Business Meeting Menus – Planning a Dinner Meeting or Luncheon
Meetings are held at any time of the day and one of the most important things to consider about how to plan a meeting is the meals and the business meeting menus which are served. The meeting menu which is offered reflects the scale of the facility and also how much variety it is open to. The best thing a meeting facility can do for a customer is offer them a menu which can be altered to meet the needs of the customer. Some meeting facilities do not have a kitchen to prepare their own meals, but have contracted out to a catering company who will provide the food, while they provide the space. But to plan a successful menu for a meeting (if the facility is equipped with its own kitchen) is not a very easy task; there are certain factors for the business meeting menu which the facility has to consider.
1) What time of year is it? A business meeting menu should be adjusted for every season. There are seasonal foods, and a facility that offers seasonal foods is bound to be an impressive facility. Fall is a time for warm drinks (hot chocolate, hot cider, etc) and more spiced foods (cranberry biscuits, spiced buns, etc.)
2) Where are your is the facility situated? Is it in the northern states? Southern States? East, west? Canada? Europe? The location of the facility is vital in the menu planning process. You cannot be a facility in New York and have a luncheon menu with southern foods only; variety is good but one should be smart with it.
3) How much money should the menu cost the customer? The price and the quality of the foods on the menu are the major determinants of the class of the facility. The higher the price, the higher the expected quality and more upscale the facility is. Before planning a menu, one needs to determine what scale the facility should be on and plan the meeting menu accordingly.
4) Food types. Based on the time of year, your clientele and the cost or price range of your menu, by now you should be sure exactly what foods you want on your facilities menu.
5) Remember the guest. Once the menu is made, one must be prepared to work around it and make substitutions for your customers. Customers come in all size, shapes, ethnicities and religion and it is based on these factors what they may or may not want on their meeting menus. So working with the customer to make their meeting menu perfect or as close to that is of the greatest importance. In your mind your menu could be perfect, but be prepared that the guests will find every fault with it. Be lenient.
Now that you’ve got the business meeting menus hammered out, you’ve gotten one of the most important steps in learning how to plan a meeting out of the way.
