Cost Effective Catering Alternatives
It is no mystery that budgets are getting tighter and departments are being forced to do more with less. The question for meeting planners is: how can events or meetings be streamlined? One option is to lose the catering staff. If that thought seems particularly dangerous or impractical, consider the following ideas:
- Take catering in house – Many restaurants offer catering takeaway and your business probably has workers that would love to clock a few extra hours while getting a chance to put a few faces to those names on the intra-office memos and/or corporate e-mails.
- Brown sacking it – Many businesses are starting to encourage their staff members to bring lunches to events. The ability to make a cost effective meal is a demonstration of financial practicality, a trait that is sorely missing in today’s business culture.
- Host a competitive picnic – A company sponsored picnic meeting event could have different departments buy food on a budget and have a mini-contest. A few hours might be wasted here or there, but it also brings departments together. In the end, everyone wins when the departments share.
- Cultural appreciation/heritage day – We all come from different ethnic backgrounds, though many businesses seem to try to ignore this fact. Embrace it with a cultural potluck and let participants vote to decide who brought the best meal. Remember to compensate participants for their time and resources, but make a reasonable budget.
