to ask the hotel to add extra servers or extra buffet lines – but be prepared to pay for those extra bodies and lines. There are real costs involved in providing those to you that the hotel must recoup. [By the way, if you want to do a buffet and are on a short timeline for lunch, do not do a Deli Buffet! This is the slowest type of buffet for diners to get through.]

So we’ve now sped up the delivery of lunch. Does this mean we can get everyone in and out of there quicker? Interestingly enough, the answer is no, the meal still takes about one hour to complete, regardless of the number of diners. “No”? Why not?

Even if extra servers deliver plated lunches quicker or you can pre-set the entire meal, diners still take about an hour to complete finish up. And, it does not seem to matter how many buffet lines you provide; it still takes a group 15-20 minutes to go through the lines and 30-40 minutes to eat (not counting second or third helpings…). I think some of the reason for this can ultimately be ascribed to human behavioral patterns and what we are mentally “programmed” to do. In the US at least, lunch is generally expected to be 30 minutes to one hour in length (consider your lunch break at work, for example) and I believe that groups of people automatically and unconsciously tend to follow that guideline.

Out of curiosity, I conducted a little experiment at home and at work for a week to see how long my meals would take alone or with company. Eating by myself, I would get through a meal in 15-30 minutes from the time the food hit the table, depending on what I was eating and how much of a hurry I was in. When I ate with others, meals would take longer to finish, especially if there were multiple courses. In fact, the more people present at the table, the longer the average time spent at the meal. Then factor in delivery time from the kitchen to the table, and meals with other people frequently ended up being approximately one hour in length…

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Food and Beverage Minimums in Contracts

Those of you who have been in the industry a while will most certainly come up against food and beverage (F&B) minimums at some pointing your career and how you have handled them will likely have been determined by your client’s needs and the particular event’s specifications. For those of you who are new to meeting planning, F&B minimums can be a bit daunting.

So what is a food and beverage minimum and why would I allow them into my contracts? Well, the term itself is pretty self-explanatory – it is the minimum amount of food and beverage your group is committing to in the contract – but does not go far enough to capture all that the clause entails.

F&B minimums in a contract will nearly always be spelled out in terms of dollars to be spent on catering for your event. You are spending at least that amount of money, regardless of what you order or how many people actually attend. If I have an F&B minimum of $15,000, then my final catering bill will be at least $15,000. It is important to note, too, that the minimum is the base price, exclusive of tax and service charges. (For more on these “hidden charges”, check out this post.)

The hotel calculates the minimum based on the meal functions that you have planned and secured space for at the property. They also look at how many people are projected to attend those events. If the number seems unreasonable to you, do your own calculations based on your best information about the group and using the hotel’s own menus, then make a counter-offer to the hotel. Remember, like nearly any other clause in the contract, you can suggest changes and negotiate terms. When I see an F&B minimum in a draft contract, I will always do my own (realistic!) calculation of what I think my group will order – and try to get a lower number in the contract. This leaves me some “wiggle room” in case my numbers are not as high as I expect or if the client reduces the size of or cancels any particular function.

So why are those clauses even in the contract? Basically, this is a bit of self-protection for the hotels that arose out of the days when planners would book the sun and fail to deliver even the moon. Hotels needed to protect themselves from the unrealistic projections of planners. (OK, not all planners did this but enough did that the trend was very disturbing for hotels.) As a result, the F&B minimum was “born”. It allowed the hotel or caterer to make the planner be realistic in their projections of how much food they would actually order once the meeting occurred – and they enforced this by making the planner put their money where their mouth was. If you tell the hotel that you are doing a banquet for 100 people, then you need to be willing to commit close to that amount as the minimum. Planners quickly learned to look at their events a little more critically so that they could be more accurate in booking those events.

Don’t get upset when you see an F&B minimum in the contract, though do check the numbers carefully. Just as we as planners want certain protections in there, so, too, do the hotels and this is one protection I agree with. Though, as I mentioned earlier, I do work to ensure that the minimum requested is a realistic target for my group to hit. If I know my group is only likely to spend $5,000 in F&B, I will not sign a contract for any higher amount. Neither will I argue if the hotel wants to impose a $2,500 minimum, especially if I know my group can easily make that level.

~ 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 dry snack mix do I need for my reception?

This question has come up for me a lot of late, both online and off, and is one of those areas where your budget can quickly get out of hand if you do not have at least a rough guideline for how much to serve. Dry snacks such as peanuts, pretzels, popcorn, or chips are a staple in bars, very common for house parties, and fairly common for receptions following meetings – especially those receptions with a bar. Why is that? For house parties, it is primarily because they are easy for the host to provide. There is little to no prep time and all you really need is a bowl (though that may be optional depending on the party). In bars, dry snacks are a good way to sell more alcohol. The salts in and on the dry snacks promote thirst, which in turn leads to more sales. Even if you serve “unsalted” dry snacks, people eating them tend to consume more beverages than they would with “wetter” foods.

So how much of the snack mix should you serve? A good rule of thumb is to have one pound of dry snacks for every fifteen people in attendance. You can adjust that figure up or down based on the specific preferences of your group and what you are trying to accomplish with your reception. If nothing else is being served to eat, then you will need more – I’ll usually go with an estimate of ten people per pound in such cases. If you are providing a lot of other food choices, you may be able to get away with twenty people or more per pound. Knowing your group’s preferences will help you gauge how much you need to adjust the figure, too.

For receptions following meetings, dry snack mixes are often chosen because they are usually cheaper than providing other fare. In fact, they can even be cheaper than basic cheese platters or plates of fruit or vegetables and dips – but be sure to double check the venue’s pricing. You may not save as much as you think. Another reason for providing dry snacks is the same as any bar – to drive up drink sales (of all beverages). This could help you meet a minimum sales requirement for a cash bar.

The main reason, though, that I have come across for serving dry snacks instead of other reception items is to discourage people from making the reception their dinner. I have talked before about how much food to serve at a reception and how many different items to provide. If you recall, one of the dangers with receptions is that attendees may try to make the reception their dinner. Many reception items can easily be made into a dinner for someone – not so with dry snacks. Yes, they can still make it dinner, but it is more of a stretch for them to do so. Serving dry snack mixes is a good way to encourage people to leave the reception to find dinner.

Regardless of your reasons for choosing dry snacks for your event, though, start with a ratio of one pound of snacks per 15 people and you should have a decent estimate of how many snacks you will need to provide.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Should I order a plated lunch or a buffet for my meeting?

Believe it or not, this is a question even seasoned planners ask themselves on a regular basis. The answer is dependent on factors such as number of diners, budgetary limits, and amount of time available in the schedule for lunch. Let’s take a look at when you might prefer to use one rather than the other…

Plated lunches are often cheaper than buffets, which is one reason why you might choose this type of lunch. Why are they usually cheaper? Basically, it comes down to number of options and portion control. There is more variety in a buffet than with plated meals. A plated meal will have an entrée, and one or two side dishes while a buffet typically has 2-3 entrée options and 2-4 side dishes to choose from. With a plated lunch, the kitchen can control how much food is served to each diner, allowing them to know with some certainty exactly how much each person eating will cost them in terms of ingredients and labor for your chosen meal. Buffets have little to no portion control. Each diner can take as much or as little as they want. These two factors mean that the kitchen has to prepare more food overall than if the meal is plated. After all, you (and they) do not want an entrée choice or a side dish to run out before everyone has had a chance to get some!

Buffet menus, as mentioned above, typically offer more variety to your diners than plated meals. This is particularly valuable if you are working with a group whose dietary restrictions and preferences are unknown to you. With a buffet, you can accommodate most dietary preferences with ease. Accommodating various diets with a plated lunch simply requires special meals to be prepared by the kitchen. This is not difficult but it is one more thing that you, as the planner, need to be aware of and plan for.

Other factors can also come into play in determining which type of meal, plated or buffet, you choose to serve. Time and number of diners are the two biggest ones that come to mind. Buffets work great when you have a lot of time and not a lot of diners. When you have a lot of diners and very little time to feed everyone, plated meals are almost always best.

I have had some people tell me that plated is always better or that buffet is always the one I should choose but the truth is: the better choice is the one that is right for each particular group and to never consider both options is to remove an effective tool from your meeting planning toolkit. Remember, no matter which type of service you choose, the goal is the same: to efficiently serve your guests so that they get a good dining experience that fits your meeting or conference.

~ Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

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

How to Lower Costs for Small Group Meal Functions

We have discussed in previous posts how you can control costs in receptions by limiting items served. We have also looked at ways to save some money when providing break service to your groups (by ordering on consumption, by shifting dessert to the afternoon break, or looking at bulk vs. package pricing). We have even looked at working with the Chef to create great meals within a limited budget but what about your small groups? Lunch may be the only meal provided, yet it is just as important to control costs with a small group as it is with a large one. Planning meals for small groups can be difficult. With small groups, it can be hard to accommodate every food preference and there is often an additional “service fee” tacked on if your numbers drop below a certain amount. However, there is a way to potentially reduce the costs of providing a meal for your small group that just requires understanding where the hotel’s costs are in producing that meal for you.

The two biggest cost areas when it comes to food and beverage functions are materials costs for the food itself and the labor involved in preparing and serving the food. Find out what other groups that are at the hotel at the same time as your group are having – and serve the same meal. If you can “piggyback” onto their meals by ordering the same items for your group, you may be able to save some money on your meal function. How does this work? It basically comes down to bulk ordering and reduced staff time.

If my small group is using the same menu as a large group that is having their meal the same day, the Chef can simply include my order in with the other group when purchasing the raw materials to create the meal. The cost for 500 entrée items, like a chicken breast, can be significantly cheaper (per item) than if I only need 25 of them. By including my order of 25 with a larger group’s 500, I may be able to save a few dollars on the total cost of my meal. The same principle can work with salads, sides, and desserts, though not usually to the same extent as with entrées.

The other area of potential cost savings comes with the labor involved in putting together my meal. If my group is eating at approximately the same time as the large group (and we’re serving the same meal), then the kitchen does not need to assign additional staff for the sole purpose of creating my group’s meal. Preparing my group’s meal can be included in the food preparation for the larger group and the kitchen and the servers just need to make sure that my order is separated for actual serving. I can also ask my CSM and the Chef for meal ideas that are less labor-intensive. Again, I may be able to save some money off the total cost of my meal.

It is important to remember that any time you want to modify the contents or prices of a hotel’s banquet menus, you need to involve your Convention Services Manager at minimum. It is also preferable to include the Chef in the discussion as well. They can both work with you to find ways to reduce the costs of your meals but you have to ask. While piggybacking onto a larger group’s meal function does not work 100% of the time as a cost savings measure, it works often enough that it is a method I will always explore with the hotel when the food budget is an issue for one of my small groups.

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Creating a Wonderful Dining Experience on a Budget

So, you’re on a limited budget but need to create a menu that will blow your attendees away? The hotel’s set menu just doesn’t cut it for you? And with so many food and cooking shows on TV nowadays (and whole channels devoted to them), it seems as though everyone has become a food critic and more meeting attendees are expecting more from meals at the events they attend. So what can you do about it?

I have just four words for you: Work. With. The. Chef.

The Chef can design a menu for you, based on your budget and your group’s dietary needs, which will impress your guests while providing a balanced meal – but you have to ask. By bringing the hotel’s Executive Chef into the discussion early, you can get a fabulous meal for your attendees that is within your budget. The key items to share with the Chef are your budget, the “goals” of the meal, and any special dietary restrictions for your group.

Sharing your budget is simple (but may not be easy!) and can be given to the Chef either as a per person cap or as a total amount that you can pay for the entire meal or event. He (or she) can then give you some preliminary ideas of what meals he can create within that amount.

The goals of the meal can include food themes (Southwestern, Asian-Pacific Rim, Locally Produced Foods, etc.), what you want people to feel (full, satisfied, impressed, etc.), or your event themes. I also include in this category the types of people who will attend. Are your guests used to steak and potatoes or do they prefer certain kinds of fish, or are they epicureans who prefer new flavors and combinations? All of this is useful to a creative Chef.

In terms of dietary restrictions, the most common one for a general audience is vegetarian and the Chef can easily include vegetarian options in the menu. But what if your group is predominately vegetarian? You need to make sure the Chef knows that, as he will plan a different meal for you than if only a few of your guests are vegetarian. Other meal concerns that I have incorporated into or used as the basis for menus include: vegan, diabetic, gluten-free, food allergies, organic, and kosher. Occasionally, certain food groups might be “off the table”. [For instance, one group I worked with could not have any grapes anywhere in the food or used as garnish. This was to protest the use of pesticides in the production of the grapes, which was harming the field workers.] You must let the Chef know of any such restrictions before he begins planning your meals or you will not be happy with the outcome.

Working with the Chef is just one way to get a provide a wonderful dining experience for your attendees - but it is probably one of the most important ones.  Remember, too, that this is an interactive process. You need to be willing to take the time to sit down with the Chef to go over options, discuss your wants and needs, and listen to the Chef’s concerns and ideas as well.

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Planning a Gala Event

I recently finished planning an annual conference in Washington, DC. The last day of the conference my client held a gala dinner for 200 people. Being their conference planner, I coordinated the gala logistics including; venue location, contract negotiation, room arrangements, décor, transportation, audio-visual, food and beverage arrangements, tracked the budget, and hired a DJ, just to name of few responsibilities for this type of event.

During the planning stages, the venue required an itinerary so their staff can accommodate the flow of the banquet dinner. In this case, my client wanted to do an awards ceremony, announcements, fundraise, and a comedy show. The comedian was also our emcee. It takes time to coordinate the minute details for the agenda to maintain the quality and value of the event.

Here are some tips to create a program and schedule a flow for the event…

In creating the program handout, it’s important to thank all of your sponsors. For the content of the program, start with the title of the event and whom it is hosted by. Use a classic font like, Lucida Calligraphy or Monotype Corsiva. Then, start with the timing of the event. 7 pm is typical for gala dinners and would start with a welcome cocktail hour. Next is dinner, usually an hour after the welcome reception. At 8:00 pm, we moved them into the ballroom or main function area where the presentation begins and the first course has already been pre-served. Then, it’s on to the awards ceremony, a comedian skit, and a special guest presentation. At 8:00pm the entrée was being served. That can take up to an hour. Following the banquet dinner, we had our presenter’s finish off the awards and make a short fundraiser speech. Coffee and dessert were then served during the last presentation. Around 10:00 pm, we closed with a thank you and reminded everyone to stay and celebrate. This was the entertainment part and included a DJ for dancing. During the program schedule, when there were gaps, the DJ would play background music to comfort the silence.

If you can believe it, this type of event has its share of anxiety. The part that has a certain level of stress isn’t selecting the venue, or arranging of the gala agenda and who goes where, what time is what, do we have awards, no… It’s when it all goes live. It’s crossing your fingers the schedule of event works and works with the venue staff. If the hors d’oeuvres are exactly the way you ordered them, if the food is going to taste good, and mostly, if people show up. Then, are people going to show up? Are we ready for them to show up? Will there be more people that show up? Will there be fewer? Did I order enough food? Did I order too much? Make sure to smile. Are we within budget? Does the DJ have the agenda? Do I need to feed him or her? All the while, making sure to greet everyone, including the VIP guests. Can you imagine the pressure?

Indeed it is a lot of anxiety and you barely get to enjoy the great meal but that’s the life of a planner. We wear many hats and put out fires when no one is looking. In the end, the Gala was a huge success and people had fun. That is the reward. Being organized is one of the key elements of planning a successful event. Although, you can’t expect it to go perfectly, you can manage whatever gets in the way of running a smooth event. When all is said and done and someone says thank you, you know you did a good job.

Tess Conrad • Meeting and Conference Planner, RDL enterprises

How do I make sure that people who come late to my reception still get something to eat?

This can certainly be a problem with some groups. I used to work with one group (no names!) where, if all of their food was put out at the beginning of a two-hour reception, it would all be gone in the first 15 minutes. When you do not have the budget to simply add more food, this can be a serious problem. Here are a couple of ideas for dealing with that…

My favorite tactic is to distribute the food service throughout the evening. Instead of having the hotel put all of my reception items out at the start of the reception, I will have them put out one half or even one third of the total out at the beginning. Then, at previously determined intervals, the banquet staff brings out more food. This gives the illusion that you have added more food and forces people to slow down a bit in their consumption, allowing the latecomers to have a chance to try all of the wonderful items the hotel has prepared. You, as the meeting planner, do have to monitor this process closely as you may need to adjust the timing and/or amounts of food that are brought out each time.

Another solution is to have servers circulate through the room with your hors d’oeuvres on platters. This approach also has its advantages over the “put everything out at once” method. You can control how often the servers make their rounds of the room and you can have them make sure that they get to everyone. Another benefit is that people tend to take less from a server’s tray than when they can simply walk up to a table and load up a plate. This is partially due to the fact that there is an “observer”, which makes people more conscious of how much they take, but is mostly due to the fact that the attendee typically does not have a plate, so they are forced to eat items as they pick them up. By the time they have eaten the items they have selected, the server has moved on to other guests. As an added bonus, your guests have the treat of having someone serve them, which always makes a good impression for your event.

Notice that, in both cases, we did not order more food. We can ensure that more people get to sample the food provided…without spending more money on the reception. And our clients’ guests still experience an enjoyable reception. However, these tactics do not work 100% of the time. There are times when we are still stuck with either purchasing more food for the reception or telling people there is no more food to be had. In spite of this, we have used both approaches successfully on many occasions and they remain strong tools in our toolbox. Do not leave them out of yours!

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director

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

Budget Busters 101: Look out for hidden charges!

The specific charges I want to discuss in this week’s post are the infamous “plus-plus” charges. Now, I know these are not really “hidden” in the sense of planners not knowing about them but, if you forget about them as you are planning your event’s food budget, they can quickly break the budget.

So what does “plus-plus” mean? Plus-plus refers to service charges and taxes. These fees are added on top of the base price for, say, the per person cost of that banquet you are planning to serve to your top sales people. Menus for catering typically list the base price with the plus-plus added on. It usually looks like this: $35++. When my wife and I were looking at catering for our wedding, she was amazed at how deceptive that little “++” could be. It seems so easy to just plug that $35/person into your budget and know how much your banquet would cost – but you would end up with the wrong number. This is one place where novice planners and those who do not usually handle catering often get into trouble.

Service charges vary by specific property, though the different hotels within a city or geographical area typically have similar rates. (20% is a common rate in larger cities such as San Francisco.) Remember, too, that service charges are taxable. Taxes are set by cities and states and are one of the few items that hotels really cannot negotiate away – after all, they still have to pay those taxes to the city or state whether they collect them from you or not (unless you are lucky enough to be tax exempt). There are many others areas they would prefer to negotiate on instead. And, if you cannot find the specific numbers, ask. You need to know them.

So, let’s look at our example banquet at $35 per person (base price) again. If you are feeding 100 people and have a budget of $4,000, it looks like you are OK. However, remember that the rate is actually $35++, so you have to take service charges and tax into account to know if you are really under budget. If we assume a 20% service charge and 10% in state and local taxes, then the total for your dinner is not $3,500 but would be, instead, $4,620 – a difference of over $1,000! That represents a huge amount to a group on a tight budget and even large events with much larger food budgets can get into trouble if the planner forgets to include tax and service charges in their budgeting.

Keeping an eye on your food budget can be tricky with any group but, if you remember to budget for the plus-plus, then at least you won’t find yourself tripped up by these “hidden charges”.

- Karl Baur, CMP, Project Director