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

Who Staffs Your Event?

Last week, I shared the “1 per 100” rule, a method for estimating how many staff you should plan to have to handle the registration desk and, by extension, how many staff you will need to manage your event. So, now that you have decided how many people you will need to have helping you, “who” are they?

To begin with, you need to decide what jobs need to be done while you are onsite for your event. Each of those jobs will need a different type and level of expertise. Some jobs, such as passing out nametags, can be done by folks with little training and knowledge of meeting planning. Others, such as audio-visual sets, require specialized knowledge that not everyone possesses. And, of course, there are also those jobs that require a lot of knowledge about your event and all of the details that went into putting it together. Make sure you have people with the skills to handle the jobs you are assigning to them and your event will go much smoother.

When were planning staffing levels for events we produce for clients, we start with the “1 per 100” rule and then look at the tasks that need to be handled. The numbers and assignments will be different for each event, but here is one example…

We once did a conference for 900 people that covered two days and had eight concurrent breakouts happening at different times throughout the conference. Registration/check-in opened the day before the conference began (they had pre-conference sessions), so about 200 people would arrive that day. Approximately forty speakers would take part in the program over the course of the conference and we needed to collect presentations from all of them. The program also included an exhibit hall and a high-tech “show” to open the conference.

The “1 per 100” rule would suggest nine staff, but the complexity of the program indicates a need for a couple more than that. But did all of the staff need to be trained meeting planners? Nope. For this event, we scheduled 2 meeting planners and needed 9 other positions to cover the conference. We filled the non-planner positions with temps hired though the local CVB and with trained support staff. Here’s how it broke down:

1 Lead Planner (this person is the one who planned the event – they know everything! – they work with the client and handle any tasks they do not specifically assign elsewhere, such as the caterer)
1 Meeting Planner (to process onsite registrations and collect fees – this involves handling money and requires a higher level of responsibility)
1 Trained Staff (to interface with speakers and the AV company)
1 Trained Staff (to interface with exhibitors and the drayage company)
1 Trained Staff (to oversee the registration area staff)
6 Temps (to hand out conference materials and welcome people to the event – they only stayed until noon the first day. Once the majority of registrants showed up, we were able to manage from that point on without them.)

Now, this doesn’t cover every single job that needed to be done during the conference, but should serve to illustrate the types of jobs handled and what level of training or knowledge is needed for each one. We also had volunteers for the conference, but they were on board specifically to monitor the workshops and take care of any issues that came up during sessions, so I’ve left them out of my counts above (though we did train them!). If we’d been responsible for monitoring the sessions, we’d have had to provide the staff to do that as well.

This subject is too complex and varied to effectively cover in the short amount of space I have here to deal with it but I hope this brief overview is enough to get you started. Just remember the “1 per 100” rule and you won’t be too far off.

- Karl Baur, CMP • Project Director, RDL enterprises

Thinking Outside the Box for Small Meetings

It is amazing to see how the current economic situation is bringing out great new ideas in many industries. I recently read an article in Corporate Meetings & Incentives that described a process for meeting planners and administrative personnel to help their companies save two very important resources – time and money – with regard to the meetings they do on an ongoing basis.

It is becoming known in the business as “Meeting in a Box.” The article is a bit lengthy and may be somewhat confusing to someone not directly involved in the meetings industry. However, the concept is basically that the planner and hotel partner to create pre-negotiated packages for a client who does many small meetings. You can read the full article here.

We have done something similar in the past with a series of small trainings held throughout California which involved developing pre-negotiated packages with preferred hotels that included set menus, meeting space, basic audiovisual, and standardized contracts. “Admins can then choose a package that meets their needs and book the program without having to negotiate costs or review contract terms and conditions.”

This relationship is a benefit to everyone involved – the planner and hotel are able to provide their services to more companies and the client (admin person and their company) is able to more accurately track the expenses, save money, and increase efficiency. I’d say these benefits are always important, no matter the economic climate!

- Ginger Myrick • Meeting Planner, RDL enterprises

Teamwork

Everyone is for it, everyone professes to do it, everyone agrees it is vital to business.

But what is it really? Is it sharing information? Is it being pro-active in office manners? Is it treating colleagues with respect? Is it being truly fair?

Yes, all of this and more.

It is more than just a word to be bandied about. It is about morale.

Teamwork is self-explanatory. It means helping your co-workers, sometimes before they ask for help. It means deep listening; understanding them, getting vested and caring. It means respecting your co-workers. It also means understanding various ideas around a subject and being mature enough to not take rejection personally.

Each individual is a unique being, yet all are brought together into a specific environment to work: to pull in the same direction, to give up personal conceit for the common good.

Teamwork means treating all employees with equal dignity and attention.

Teamwork means follow-through: it means being dependable.

Too easy it is for all good will to be swept aside in the jumble of the day. Do unto others, not as has already been done to you, but how you would be done to in a perfect world.

Talk to your colleagues. It shows you care.

Look at yourself with fresh eyes.

Here is the link to a wonderful article that gives 8 steps to building teamwork in the office.

- Alex Zabelin, Meeting Planner