Catering Options for a Conference
Panning a conference is the easiest and the toughest task for an even planner. When you have the right personnel and tool, it’s a walk in the park; if not you can quite the industry before you enjoy the fruits of your labour.
Conference attendees come from different cultural backgrounds and some have special food needs that you have to incorporate in the tight budget.
Food wastage should be a priority. That explains why in the forms you have to indicate prior to attendance for them to plan. Other things you can use in the food planning process include
- The number of people attending the conference
- Special needs
- Cultural backgrounds
- Availability of ingredients and food items within the conference venue
- Food tastes and possibility of flexibility
Some venue offers the ground and it’s upon you to get an outside caterer to take care of the food needs.
Some hotels have in service catering services but you have to give them what you need based on your clientele for them to quote the price. Here are some of the catering options to consider
Self serve buffet
A buffet is the cheapest catering option for a conference. As long as you have the number of attendee, you only need to avail the ingredients and have guests to serve to their fill. It creates a sense of comfort and satisfaction for everyone needs a home-away-from home kind of food service.
Caterers should focus on a balanced diet to make sure guests get the required nutrients in a meal. Picker eaters have variety of options to choose from which also makes them well catered for. Now the time of meal determines what to have on the table.
During breakfast then a full breakfast meal is important while lunch should have at least two proteins for both plant and animal proteins. That also applies to carbohydrates and vitamins. The choice depends on what is locally available in the market.
Soups, drinks and fruits should be in plenty taking care of people who have issues with stomach acidity.
You may not provide the supplementary diet menu, but something to help them deal with their weight loss journey line bone soup is important so as not to feel left out in the catering budget.
That helps them to increase mental awareness despite the strict keto oils they consume.
Open catering service
Conferences that take a longer time are tricky in terms of preparation. Imagine a guest staying in a conference venue for over a month, how do you quench their thirst to make their own meals?
That is the market gap that furnished apartments comes to fill. That is the kind of service in open catering service.
You avail the foods and in most cases are the barbeque products, although the cooks are available to offer a helping hand, guests who want to take part in the process are free to join. They may not do it to detail but the fact that they are active participants fulfilling.
It also comes in handy to create a bond among conference attendees. Some of the organizers use such opportunities as team building activities.
The different culture also makes one crave for their homemade meals if nit traditional meals. Allow then to state the ingredients they need and allow them to prepare.
Other chooses to give you instructions and you do it on their behalf. This also includes juicing and cutting of fruits.
It is also a good time for people on a diet to prepare what they crave to gain maximum benefits if you use it correctly
In-house catering
Conference for a limited number of people and that goes on for a long time can work well with in house catering service. It is similar to when you host guests. Do you have to hire caterers for it. You only need a few professional to help around but give them a home feeling when it comes to food service.
They sit in a long and wide dining table and serve themselves just like they do while home. It creates a sense of belonging and comfort.
It is mostly in legal conferences when you use psychological approach to ensure people speak out their mind during brainstorming sessions.
Waiter service catering
Holding a conference in a hotel in most cases you have a waiter service catering. You sit comfortably at the lounge and you have the menu at hand for you to choose what suits you at that time. Its advantage is that you can order even a breakfast meal during lunchtime or a full meal during breakfast.
You have no time limit especially when you have free time and you also get to update yourself using the televisions within the eyes view.
Take away service
When the conference requires a lot of travelling with minimal time for sitting down to eat then take away service is a catering option to consider.
Although it limits on what you can carry due to the nature of the takeaway foods, you still have to enjoy your meal while on transit.
A good example of take away service is when on a plane, the food is precooked on land and loaded to be eaten on board. Although you prepare a variety, you can still accommodate as many people as possible.
As a caterer, you have to understand the logistics around the venue and choose the kind of catering option to for.
You have to consider the attendee’s interests for you to know whether this is what is appropriate or not. Some have this in their application form to gauge the choice of the majority of the attendees.
