Hard of hearing?

It’s not surprising that hosting the London 2012 Olympics was the highlight of the year. It gave the country a sense of pride and patriotism, bringing everyone together to watch the opening and closing ceremony but most of all being able to witness the thrill of our athletes winning!

Who could forget Mo Farah’s and Jessica Ennis epic races! When interviewed after the race each said their motivation to push themselves further was the roar and cheers coming from the crowd. However, was the noise level from the crowds a little bit too much? According to The Globe and Mail, the noise produced at the velodrome was around 140 decibels, the same level as a jet engine taking off! (2012:Online). Obviously for British participants the noise was what spurred them on, however they were some athletes who thought the noise was too much. According to The Telegraph, the Australian rowing team said the noise produced by the crowds made their race “increasingly difficult” as it was hard to hear instructions to one another (Ottesen,2012:Online).

When noise gets to 140 decibels it can cause damage to our hearing so it is advised that hearing protection is provided (Galen Carol Audio, 2007:Online). As far as I know no such thing was done at the Olympics. The charity ‘Action to Hearing Loss’ went as far to provide a warning to all spectators and athletes and asked them to pack their own ear plugs. The charity then went on to say how without the right hearing protection, people are opening themselves up to temporary tinnitus or even permanent hearing loss, a factor I’m sure a lot of spectators didn’t take into consideration (2012:Online).

So what were Olympic organisers supposed to do? Tell people to keep it down just in case the sound levels got too dangerous? I doubt it. For one, this would have severely ruined the atmosphere of the whole games, plus expecting 80,000+ to keep quiet is near impossible. The more noise made the better the experience I think. Maybe ear plugs could have been provided but then again it’s the crowd that are making the noise so at the end of the day it’s down to each individual how much noise they want to make.

The question is, were the volunteers provided with ear plugs. At the heart of all the ceremonies and games were the volunteers so surely they should have been provided with the correct hearing protection. Correct me if I’m wrong but I can find any evidence to say there were provided. According to The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (Noise Regulations 2005) “Provide your employees with hearing protection if you cannot reduce the noise exposure enough by using other methods” (HSE,no date:Online)

From this it’s clear that workers should have been provided with the right equipment. It’s one thing for the spectators to be at risk of noise but for Olympic organisers not to take into consideration what the noise exposure will have on their workers is against the law.

It’s obvious the games were going to be the loudest event of year, the whole world was involved! There’s no harm in this, just as long as the necessary precautions were taken.

References

Action on Hearing Loss. (2012). Hearing Loss Charity Warns Olympic Athlete And Spectators Of The Dangers Of Damaging Their Hearing At The Closing Ceremony. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/news-and-events/all-regions/press-releases/charity-warns-olympic-athletes-and-spectators-of-the-dangers-of-damaging-their-hearing.aspx

Galen Carol Audio. (2007). Decibels (loudness) comparison chart. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

HSE. (No date). Employers responsibilities – Legal Duties. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/employers.htm

Ottesen, D. (2012). The Telegraph. London 2012. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/rowing/9440996/London-2012-Olympics-Australian-rowers-complain-about-the-noise-of-cheers-from-British-supporters-at-Eton-Dorney.html

The Globe and Mail. (2012). Crowd noise in London reaches Olympic levels. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012]http://m.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/crowd-noise-in-london-reaches-olympic-levels/article4463898/?service=mobile

Its Christmassssss!

You know it’s Christmas when the German Christmas market comes to town. It’s a well-known event that brings people from all around the region together and gets everyone truly into the festive spirit. Staying true to its origins, the German Market sells traditional food such as frankfurter sausages, crepes with your favourite choice of topping and a massive selection of all the chocolate you could dream of! As well as having the well-known beer huts and mulled wine and an array of gifts and knick knacks.

I’ve been to both the Birmingham Christmas Market and Manchester’s Market and from what I’ve seen Manchester’s Christmas Market has more variety of food and drink from different cultures. It has all the German bits and pieces but also Italian foods, Spanish, Hungarian, you name it and its probably being sold somewhere around the city. Manchester is such a diverse city that it’s not surprising the Christmas Markets will also reflect this.

Being such a well-known event the Manchester Christmas Market is a great tourist attraction. As advertised on the Visit Manchester website, the market is “considered to be amongst the best in UK and Europe, the markets transform the city centre with their charming traditional wooden chalets”. (visitmanchester,no date:Online) .The website gives a list of different locations, dates and activities taking place; with the market being on so for a long period gives people  an easier time scale to attend.

According to ‘EventIndustryNews’ last year Albert Square attracted 1.5 million people alone, giving the local economy a £5m boost (Parry, 2012:Online). Also stated on the website is as the popularity of the market has increased, so has the amount of stalls. So instead of having everything in one location, the market has been spread around different locations within Manchester city centre. This increases the length of stay of customers within the city centre and should increase the amount they spend.

Visit Manchester also shows the ‘greener side’ of the markets. Explaining how the amount of rubbish is trying to be reduced, and whatever rubbish is produced is biodegradable (Manchester City Council, 2012:Online). The website also offers tips to customers on how to make the event more sustainable. Offering the use of public transport, bringing ‘bag-for-life’ bags and how to dispose of litter responsibly.

Without a doubt the Christmas Market is what truly gets people into the festive mood. It’s something for everyone. It may, however, cause some disruption with increasing the amount of people visiting the market but what’s Christmas without a little drama.

References

Manchester City Council. (2012). Our Green Christmas Markets. [Online][Accessed on 12/12/2012]http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/616/specialist_markets/5698/new_for_2012-our_green_christmas_markets

Parry, A. (2012) eventindustrynews. Manchester Christmas Market organiser Kendra Kennedy talks about this years event.[Online][Accessed on 12/12/2012]http://www.eventindustrynews.co.uk/2012/12/manchester-christmas-markets-organiser-kendra-kennedy-talks-about-this-years-event/

Visitmanchester. (No date). Manchester Christmas Markets.[Online][Accessed on 12/12/2012]http://www.visitmanchester.com/articles/shopping/christmas-markets/

 

 

 

 

 

Camping Vs Glamping

When you go to a festival, camping is all part of the package. You need to prepare yourself for the cold, the wet (this is England!) and being a little more unhygienic than usual. In most cases camping is brilliant, it’s what going to a festival is all about, you sleep, drink and eat there. It’s all about getting yourself fully immersed in the atmosphere.

However there are times when camping doesn’t always go according to plan. Let’s take Creamfield for example BBC news reported “Dance festival Creamfields has been cancelled on its final day after heavy rain flooded the site.”(BBC NEWS, 2012:Online) For organisers to give refunds due cancellations must have been a massive blow. As this is England you would have thought by now there was some way to avoid this type of issue. According to Blue Banana Glastonbury changed their site after they were hit by severe floods in 1997/98, however in 2005 the festival was hit once again by severe flash floods. Some guests even left before the event ended due to the conditions in the camp site. The website also goes on to explain how simple packing wellies and extra hoody’s are the necessities for floods. Maybe we should have to grin and bare it, if you’re going to a festival you may just have to live the fact that yes you may get a little wet. (Blue Banana, 2012:Online)

If you are not, however, the hard core camping type then glamping is your option. Basically combining glamorous and camping,

“By going Glamping you experience the exposure to the great outdoors as traditional camping trips, but the amenities found at the campsite far exceed anything most campers have ever experienced.” (Glamping UK, 2012:Online)

You have everything you have at home but in the middle of a campsite.  Your accommodation contains mattresses, electricity which means you’re able to charge phones, have lighting etc. Maybe glamping isn’t for everyone; you definitely have to have the money to be able to afford it. Luxury does come at a price.   But if you’re the type who just loves a good festival and where you sleep isn’t something you find that big of a deal then the old fashion camping is just as good.

 

Reference List

BBC NEWS Liverpool .(2012). Creamfields music festival called off after flooding. [Online][Accessed on 11/12/2012] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-19385096

Blue Banana. (2012). Floods and festivals. [Online][Accessed on 11/12/2012] http://www.bluebanana.com/article.php/20465/floods-at-festivals

Glamping Uk. (2012). About Glamping. [Online][Accessed on 11/12/2012] http://www.glamping-uk.co.uk/About-Glamping/

 

Calm down, Calm down! It’s only a wedding!

When it comes to celebrating your special day, you want to make it enjoyable and memorable for everyone.  There comes a point though when there’s only so much you can add to a wedding until it becomes completely absurd and making the wedding day more of a spectacle then showing people your commitment to one another.

I worked at a wedding the other week I have to say it’s the most extravagant I’ve worked at yet. As well as having ballet dancers, flash mops during service and a suspended cake they also had indoor fireworks. The words ‘indoor’ and ‘firework’, personally, shouldn’t be the in the same sentence. This has got fire hazard written all over it, should fireworks be left out outside or is putting on a show more important than safety?

According to Goldblatt (2008) “Special effects at an event are used to attract attention, generate excitement and sustain interest as well as startle, shock even amuse” (as citied in Bowdin et al, 2011:506). Well the fireworks certainly did that. Although I wasn’t in the room at the time, what you heard was the clapping of the couple arriving, the bang of the fireworks going off and the gasps from the guests. However as well as fireworks, the couple also wanted falling petals during their entrance. Now this certainly seemed ridiculous. I could picture these petals setting alight, a disaster waiting to happen.  But no this is what the couple wanted so it went ahead with a ‘fingers crossed nothing bad will happen’ approach.

There are so many companies who provide such things as indoor fireworks and other pyrotechnics saying:

“Open your event with a bang, dance with your partner or mark that special occasion with the eternal beauty of firework effects. Whatever your choice, Pyrotechnics are an all-round thumbs up!” (Kudos, no date:Online)

I’m not going to lie, if you had the money to provide this type of entertainment at your event or wedding why wouldn’t you.  It would take things to a whole new level, you wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off what was going on. So enchanting!

However ,it’s just when safety is being compromised is when I think it becomes too much. “Fire safety is the primary consideration for all events, event sites, event work places, and event operations” (Rutherford Silvers, 2008:81). Obviously these fireworks were handled by someone with experience and was trained to do so but with everything else going on at the same time, it seemed a little too impractical.

As long as pyrotechnics are organised by someone who is well trained and qualified to do so then I don’t see a problem with it. It added something different to the event and definitely would be something for the guests to remember. However, for this particular event it seemed as though a lot of precautions had been looked over and it became more important to please the client rather than guarantee safety.

An event manager must always take into consideration everything that could go wrong in an event, and it should never be all about pleasing the client because the consequences of something going wrong would be 10 times worse.

 

References

Bowdin, G. Allen, J. O’Toole, W. Harris, R. McDonnell, I. (2011). Events Management. 3^rd Edition. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Kudos. (No date) Indoor Fireworks. [Online][Accessed on 8/12/2012] http://www.kudosmusic.co.uk/indoor-fireworks/service/

Rutherford Silvers, J (2008). Risk Management for Meetings and Events. Oxford:Butterworth-Heinemann.

Log on, Married, Done!

When it comes to weddings you want everyone to know that you are getting married, that’s it’s going to be your special day and no one else’s! By the use of social media, the whole word can now know about the occasion if you so choose.

Is it good or bad to broadcast this all over social media sites? Is there any point?

“Couples use social media to tell their story and about preparations for the wedding, and to exchange photos and share memories with wedding guests”. (Hurst, 2011:Online). After the wedding is over social media sites containing photos of your day are always going to be there and are there for the bride to look back on. Instead of having a wedding album to yourself it’s nice to be able to show everyone what happened that day and is something nice to reflect upon.

It’s a great way to stay in touch with guests, keep people up to date with timings. “How Social Media Helped Me Plan My Wedding—During A Revolution” (Chereen, 2012:Online). Ok maybe this is a bit extreme but the point still remains, without social media sites, communicating to family and friends overseas would be extremely difficult and time consuming. If you’re getting married abroad and people can’t make it, it’s still a nice way to keep everyone involved.

However, I think there is a point when weddings and the media don’t mix. By this I mean ‘virtual weddings’ , being able to get engaged and even married via the web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One website I found ‘Virtual vow’ (2012:Online).

With just a simple click on the link “get married now”, then it’s all done and dusted. You’re married, congrats. For me this is too extreme! The whole point of getting married is being there together, not over the internet with someone you don’t even know marrying you. I honestly don’t understand why people would go through with this. When I get married I want to physically be present with my friends and family all around celebrating my special day, not simply people logging online and watching it.  It completely goes against everything a wedding is about.

If used in the correct way, social media sites can benefit a wedding. Getting everyone involved virtually is easy and also cheap (especially in the current economy climate). However if the web is being used a lazy way to get hitched then, personally, I don’t see why people bother. That’s not what a wedding should be about. Yes it’s stressful to organise but at the end of the day that’s what a wedding is all about.

References

Chereen, Z. (2012) How social media helped me plan my wedding-during a revolution. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012].                             http://www.forbes.com/sites/chereenzaki/2012/07/25/how-social-media-helped-me-plan-my-wedding-during-a-revolution/

Hurst,M. (2011). Relationship status: How social media is changing weddings. [Online][Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.matthewhurst.com/2011/09/how-social-media-is-changing-weddings/

Virtual Vow.(2012).Virtual Wedding Ceremonies! [Online image][Date Accessed on 6/12/2012] http://www.virtualvow.com/wedding_party.php

Is virtual best?

With the current climate the way it is, it’s obvious this has affected the way some companies are run, particularly those who work on a global scale. Providing training opportunities, holding trade shows or conferences are becoming increasingly difficult to fund.

The solution? By doing things virtually.

According to Parks (2008 citied in Silvers, 2012: 70) “Virtual environments refer to a gathering of people who meet in an online environment at a set time to acquire info, share, network, and engage”.  They give the employer the opportunity to bring together a vast amount of their company at the same time, at almost no expense. With the advances in technology, basically any event that can be done face to face can now be done over the web. The only difference is that it can be done in the comfort of your own home, or office. The annoyance of having to travel from one place to another is taking out the equation and the job can be done effectively on a quicker scale. Particularly when it comes to training opportunities, the ability to teach every employee at the same time is more efficient with everyone receiving the same information.

On a smaller scale, the internet has become a major source for marketing.  To put your company online comes at practically no cost, with every company using this as a main source to advertise. Smaller companies receive the main benefits of this as its cost effective and helps promote their company on a global scale.

Tum et al (2006:87) say virtual events are

1.            More efficient because they have lower costs and greater outputs.

2.            There can be clear budgeting with the costs known beforehand.

3.            It is flexible and relevant to unique events

However Bowdin et al (2001 as citied in Tum et al,2006:87) disagrees, explaining

1.            Quality control maybe difficult s contractors provide much of the work.

2.            Coordination’s of suppliers might be comprised.

Moving with the modern times it seems more practical to hold meetings online but this has a risk of becoming impersonal. I know with webcams you’re technically meeting people face to face; however this isn’t the same as actually meeting someone in the flesh. You also have to take into consideration, what happens if the system crashes just as a major meeting is about to take place. It affects everyone on a large scale and delays the whole process.

For companies that can’t decide between going virtual or keeping with the tradition of face to face contact, hybrid events are a mixture of the two. They offer the chance to hold the event in person but for people who can’t make it, maybe due to distance, they can be there over the web.

“Hybrid events favour many kinds of applications – in training, where webcast recordings can be made and shown later, or can be streamed simultaneously to various locations; in events involving large gatherings or multi-day and multi-room events.”(WorkCast,2012:Online)

Constantly meeting face to face isn’t very cost effective; it keeps close relationships but overall doesn’t help to save the company money. Virtual events help to keep costs down and bring large amounts of the company together if needed but can give the impression of being detached. Also the impracticalities of connectivity can be a major issue. Hybrid events bring the best of both worlds together, still moving with modern times while ensuring relationships aren’t kept at a distance.  Giving the added ability to be able to record sessions and have them to look at, at a later time.

 

 

References

Rutherford Silvers, J. (2012). Professional event coordination. 2^nd Edition. , NewJersey:WILEY.

Tum,J. Norton,P. Nevan Wright, J. (2006). Event management series: Management of event operations.,Oxford: Butterworth-Hienemann.

WorkCast. (2006). What is a hybrid event. [Online][Accessed on 2/12/2012].  http://www.workcast.co.uk/what_hybrid_event

Bit too pricey…

Marquees, themselves, can be very plain and bland, but this is why they are so desirable. They give the couple to ability to hold the wedding wherever they want with the size, layout and décor being limitless.

Well apart from the cost.

The average price for marquees can range from £400-£40,000 (County Marquees, 2009: Online). This doesn’t include the cost of everything else e.g.  tables, chairs, food, drink, decorations etc. Unless money isn’t an object, the marquee itself is going to eat away a large chuck of the wedding funds. We all know that living in England isn’t the warmest of climates, with this you would have to take into consideration the date in which you hold your wedding. Marquees are very seasonal, that winter wedding you dreamt of seems very impractical if you want to add a marquee into the equation. Obviously you have the option of heating the venue, but again that isn’t going to be a cheap solution. It seems so much simpler to hold the reception in a building that already has all the facilities at hand instead of building one from scratch.

The reason for this blog all stems from a wedding I worked at a couple weeks ago. The wedding was being held in the grounds of a hotel. The setting itself was beautiful but the marquee was something else. Firstly the size was phenomenal; there was so much space inside! The decoration was what brought everything together. For lunch the couple had a Midsummer night’s theme: very light and airy with flower pots as centre pieces on every table. For the evening meal we transformed the room to all black, with green table settings, it was very dramatic! You had to think what an earth did all of this cost. Well, to have the marquee placed on the grounds was £10,000, the marquee itself cost around £ 30,000 and this didn’t include the decorations for the two themes. That’s already £40,000 the couple had spent, I have to say though it was worth it. The venue looked spectacular and everything was done to perfection. You couldn’t have asked for anything else on your special day.

So there must be some advantages to having a marquee. As I said before, there are no real limitations when it comes to decorating the venue. You can have it as simple or as extravagant as you like. With a normal venue you have to work around the layout, but with a marquee you make it work for you. The bride and groom can have the room as they please; it stops the idea of keeping things traditional and gives more room to be creative. (Easy Weddings, no date: Online)

What seems to be the most popular reason for marquee is being able to bring people back to your home. It’s somewhere that holds sentimental value to you “The day will be made to feel even more special because you will be sharing with your partners and guests an environment which is not only special to you but has helped to define who you are now as a person.” (Green, 2008: Online)

So yes, marquees do have their negatives. They can be costly, impractical in certain seasons and overall a lot of work to get right. However, for creating a perfect location on that special day they are exactly what you need. Something that has no boundaries and gives you the ability to add your personal touch that everyone can enjoy.

References

County Marquees. (2009) Marquee pricing [Online] [Accessed on 17/11/2012] http://www.countymarquees.com/pricing/marquees.htm

Easy Weddings.(no date) Wedding Marquee Hire. [Online] [Accessed on 17/11/2012] http://www.easyweddings.com.au/WeddingHire/Articles/WeddingMarqueeIdeas.asp

Green, A. (2008) The pros and cons of having a wedding reception at your home. Helium. [Online] [Accessed on 17/11/2012].http://www.helium.com/items/866520-the-pros-and-cons-of-having-a-wedding-reception-at-your-home

Fusing the two…

What if I were to give you the choice between having a Curry or a Chinese?

Finding the decision hard?

With the innovative ways in which fusion cuisine is constantly developing there is now a dish called Indo-Chinese. This is a combination from everything that is good with Indian and Chinese food, combined together to create something unusual but delicious.  I was working at an event the other week where they were serving Indo-Chinese, personally I had never even thought of putting these 2 foods together but it worked! It got me thinking, where else can fusion cuisine take you?

Fusion cuisine blends the culinary traditions of two or more nations (WiseGEEK, no date: online). It’s been around for donkey’s years now but with the ease of travelling getting easier the more expansive our knowledge of food has become, and so fusion cuisine is constantly developing creating new exotic flavours. Without it our food would be extremely bland and what’s the fun in that. There’s no harm in trying something new.

Did you know?

• Worcestershire sauce, which is a very traditional British condiment, has tamarind in it – which is a very Middle Eastern and Asian ingredient
• With fusion cuisine, Thailand also wouldn’t have coriander, which is a Mediterranean herb.
• We have Peru to thank for the potato and India and China for their tea.

(Gordon,2007: Online)

Food that we would think as typically British couldn’t be further from the truth.

However, even though fusion cuisine is meant to combine the best flavours from every country, it seems it can be used as an excuse to mix anything and everything together. Reading an article from The Spinning Plate, the author talks about a recently opening restaurant serving “chicken drenched in sauces from all over the globe, kind of: Thai peanut, Italian Alfredo, Japanese teriyaki.” Obviously the restaurant hasn’t got to grasps with the technique of fusion cuisine and therefore is trying way too hard. (Mears,2010: Online)

This is the danger with this style of cooking; if the chef doesn’t understand what does and doesn’t work, they’ll interpret fusion cuisine as “putting everything together and someone will like it”. The whole point is to culture ourselves on a daily basis, constantly stimulating our taste buds with exotic flavours.

Fusion cuisine brings people from all around the world together, it involves everyone with their universal love of food. My personal opinion is that fusion cuisine will never go out of fashion; there will always be something new to try. Yes, sometimes, it may not work out but that’s how we learn and improve.

References

WiseGEEK. (no date) What is fusion cusine?[Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012] http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fusion-cuisine.htm

Gordon, P . (2007) Fusion food- what is it? [Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012] http://www.peter-gordon.net/fusion/

 

Mears,A. (2010) Why fusion sucks. Thespinningplate. [Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012]http://thespinningplate.com/2010/04/09/why-fusion-sucks-maybe-sometimes/

The more the merrier

Working for an event catering company gives me the opportunity to see what is currently trending in the catering world. I get to see what is trending and also what i would change if I had the choice.

With everyone jetting off here, there and everywhere it’s not surprising that this has started to effect what is being served at events. It’s all about the choice, giving the people an option of either having a good old curry, traditional fish and chips or chicken Chow Mein is highly in demand. “When people return to their homeland, they are willing to try the same dish back home. Food preferences are not restricted to the traditional fare and ethnic cuisines are making way into the kitchens of various restaurants, hotels and homes.” (Sharma, 2012: Online)

But it’s the style in which these foods are being displayed is what interests me.

I worked at a 50th birthday party a few weeks ago, the venue was a marquee set up in a farmer’s field looking over a lake. Very pretty location but nothing out of the ordinary; it wasn’t until going inside that you could see it was something a little different from the norm. Around the edge of the room were wooden street stalls all named with different countries. Think there must have been about 7 different stalls ranging from English to Moroccan. The idea was the guests had the option of walking around the room, tasting different foods from all around the world. I loved the effect this had on the event, making it so universal and giving people the opportunity to try something new. I like the way that what was on each stall had been thought about to make sure it stayed as ethnic as possible, no expense spared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However it was only the food that had been concentrated on. What I think would have been good was to have offered some traditional drinks to go along with the food, for example, some Singha beer on the Thai stand.  Just adding a bit more to the atmosphere, giving each stall a bit more diversity.

Events are all about amusing people and as the event industry evolves, “theme parties have evolved into’ entertainment happenings’, involving guests in activities and interactive venues”. Catering has now become a monumental part of this entertainment.”(Yeoman et al 2004: 117)

 References

Yeoman. I (2004) an international arts and culture perspective. Festival and Events Management. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinnemann.

Sharma.S. and Kahanna.P. (2012) Four chefs tell us about changing trends in the food industry. India Today. [Online] [Accessed on 23/10/2012]. Available from: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/chefs-food-industry-multiculti-cuisine-ice-cream-pastry/1/224408.html

 

How are you being served?

I was thinking the other day (while watching Downtown Abbey) how formal meals and events used to be. To have anything other than a sit down meal where you’re served your food would have been incomprehensible. When the buffet concept was introduced it relaxed the rules about formal dining. Guests now had “the option to choose their favourite menu item and have some personal control over the portion sizes”(Shock and Stefanelli,2009:no page). It was unconventional, disorderly and it worked! Progressing further, it seems that now the idea of having a sit-down meal and a buffet are being combined.

My question is, does it work?

I worked at a large wedding the other week, with guest’s numbers being at the 700 mark. The style of service we were to give was “family buffet”, delivering to each table several bowls with different types of food. It gave guests the luxury of still having food brought to their table with the added bonus of being able to pick what they wanted. From a waitress’s point of view, we were able to serve large amounts of food in a short space of time. It was quick and efficient. Reading around the subject I found that this style of service is actually very common at large group events and can be “targeted to the family, social and business market.”(Chon at Maier,2010:196)
I did, however, notice that this service had its flaws. Guests still walked around the table to get to the different bowls. Having to lean over one another and get in each other’s way. It looked like more of an inconvenience then anything. What was the point? It seemed like efficiency of the service was more important than the comfort of the guests. Also with a sit-down meal, the chef knows how much food is needed but with “family buffet” how are you meant to judge the quantity? The answer is….. you can’t really. Instead, everything is made up on a large scale so by the end the amount of food that had to be thrown away was ridiculous! For an event this size, this could easily have been avoided.

Overall though, I do like this style of serving because it still fairly laid back as well as keeping to an orderly structure. It stops guests feeling segregated and keeps people talking. It’s a very social service. It combines the benefits of buffets and table service by keeps costs down and gives guests the ability to stay at their table (Eventective, 2012:Online). It does have problems but at the end of the day what doesn’t, it’s something different. The guests seemed to enjoy it so really that’s all that matters.

References

Chon,K. Maier,T.(2010). Welcome to Hospitality: An Introduction. 3rd Edition., USA: CENGAGE Learning.

Eventective. (2012) The pros and cons of Buffet vs. Sit down catering at your event. [Online][Accessed on 13/10/2012] http://www.eventective.com/article/The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Buffet-vs-Sit-Down-Catering-for-Your-Event.html

Shock, Patti. Stefanelli, J. (2009). A Meeting Planners Guide To Catered Events. ,New Jersey:WILEY.