A little childhood exuberance and fun food can liven up any meeting.

by Katja Morgenstern | September 13, 2011 | (1)

REMEMBER THAT OLD TOY STORE SLOGAN: I WANT TO BE A TOYS“R”US KID? We adults get so focused on productivity and sales calls, creating great events, learning the right tools and meeting goals and expectations that we forget to have fun. In honor of having fun (and my favorite topic food), here are some ways to incorporate the kid in you in your F&B plan.

1. Decorate your own cookies or cupcakes. We’ve all sat through plated meals. Your food comes and goes. You chat with the people sitting around you, or not. A VIP speaks, and you are dismissed. What if, instead of the drab centerpiece, you place plain cookies, frosting and sprinkles as decorations? You announce that dessert is decorate-your-own. You even have one of your event sponsors donate a prize to the best-decorated cookie. You theme the cookie decorating to a product, industry or sale. Some folks don’t participate, but those who do appreciate the pace and creativity you’ve brought to their standard plated dinners.

2. Create a Harry Potter theme. Don’t have to wait for Halloween to involve a little costume wizardry. You order chocolate frogs and owls, lemon-drop candies, Twizzlers or coated-pretzel-stick wizard wands and a giant bowl of jellybeans. You have to work with the onsite chef or caterer, who doesn’t know the recipe for Mrs. Weasley’s Rock Cakes or what is served on Hogwart’s Express. 

3. Serve up the ice cream. Little is better on a hot day than a good ice cream float or Popsicle. Your delegates recall the long summer days of childhood, when the ice cream truck drove through the neighborhood. You theme a dessert reception around the good ol’ days. You create a make-your-own ice cream float station with assorted flavors. You find some of the old-fashioned ‘sicles—like Bomb Pops (the red, white and blue ones—each color supposedly had a different flavor).

A little childhood exuberance and fun food can liven up any meeting. Who knows, perhaps the creativity that started with the decorate-your-own cookie contest closes the deal on that next big sale. One+

Katja Morgenstern

Katja works for a dynamic, full-service meeting company, Meeting Consultants, Inc., as a Senior Project Manager. Meeting Consultants is a pioneer in the meeting and event management industry, and has been serving clients worldwide for 30 years. With Meeting Consultants, Katja manages the Food and Beverage portion of conferences and events. She is responsible for maintaining the client's budget, developing menus and working closely with venues to make sure all aspects of the food and beverage are as the client requested. Prior to joining Meeting Consultants, Katja spent over seven years as an independent planner and consultant in Charleston, South Carolina, before she relocated to Atlanta, Georgia in 2005. After moving to Atlanta, she worked for the Georgia World Congress Center where she became familiar with the supplier side of the hospitality industry. Her time with the fourth largest convention center in the U.S. gave her a unique perspective on the industry and how it responds to emergencies. Katja was nominated for "Who's Who of Entrepreneurs" in 2002 and the Phoenix Awards Rising Star Award in 2008, and was cited in the Charleston Regional Business Journal (2001, 2003), Post and Courier Business Section (2001), USA Today-Money Section (2004). She is an active member of Meeting Professionals International, Georgia Chapter (GaMPI), where she is the assistant editor and a contributing writer for BreakOut Magazine. She also served as co-chair for the MeetDifferent 2009 Hospitality Committee. She is an active speaker in the hospitality industry, and is currently writing a book on risk management in the meeting and event industry.

TAGS: One+ September 2011 , column , fun , food and beverage