Food for Thought

Knowing and understanding attendees is tops in the F&B game, but meeting pros say that’s not all that matters.

By Angela Chiarello

Simply put, food and beverage (F&B) is vital to the success of any event. Attendees tend to remember the food and often judge their experiences based on culinary satisfaction.

Pinpointing exactly why food is so important is more elusive. And even more difficult than that is figuring out what will please a large, diverse group of attendees. Food tastes—and trends—are subjective.

“Food has always been something that has brought people together,” said Nando Belmonte, executive chef at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando (Fla.), A Loews Hotel. “Food has to be good—it’s a talking piece.”

In recent years, more people have more knowledge about and interest in food—and hotels, conference centers and meeting planners have taken notice.

“In the past, conference centers weren’t known for providing quality F&B,” said Victoria Todd-Smith, senior executive chef and food and beverage manager for Kent State University’s Professional Education and Conference Center in North Canton, Ohio. “We realized that the way to get repeat business was to create exceptional experiences. The International Association of Conference Centers (IACC) started focusing more on F&B education and even developed a worldwide competition for conference center chefs (see sidebar). The IACC’s Copper Skillet competition creates an opportunity for F&B to be center stage."

How does this increased food awareness translate to meeting planners and their groups?

Know Your Diners

First and foremost, know your audience. Planners, F&B directors, caterers and even chefs stress the importance of knowing everything you can about the group you’re feeding. Get your group’s history. Ask questions. Where are the attendees from? How old are they? What is the purpose of the event?

“The answer to F&B is demographics,” said Arlene Sheff, CMP, senior meeting and event planner for The Boeing Company and a member of the MPI Orange County Chapter. “Planners need to think about the type of group, time of day, schedule, etc. What kind of food are the attendees accustomed to? What don’t they eat at home that they’ll be excited about? Meeting planners need to know demographics and the likes and dislikes of their groups in order to be successful.”

Why do demographics matter? Understanding where attendees come from, how old they are, what they usually eat, how affluent they are and what cultural environment they’re accustomed to helps planners execute meals that will be appropriate and satisfying for groups.

According to Bonnie Wallsh, CMP, CMM, chief strategist for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bonnie Wallsh Associates and a member of the MPI Carolinas Chapter, planners can make some generalizations about groups. For example, in Wallsh’s experience, meetings in California or with many attendees from California will include more vegetarians, and pork is still very popular in the southern U.S.

Chef Victoria Todd-Smith also believes some generalizations can be made.

“Midwesterners don’t typically like exotic foods,” Todd-Smith said. “You have to tread carefully—we want enough exoticism to pique their interest but not too much to alienate them. My chefs and I bounce ideas back and forth and do a lot of brainstorming to come up with [what] we hope is a good balance of gourmet items but still have enough recognizable food.”

While some generalizations are a good start, the most effective and accurate way to understand your groups’ F&B needs is to analyze groups’ histories. If you’re new to a group, sponsors or internal staff for insight into what’s been done in the past, what worked and what didn’t.

Even more specifically, planners should always be aware of special dietary needs of attendees. More than ever, attendees are conscious of their health and what they’re eating. In addition to allergies, planners should be aware of religious and cultural needs, diets and preferences when planning menus.

Sheff, who is also an instructor in the professional meeting planning certificate program at California State University, Fullerton, recommends asking attendees if they have special diet needs on the registration form. And rather than offering check boxes, Sheff suggests leaving the question open-ended for attendees to describe their needs.

“You really need to talk to attendees and ask them what they want and what the best substitute is,” she said. “Needs change depending on what’s being served.”

Once on site, it’s important to label food—especially buffets.

“I don’t see this often enough,” Wallsh complained. “It’s very important to indicate the ingredients in each dish—especially for allergy sufferers. For example, a dish may not have nuts in it, but if it’s cooked in peanut oil that’s a problem for someone with a nut allergy.”

Panners and F&B professionals agree that the key to successful F&B execution is attendee awareness on the part of planners. When you understand their needs, not only can you meet those needs, but you have a better chance at impressing them, creating a memorable experience and elevating the impact of the event overall.

“As meeting planners, it behooves us to do everything we can to make our attendees comfortable,” Wallsh said.

Putting Food on the Table

Once you’ve done your homework and understand the needs of your group, it’s important to pinpoint the purpose and focus of the event. An event’s strategic objective is vital to successful F&B planning. If attendees have a long afternoon of sessions and lectures ahead of them, a heavy lunch will only put them to sleep; a gala evening meal with champagne is hardly appropriate after disappointing numbers or layoffs are announced.

How do you translate your budget, objectives and what you know about your group to the actual F&B? Talk to the chef.

“I like working with planners,” Belmonte said. “The chef is usually going to have more food experience than a service manager, and sometimes things get lost in translation. Planners can have ideas, but talking to the chef can open their eyes about what’s possible. Once the chef is involved, he’s working for you. It works in your favor because he’s trying to execute your vision.”

Once the chef is involved, he or she becomes a strategic partner in your event and will take even more ownership in the F&B.

“I love the planner talking to the chef,” said Bob Zappatelli, vice president of food and beverage for Benchmark Hospitality International and a Johnson & Wales trained chef. “It cuts through the fat. The most beneficial time is the time you spend at a table having direct contact. It accelerates the quality of the meeting and cuts down on planning time.”

Belmonte’s advice for planners: Know your audience.

“Make sure you have as much information as possible about your group and their needs,” he advised. “Where are they from? A group from California is going to eat differently than a group from the Midwest.

“Get the chef involved and talk about the audience and what they’re trying to achieve. Trust the chef to come up with ideas. I’m seeing a lot more custom menus—and that’s a good thing. It gets us more involved and creates a successful experience for the group.”

According to Sheff, working directly with the chef is good for your wallet, too.

“You’ll get more for your money,” she said. “[The chef] knows what’s in season and what I can get a better deal on. I also like to ask what they do best. What have they done for other groups that worked well? Having the chef involved helps you try new things.”

Call for Backup

Clearly, F&B takes a major toll on planners’ time and budgets. Increasing workloads and shrinking staffs and budgets are pulling planners in more directions than ever. That’s why some planners are calling on F&B consultants. 

One such consultant is Claire Gould, owner of Rx for Catering in Atlanta.

“I become the client’s catering manager,” she explained. “I work directly with the hotel representative and chef.”

Gould says she is well versed in all areas of meeting planning and that F&B was always her niche. Now, she helps clients develop menu ideas, handle negotiations and manage the billing.

Kim Johnsen, manager of meetings and events for Honeywell’s Aerospace Division, has been working with Gould for seven years and utilizes her more every year.

“My responsibilities have increased, but my staff hasn’t,” said Johnsen, who is a member of the MPI Southern California Chapter. “[Gould] is an extension of my team.”

Johnsen explains that Honeywell—like most organizations—is cutting budgets and demanding more accountability. Gould is integral to the F&B negotiation process.

“[She] goes to the hotel, pushes back and gets us the best possible pricing. We don’t do any packages; she just orders what makes sense. Her service pays for itself.

“I have so much going on, I don’t have time to focus on F&B,” Johnsen said. “Utilizing an F&B consultant allows me to focus on the areas that I need to focus on.”

Restaurant-style

Everyone has experienced bad conference food—the clichéd rubber chicken and cold, limp vegetables. As expectations are elevated, venues are looking beyond the ballroom in order to not only provide good food, but to create a restaurant-style experience for attendees.

“The ballroom with draped tables and banquet chairs is the worst,” Zappatelli said. “People want to eat in a nice restaurant with great music—it makes for a great experience.”

That’s why many hotels and conference centers are moving their restaurants out of the bowels of the building, adding a street entrance, creating the feel of a freestanding restaurant and welcoming meeting attendees.

“People want a restaurant experience,” said George Cronk, director of food and beverage for the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando, A Loews Hotel. “They expect you to translate that restaurant and individual feel into a group experience. Our goal is to make a group event feel like that restaurant experience.”

A restaurant experience usually means quality food, presentation, ambiance and choice. Hotel chains—including Marriott and Hyatt—and conference centers are increasingly offering attendees a choice. For example, attendees are given a list of three entrées from which to choose. Depending on the size of the group, the cost isn’t necessarily prohibitive and having options gives planners the opportunity to really wow their groups.

Sheff appreciates when properties give her the option to use their restaurants. For example, she has utilized a fine dining restaurant that is open to the public only for dinner as a breakfast venue. The ambiance is better than the meeting space.

Of course, another way to offer attendees a restaurant-style experience is to actually take them to a restaurant. Much of this depends on the meeting’s budget, attendees and location. Buyouts can be an option, and you can alleviate some of the expense by working with the venue to determine a time and day that is most cost-effective for you.

Many restaurants offer space specifically for groups, and this can be a good option. It’s certainly more affordable (in most cases) than a buyout. However, one of the perks of a restaurant experience is offering attendees the opportunity to get out of their meeting bubble and interact with locals and other diners. Smaller groups can reserve tables within the main dining area, but Sheff cautions planners to make sure there are no programs or speeches planned during the dinner that could be disruptive to other diners.

Wallsh enjoys dine arounds for groups—especially if you’re in a famous food city like New York, San Francisco or New Orleans.

“People want to get out and experience the food,” she said. “I’ve had a mystery dine around and the goal was to introduce the group to different area restaurants. It was a great way to increase group interaction, and the restaurants are able to showcase themselves.”

But Wallsh cautions planners to make sure the restaurants they select are ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant and will be accessible to all guests.

Experience (and Play with) Your Food

Food isn’t just about nourishment—it can also be about creating an experience. Short of cooking the meal, one of the best ways for attendees to experience F&B is through stations. When asked what’s popular for group dining, chefs, planners and F&B pros all said stations.

Offering a specific dish or type of food, and often attended by a chef, a station offers attendees an easy way to interact with the food while networking. Several stations placed around a room create an entire meal and is an easy way for planners to offer their attendees more exciting F&B experiences.

Attendees aren’t the only ones who like stations. Belmonte appreciates stations because they allow his team to get out of the kitchen and offer attendees fresh food prepared in front of them.

“It brings the full cooking experience to the attendee,” Belmonte said. “The smells, the wow factor. It provides variety and something for everyone—the opportunity to choose whatever you want. Stations allow for fresh cooking and a true food experience.”

What kinds of stations are popular? Sheff says that trends depend on the group.

“A mashed potato bar is unique if the group has never seen it before,” she said.

Wallsh believes that greater cultural diversity has led to the popularity of ethnic food stations—such as Japanese. Several planners, including Wallsh, commented on the popularity of raw and sushi bars among their groups.

Another way groups can interact with their food is through team building.

“Culinary team building is very popular right now,” Todd-Smith said. “It gives attendees a way to be creative. Their success provides them with satisfaction and confidence that they can take back to the office with them.”

She says one of the most popular team-building activities is cake decorating. Each team is provided with a plain, two-layered cake and decorations—letters, numbers, flowers, sprinkles and icing. They have a time limit to create a cake that will knock the judges socks off. (The venue’s chefs often serve as judges).

Putting it All Together

No one can say definitively what is “in.” Obviously, a lot depends on the group. Fortunately, there is a wealth of resources available to planners to help them down the complicated, sometimes treacherous, but certainly rewarding F&B road.

Utilize industry colleagues, publications and consultants to find out what works best and how to avoid pitfalls.

“Knowing trends is extremely important,” Zappatelli said. “People get locked into what they know. As planners, you have to give chefs some creative license. Make sure that when you talk to people that you get the best out of them. Ask them what they’re best at. You wouldn’t ask Mario Batali to cook an Asian meal!”

Most importantly: Talk to your attendees. Who better to tell you what they’re hungry for than the very people you’re feeding?

ANGELA CHIARELLO is a freelance writer based in Dallas.

Sidebar 1

Waste Not

You’ve planned and planned and planned. The food and beverage is fantastic and attendees are raving. But, inevitably, there are leftovers and you’re left with the empty feeling brought on by all that waste. What’s a socially conscious, savvy planner to do?

With all of the responsibility placed on planners’ shoulders along with increasing workloads, shrinking budgets and not enough staff, it’s difficult to manage the logistics of waste. Add to that the potential liability and it’s no wonder all that food—along with signage, flowers and decor—often goes to waste.

For U.S. planners, liability is no longer an issue. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage the donation of food and grocery products to non-profit organizations for distribution to needy individuals. This law makes it easier to donate by protecting donors from liability should the product donated in good faith later cause harm to the needy recipient.

Enter Robert Kalt and his company, Special E (“E” for events). As a former planner, he knows first hand how much excess there can be. So he created a company to manage the leftovers.

“The idea for the business originated from numerous meetings and special events I planned at Johnson & Johnson,” Kalt said. “At several of these programs, it was not uncommon for leftover food, flowers and excess promotional products to be thrown out after an event ended. It really bothered me to see items we spent thousands of dollars on just go to waste. With so many hungry and homeless people, I wanted to come up with a way to collect the excess that typically gets thrown out at these events and distribute it to those who are desperately in need of help.”

According to Kalt, Special E collects leftover food, flowers and other excess items typically left behind at meetings, conferences, trade shows, parties, weddings and special events and distributes them to people in need. Food goes to shelters and food banks, flowers to hospitals and nursing homes and excess promotional products and gifts to relief organizations.

“We’ll also print up tent cards that can be placed on cocktail or banquet tables so that guests attending an event are made aware of what’s being done with the leftover food, flowers, etc.”

Special E contracts with planners in advance and partners with local non-profit organizations in host cities. Kalt says that the cost of the service isn’t much when you think about the amount of money spent on an event and how much is being thrown away.

To find out more, visit www.aspeciale.com.

Sidebar 2

Focus on Food

Many of those interviewed for this article commented on the increased food awareness and knowledge of the public—and thus of meeting attendees. Some credit television’s Food Network, and others chalk it up to a more global community. Conference centers and other meeting venues are also taking notice. More and more, planners and attendees are demanding great food along with a great meeting venue. The bottom line is that food and beverage is vital to a venue’s, well, bottom line.

Tim Chudley knew this, and in 2003 while serving as the International Association of Conference Centers’ (IACC) global president, he pushed the organization to create a cooking competition to put the spotlight on food, and the Copper Skillet competition was born.

“I was pushing [for a cooking competition] because people who haven’t been to IACC centers assume food will be similar to a cafeteria or university,” said Chudley, who is managing director of the U.K.-based Sundial Group. “We’re extremely proud of our food. I saw it as an opportunity for chefs to showcase their high-quality food. It was also a good way for our chefs to network with each other.”

IACC chapters around the globe have a local cook-off and the winning chef advances to the global competition held at the association’s annual conference. Chefs are given a theme, a set of ingredients and a time limit to create something delectable.

“Anyone preparing to compete has to do some homework,” Chudley said. “Even if they don’t get to the final, they’re more aware and will then experiment with new things at their property. [The competition] pulls chefs’ food out of the routine and makes it more of an experience.”

For meeting planners, this means quality food and a memorable attendee experience.