Banquet Planning-Taking the Mystery Out

For starters, if this is an annual or recurring event, you may find it helpful to seek the advice of others who have put on successful events in the past. These folks can be a wealth of information both on what worked and what didn’t. Avoid their mistakes before you make them yourself. You will likely find that people who have gone through the cycle of planning a big event will be happy to help you with suggestions and recommendations to make the banquet a hit.

Once you have identified previous planners and others who have offered to lend a hand, you should form a banquet committee. Choose the members of the committee wisely as you will need to have people who will move the project forward in a creative and efficient way. Disputes and egos will only slow down the entire process, but you’ll definitely want to tap the talent and experience of those around you. Find out specific areas that each member of the committee is good at such as room decoration, meal preparation, managing the guest list, organizing the entertainment, etc.

As your banquet planning project moves forward you’ll find that there are some elements over which you have no control. This is a good thing as it decreases the number of decisions that you will have to make. Make a list of important information and things that you cannot change such as…

• The date. Many banquets will take place on a specific night for reasons pertaining to the theme or honored guest(s). Retirement or anniversary banquets are good examples.
• The location. If the banquet hall is owned by the group having the banquet or if there is a special meaning to the location, or if the availability is limited you will have to make the location work.
• The guest list. This is often set in stone and can be a challenge when reconciling the number of people coming with the available facility.
• The theme and order of events.
• The budget.

Now you have your committee formed and a good fix on the variables that you can and cannot control. Meet with your committee and hammer out a list of priorities based on all the variables. Have everyone think of the successful banquets they have attended and what made them successful. Having the priorities clearly defined will be very helpful when cutting costs to meet your budget. Focus on the high priorities, delegate tasks based on each committee members strengths and you will accomplish a very successful event with a minimum of stress and frustration.