Choosing fun F&B selections that are fresh and in season is always a winner, as is having a mix of healthy and not-so-healthy options. Photo by Nick Tortajada

It doesn’t make people register for a meeting, but food is one of the most talked about elements of an event, and it’s among attendees’ lingering memories.

The considerations that must be made when ordering what’s served and how to do it though can be endless. What cuisine? Are the ingredients seasonal? Does the hotel make sustainability efforts? The list goes on.

Meeting planners are addressing these questions and more. “Food is a really important part of the meeting experience,” says independent financial and insurance meeting planner Jennifer Squeglia, of RLC Events. “There’s a lot to be said for breaking bread together; you get to know people that way. Plus, it’s nice not to go into the kitchen and make your food, as we did during COVID when we were on Zoom meetings.”

Seasonal Offerings

The first task of planners with summer events is to capitalize on the season’s ingredients and its nostalgia.

“I have a program coming up in Boston, and the city is all about seafood so we’ll probably incorporate that into the menu,” says Karin Pontelandolfo, CMP, event manager, meeting management & event strategy, Liberty Mutual Insurance. “We also want to have an oyster bar.”

For a meeting earlier in the summer, she adds that Liberty Mutual is headed to Sarasota, FL, and says, “We like to do something seasonal; maybe we’ll use peaches for dessert.”

Staying seasonal can help groups positively impact communities, Pontelandolfo states. “It’s more sustainable because if a hotel uses locally sourced, seasonal items the staff can go to the area farm for ingredients [without transportation.]”

Summer ingredients also foster happy memories. “Ice cream and gelato are great for dessert,” Squeglia asserts. “They remind people of camping. Summers are more fun so menus can incorporate that.”

More specifically, she states, “A s’more’s station is especially popular in the summer. It’s a lot of fun and very nostalgic for attendees. The hotel I worked with provided multiple types of graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate and other delights. Attendees loved it.”

Squeglia advises other planners to be clear with hotels about what they want. “Culinary teams have come a long way, you can say to them, ‘Our theme is summer picnic, what can your chef do?’ And I always ask what the chef likes to do. Maybe (s)he loves to barbeque.”

Summer’s bounty varies by destination so planners must do some research, notes Tracy Stuckrath, founder and chief connecting officer of thrive! meetings & events, and host of the Eating at a Meeting podcast.

“Ask the chef what’s in season and look at local guides,” says Stuckrath. For example, seasonalfoodguide.org enables users to search by state.

Safety and Satiety

A priority for meeting planners when ordering food is keeping attendees with allergies safe.

“It’s front of mind because we want everyone to be safe, happy and healthy,” says Heather Nutter, manager of conferences and events for Commonwealth. “We model the eight major food allergens, identified by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, so our labels say, ‘contains shellfish, dairy, gluten’ etc.”

Food safety is a focus for Squeglia too. “We make sure we know attendees’ needs and we alert someone on the floor from banquets. If an attendee has severe allergies, we might ask to go through the buffet with her; I do it discreetly. Attendees have been receptive; it comforts them.”

Pontelandolfo asks if attendees carry an EpiPen. “We want to know if [a dietary request] is life-threatening or if it’s just ‘I don’t want to eat gluten.’ In the welcome packet, we provide a card with an attendees’ dietary preferences and instructions like, ‘If you’re having trouble finding something you can eat, contact a certain person, such as the banquet manager.’ Then we work closely with the hotel on food labeling. We want attendees to know we take their allergies seriously.”

For their part, attendees want information about what they’re eating, Stuckrath says. “People want to know what’s in their food, for allergens and to be healthier.”

Many meeting goers are more nutrition-conscious now, but planners have to satisfy multiple audiences.

“You have those who want to eat healthy while some people still want the ‘fun food’ so we try to balance the healthy with the unhealthy,” Pontelandolfo shares. “For example, on a morning break we’ll have smoothies, or fruit and mini muffins.”

Even without requests, some planners make sure to provide nutritious options. “Some people’s good habits go out the window when they travel so we want to be sure attendees have healthy options,” says Squeglia. “Hotels have gotten better about not just having a bowl of bananas when we ask for some fruit.”

Chef Engagement

In general, attendees show more curiosity now about what they’re served, she notes. “More often people want to know where the food comes from. They’re coming up to food stations and asking chefs ‘Where does [an ingredient] come from?’ Or sometimes hotels display signage on a cheese station, for example, saying the farm where the product came from.”

Before, Squeglia says, “Chefs were behind the curtain, like the Wizard of Oz, but now people like to engage with them. Sometimes there is a ‘chef engagement fee’ of $150 to $250; but as planners, we need to be transparent about budget with our partners. You can rob Peter to pay Paul, moving money from lunch, for example, to provide more of a ‘wow’ at the welcome reception.”

Planners are finding ways to make the most of attendees’ interest in food and beverage. “I’m starting to combine our food and beverage activations with gifting,” explains Pontelandolfo. “Earlier this year, we had a tea blending station, where people blended their teas and put them into a sashay to take home. It’s just a little more fun; it adds interaction.”

That’s a positive offering, she says, “because interactive and live elements always help jazz up an evening event. Whenever possible, I like to have a live-action chef cooking in front of the guests, as opposed to serving food from chafing dishes. For example, if there is a beef station, I always try to set it up with the chef grilling in front of everyone; the smells are delicious. We also have brought in bartenders who used dry ice ‘smoke,’ which is always fun and draws a crowd.”

Sustainable Efforts

In lockstep with society, an area in which planners have made big improvements is in their groups’ efforts to save the planet.

Nutter and Pontelandolfo are giving attendees aluminum water bottles to cut down on plastic, and at Commonwealth, “We talk with the hotel about its sustainability efforts — whether that’s recycling, using compostable materials, composting waste, etc.,” says Nutter. “We also ask if the culinary team grows herbs or vegetables on property. We’re passionate about cutting down on food waste.”

Equally committed to reducing waste, Liberty Mutual is looking into donating unused food. “We’re exploring organizations that will pick up leftovers,” says Pontelandolfo. “For a long time, hotels said it had to be thrown away but now there seems to be more organizations that do it.”

However, the move may not be in the budget, she admits. “There is a fee for it and our budgets are decreasing. We have not tried it yet; we are still researching. The cost could play into it, depending on the program budget.”

Meanwhile, Nutter’s sustainability efforts are focused on going local. “Sourcing locally is important to us because many locations are struggling to keep their providers employed so wherever possible, we use hotels’ existing menus with the hope they’re supporting local farmers and vendors,” Nutter says.

Creative Fusion

Inclusion is another element of sustainability, and meeting planners are bringing global cuisine front and center. Whether it’s taking a fresh approach to creative fusions from different cultures or celebrating authentic recipes from around the world, attendees love the opportunity to sample global cuisine.

Planners should also leverage an event’s location to plan the food, advises Stuckrath. “Look at where you are and who you’re serving, don’t just use the standard banquet menu. Provide food that represents the destination.”

Conversely, she adds, planners must understand who attendees are and arrange food accordingly. “You don’t want to serve filet mignon to a vegan. If you have an incentive group going to Bora Bora, maybe not everyone is comfortable eating the local specialty but they might be comfortable learning about the culture. If the trip winners worked their tails off to sell insurance and make the company money but they’re feeling excluded, you’re not showing them the respect they earned.”

Stuckrath also has a suggestion around food equity for all types of events. “I’d like to see different table heights so people of different heights can reach the food.”

For other planners, equity comes from focusing on what type of food is served. “We’re trying to have a more global cuisine, incorporating Mediterranean, Indian or Latin foods, or the like, and not just serve sandwich buffets and burgers,” says Pontelandolfo. “People said the food is great; it’s different.”

Teetoling attendees are experiencing inclusion too, given the rise of mocktails and other drink alternatives.

“There are a lot of people who are choosing to abstain from alcohol, or they’re sober curious, so we make sure we’re offering mocktails,” says Pontelandolfo. “Most recently, I ordered non-alcoholic wine for an upcoming program.”

Also a provider of mocktails, Commonwealth works diligently to provide creative beverages, according to Nutter. “We brainstorm internally and have started collaborating with national hotel salespeople. They have a list of mocktails they’re using at hotels worldwide so we know, if they did a botanical-infused mocktail somewhere else in their brand, we can have it with or without alcohol,” she says. “It’s nice to have a running list instead of just working from what one venue offers.”

Portion Control

Another trend planners are seeing, and deploying, is the serving of individual portions versus buffets, as well as options for attendees to customize dishes being served.

At Commonwealth’s largest national conference in 2022, the full breakfast buffet was reduced in favor of satellite stations with grab-and-go options, according to Nutter.

“We offered options such as a yogurt parfait or a breakfast sandwich closer to where the first meeting of the day was taking place,” Nutter says. “We still offered the buffet, but we decreased the number of guarantees. Not everyone wants a full breakfast so we saw a huge cost savings from that, and we heard appreciation from our attendees.”

Nutter saw an opportunity to also tweak what the company does at meeting breaks, saying, “We’ve noticed that attendees like to have options and since they’re more mindful about what they’re eating, we’re trying to move in a more healthy and sustainable direction.”

For example, she continues, “Instead of a donut break or standard offerings from banquet menus, we pushed the hotel to do a la carte snack stations at our national conference in 2022 and our invitational programs in 2023. Attendees enjoyed this option and it allowed us to do breaks on consumption, providing a cost savings of anywhere from $5 to $10,000 in some cases, depending on the event.”

Nutter applauds hotels for their creativity. “The age-old big buffet, chaffing dish era — at times — is taking a back seat and we’re seeing more creative presentations of food from hotels,” she says. “I recently attended an event where they did an aluminum lunch box and you walked to 10 different pre-packaged stations where you could pick a salad or a soup or a pasta, etc. and build your own lunch, versus a standard boxed lunch where most people will throw out an apple that doesn’t look great or the chips that weren’t the flavor they wanted.”

Squeglia has noticed this shift too. “I’ve seen a lot more individual portions, so rather than a big bowl of fruit, there’s a cup or bowl of it, or at a raw bar, there are maybe some glasses with individual servings and cocktail sauce. It lets people have a bite or experience while they’re walking around. The individual servings look pretty, and we eat with our eyes first.”

Dazzling Presentations

Planners are adding presentation elements sure to excite attendees, such as do-it yourself stations and interactive elements. Of course, in the summer months, those presentations often take place outdoors.

“I have used ice cream trucks at summer events for dessert, and I’ve provided donut trucks too,” says Squeglia. “The trucks were well received.”

At Pontelandolfo’s summer meeting, in Sarasota, FL, there will be an outdoor party with a fun and interactive refreshment station with a do-it-yourself element. “At our beach party, I am having a blender bike, where attendees can select a frozen drink and pedal — on a stationary bike — to run the blender and mix the drink/ice themselves. It’s a fun activation to get the group moving & interacting while also serving the purpose of offering cool frozen drinks on a hot day at the beach,” she says.

For her part, Nutter has delighted attendees during summer meetings with some very seasonal offerings. “We found success with a clambake-style employee event, with lobster and other dishes served from food dishes. A clambake is a quintessential summer activity that was appropriate for our outdoor seating. Also, for most attendees, the cost of a full clambake would be prohibitive so it was a nice treat for us to offer that to them,” she says.

Delicious, fun and memorable food is every planner’s goal. Not only does that heighten attendees’ enjoyment of a meeting, it keeps them buzzing about the event long after everyone’s gone home, enticing them and their colleagues to register for the association’s next get together.  I&FMM.