Banqueting Party Venues

One of the most pleasurable parts of any conference or awards ceremony (for the attendees at least) is the hospitality that is laid on by the organisers. This may be simple, like a lunch buffet, or more lavish, such as a sit-down dinner or banquet to mark the last day of a conference or get together. Often your decision as to which of these options to select will be based on a factor such as time or money. Other times there may be an industry standard, or guidelines as to permissible levels of hospitality that can be offered to prospective clients. In this article we take a look at some of the factors to keep in mind when selecting banqueting party venues and deciding how much to offer your delegates.

Planning a conference or corporate event that is going to involve a significant catered element brings certain challenges that you may not often encounter in the day to day business of organising meetings and seminars. Normally, arranging catering at a small corporate event, such as a meeting or team-building day, is a fairly straightforward business. The venue will consult with you on whether you will wish to offer tea and coffee during breaks, and what level of lunch you will require – normally selected from a set tariff of options from the simple (a couple of trays of sandwiches) through cold finger buffets to more substantial hot and cold fork buffets.

Clearly, in this situation, your choice of catering will reflect your budget and the importance of the event in question. So if the meeting is a training course which you'll be holding for new staff every couple of months, you may wish to rein in expenditure and offer a fairly modest lunch selection. On the other hand, if you're hosting PR events or sales presentations, you will want to put on a more impressive lunch for your guests. Costs will vary accordingly, but for small and medium-sized groups, moving from basic food to a more substantial selection of food will not, normally, incur excessive costs.

If you are planning larger events, such as conferences or awards ceremonies, and wish to include in your schedule of events a banqueting party, venues will need to be consulted at the time of your initial enquiry to see whether or not they are set up to cater for your needs. This is not just a simple question of numbers, though that does come into it. You will also want to be assured that the quality of the food on offer is up to the standard that you require for your corporate event.

If the food isn't particularly important, and budget is a significant consideration, then of course it may pay to select a venue which offers banqueting facilities at more competitive prices. But a top quality dinner can often make all the difference, particularly in the minds of delegates who've sat through a day full of speeches and seminars and want to relax with a drink and a nice meal. In that scenario – particularly if your attendees are potential clients, and you're trying to impress – you'll be glad that you decided to spend a few pounds per head extra for a more interesting menu.

So let's say that you've satisfied yourself that your prospective venue offers an acceptable quality of catering. Some venues will present you with one or more set menus, to which you can make only a small number of changes or alterations. Others will present you with a more extensive set of menu options that you can mix and match to build exactly the dinner you want. The latter is obviously the most attractive option – and if you're a food lover, being presented with a vast array of food choices is a bit like being given the world's biggest train set! Be aware, though, that your idea of a good meal may not necessarily match your delegates' tastes. Scottish smoked salmon, peppered fillet of beef with dauphinoise potatoes and white chocolate terrine in a raspberry coulis may make your mouth water, but serve that to some guests on a warm July evening and they'll spend the rest of the conference moaning about how rich dinner was!

It pays, in these situations, to consult with other people at your company – sometimes the ‘boring' menu choice is the best one, unfortunately. And use the expertise of the chef or catering manager at your chosen banqueting party venue – they will normally be honest enough to let you know which of their dishes are truly impressive enough to serve to important customers, and which are probably best avoided.

Whatever kind of banqueting party venues you are considering for your conference or corporate events – be they hotels, country houses, sporting venues or somewhere a little bit different - some time and thought (and, of course, money) spent on the catering choices can transform a satisfactory event into a memorable one.