Question :
The objective of this report is to evaluate the opportunities related to Conference and Banqueting industry. In this regard it is required to for management of “Service on A Plate” to pay their maximum attention towards different aspects such as:
- Identify size and scope of conference and banqueting industry as well as impact of different factors over its development.
- Evaluate performance and quality review techniques as well as operational or strategic issues within “Service On a Plate”.
- Examine the effectiveness of different factors as food production, menu planning and ergonomic consideration within conference and banqueting industry.
Answer :
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The topic of the current research is conference and banquet management. In the first step of this study is the size of the banquet hall in UK, it is important for seminar and banquet halls because the amount of peoples are coming for the event they need to have a comfortable space to sit down and understand the seminar. After this, in seminar and banquet management industry it is important to serve good quality of food in a low amount of money. The management of the company need to offer some discount for their customer. In part 2, the discussion topic is influencing factors to develop the industry. This part is divided in two parts internal matter and external matter. In internal matter there are accommodation, music, quality of food, good crowd etc and in external issue there are political issue, environmental issue, economy related and social related. If the political condition in any country is not good then any kind of industry will face different kind of problems. For UK, as it is one of largest economical country there is a chance to increase the business. In the Presentation the discussion topic is about the needs in a seminar. The quality of food, the time limit and the new technologies that can be used in the seminar hall. The facilities people will get from the company will attract and increase the business.
INTRODUCTION
In the given topic company and banquet management in the UK is based on a company namely "Service on A plate" is connected with a catering business. The given company provides their services for various kinds of events and conferences. This report will be focused on some important things like the market of banquet industry in the UK. This report will also be an analytical report based on the factors which are influenced the development of the market. There will be some strategies in the next portion of this report and the techniques of the industry. In task 3, a PPT will be attached based on the food production style, key planning, and consideration for a banquet.
Task 1 (M1, D2)
AC1.1 Scope along with the size of banquet industry in UK
The size and the scope in conference and banquet industry is one of the most useful components for attracting the investors to invest in this field. The size and the scope depend on few factors like the style of the ownership of the conference and the banquet industry. Their service level towards their customer and their hospitality is also important. The large and important meeting is provided by the conference industry (KoÃ…"ºmieja and PasÃ…"šawski, 2016). In this type conference industry, they also offered seminar room with quality food at a good price. In banquet industry, they also offered the seminar halls as well as there is also a facility to choose a variety of foods.
According to Rahimi (2017), as the UK is highly congested and commercial place, in tourism department, banquet and catering industry has huge scope to flourish. Moreover, according to annual tourism report of 2016, in tourism sector's gross revenue, banquet and conference industry has contributed 25.7% alone. The conference and banquet industry is based on few related industries like restaurant, food, bar etc. According to Sadd and Musikavanhu (2018), there are more than 46,000 hotels and guest house exist in the united kingdom. It covered approx 130000 property and there are more than 1.5 million people are involved with this property. In the United Kingdom, the govt specialized in this sector, hence there are great opportunities for this industry in the United Kingdom.
Incorporate and banquet industry the size is important and by size, they want to define the large, medium and small. The number of the guest is attending in the hotel can also be defined in the size. As well as the number of meetings and seminars and conference are counted in the size. The small size of conference halls in the United Kingdom are not more than 500 peoples are attending. the medium size of conference hall is like 600-1000 people can easily gather. 3000 to 4000 people can come for a conference in a large size of seminar hall (Yaduma et al. 2015).
In the UK as it is a growing company, hence it should deals in a proficient way with the events such as outdoor events like different types of entertaining events, sports events based on the interest of the people, a discussion based on the society etc. It can also involve some events like wedding, lunch, and dinner, the launch of a product or music CDs etc. According to Hurrell and Scholarios (2014), In UK the amount generated for meetings, outdoor events, music programs are like 19.9, 1.1 and 1.3 in billion pounds. The UK approx 85 million people are attending in 10000 venues for different types of events. Moreover, more than 1.3m business events happen every year in the United Kingdom. 39% of the event organizations expect to increase their business in the coming year (Durodola et al. 2014). In the past years, this industry contributes 21.1 billion pounds to govt tax and they spend 39.1 billion pounds annually for meetings, conferences, and on the other events.
AC1.2 Influencing factors in the development of Conference and banquet industry in the UK (M3)
The factors that are the main cause of banqueting and conference sector is including in two parts of the competition, Service facility, the quality of food, accommodation, entertainment and the technology of the seminar hall. This is the internal factors and the external factors are related to political, economy related, social, technology-related issues, and legal issues.
In any organization technology system should be strong because the first change of the technology may change the system in the conference room. new types of machinery system should be there to support the presentation type works in seminar hall. Day by day technology is improving, hence the conference and banquet sector need to change their operating system and process of activities.
In the UK, as people are concern about the environments, therefore environmental business is growing as a theme in the banquet business and people wants the service which is less harmful.
The food quality should be up to the point and fresh. The management also has to keep the dieting issue while they are cooking. They must offer some discount on the food and that will attract people to visit in their place more often. Management has to make sure that the visitors will get a comfortable atmosphere in the banquet hall like good music is playing; the crowd should be well behaved and good behavioral attitude. Their concern about food quality helps "service on a plate” get 5 stars from the north Norfolk district council. The company uses fresh products for the meal, hence it is clear that the food is tasty and healthy. The management has one more thing to consider that the customer needs to pay 6.80 pounds for smaller snack 6.80pound and for the bigger one the rate will be 7.20 pound. As per the economic condition of UK, the peoples in the UK can afford the price As it is clear that the company used local products to make the foods and as a result of this the cost of the food decreased but quality will be same.
In any business political condition is important because if it is unstable then the conference will be unorganized. The local people will afraid to join the meeting and as a result, the price of the products increased which can be used in the conference. The conference and the business management industry will be affected if the government policy is changing. According to Ingram and Basanez (2014), the economic factor will also help to improve the business. GDP, the Employment rate is the good position in the UK because a huge number of people are coming for study, official purpose and to visit the UK. Hence that helped the conference and banquet management business easier in the United Kingdom.
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Task 2
AC 2.1 Strategic issues faced by “Service On A plate” regarding effective management within budget
Service on a plate has been facing a lot of issues like they have to maintain good food quality and safety of visitors within the affordable budget. According to the Health and safety work act on 1974 in the UK, the management should protect the health and safety of the employees by choosing the crowd carefully and foot should be good quality and fresh. The customer of the banquet should get a special discount on a specific time of day. The management should maintain a diary to mention the names who want to visit in that place. They should have a database of their clients and customers for future use or as a soft copy document.
Management should hire the right person for the right place to increase the business. Besides this, various types of social arrangement and facilities can be offered as per the current trend in the industry. The company should meet the legal and statutory norms as per UK government like premises license, they need to note the duration of the license, licenses for club premises. Management also needs to take few more rules like temporarily activate notice, withdrawal notice, leave notice etc. It is important to obtain that the required licenses and approaches so that the sector is not facing any type of challenge. The food and facilities like good room design with proper facilities like the good healthy room, clean toilet, good quality of food, good management, and the well-behaved staff can attract more people. In seminar room, there must be some more new techniques, like, six sigma, kaizen principles to remove the error from the system and the arrangement.
AC 2.2 Techniques for the performance review in banquet and conference industry
From British Conference Venues Survey 2016, it has been noticed that there are about 1,05,000 conferences and banquets being organized and on an average 392 conferences per venue are arranged. Thus catering industry has found its good market in the UK. Thus, this industry, along with Service on a plate deploys some techniques to review the performance of the organization.
Team Monitoring
As stated by Chibili (2017), each team have a particular task to perform. For example, in Service on a plate, there are various responsibilities like taking orders from the consumers, cooking the dishes, thorough analysis on the consumers, decorating the banquets and serving the food to the clients. CCTV camera and surveillance support, daily discussion and participating in weekly decision-making policy, customer service feedback and so on are some of the popular strategies to check employee performance. The leader of each organizing team should monitor the members accordingly and help the members who lack in work through on-job training In this way, employee productivity will be increased. The team members in the UK also feel free to clarify all doubts with their superiors.
Performance Appraisal
many companies along with Service on a plate has recovered in the past five years after the huge economic loss of global recession. In order to keep employees motivated to work harder, strategies, like, an increment in payment based on performance becomes a popular technique to deliver good performance in their job roles. If there is no appraisal, like, increment, provident fund, pension, medical policy, then the employees will lack confidence and gradually they will become frustrated.In the UK, the number of conferences and banquets and stress are increasing day by day according to British Venue Survey. Hence, performance reward plays a vital role in productivity. Hence Service on a plate deploying these strategies for all employees.
Taking reviews from employees about the company
Every employee needs to fill up review forms at the end of each month. By this method, Service on a Plate can understand the satisfaction of every individual employee. This survey also helps the management team to analyze their policies and change it depending on the reviews from the employees. This reviewing process will help the catering company to increase productivity. Thus they can serve clients more satisfying.
TASK 3 (M2)
Referred To PPT
3.1 Introduction to a conference or banquets
Service on Plate provides good quality of foods and beverages in UK market. In British Venue Surveys 2016, it has been predicted that there are more than 1,05,000 conferences and banquets organized in the UK. After the great backup of catering five years back, customers are preferring catering services for official meetings and conferences. For eg., when, Service on a plate is organizing an official business meeting, they must keep a detailed list of information such as,
Venue of the meeting: Wardour Street. Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus
Number of invitees: 100
Time of the meeting : 11:00 AM to 03:00 PM
Discussion Topic: Maintaining sustainability in the tourism industry
They must go through a detailed analysis of the profile of the people attending the meeting. Perfect decorations must be done in the seminar hall relevant to the purpose. An accurate count of the guests attending should be made so that food shortage should not occur. Arrangements are to be made based on the status and background of the people.
Suitability of food and beverages for a particular meeting or seminar or banquet
At first, some snacks such as Hummus with whole-grain pita bread or low-fat pretzels will be served to the invitees during the interval of meeting so that invitees do not feel bored. Good quality beverages should be kept. Several food codes like buffets, a la carte etc. are available. Staffs will provide perfect serving codes as applicable to the conference. As the meeting will continue until afternoon, hence, lunch menu would include items, like, Cheese, Ham, Tuna Mayo, Beef, Chicken, Vegetarian Lasagne etc will be served. After lunch, some dessert items such as pies, puddings, various sweets etc. are served.
Key factors for organizing an off-site conference or banquets
Off-site meeting refers to a meeting which includes development strategies, provide advanced training to the employees or discussion about promoting an employee. It is a type of decision-oriented and strategic extended conversation. Below given some key points about organizing an off-site meeting (Howie et al. 2016).
Objectives
To organize an off-site meeting, staffs have to know the key objectives of the meeting. Depending on it, some inspirational message can be written. If they have an idea about the equipment needed in the conference such as presentation screens, projectors, laptops, stable internet connection etc. then organizing the meeting will be much helpful.
Site visit
The staffs from Service on a Plate visit the whole venue once so as to decide how the decorations and different arrangements should be made in the venue. The dining table during lunch should be decorated so that the invitees or guests do not get offended (Harvard Business review, 2015).
Repeated analysis should be done about the venue. Venue should be chosen which supports the event’s objectives.
Key menu planning considerations for the conference and banqueting events
As this is an official meeting, the menu must be selected depending on the status of the guests attending the conference depending on time of meeting. During the start of the meeting, each guest is given table snacks and tea or coffee or soft drinks according to preference. The meeting table is decorated with flowers and proper seating arrangement is made. Beside each seat, a glass of water and a pad are kept so as to note the key points of the presentation. The lunch table is beautifully decorated with dishes. In lunch both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes are kept (Butlers Service on a Plate, 2018). After the main course, some dessert dishes like pies, puddings and various delicious sweets are served.
Ergonomic considerations for a particular conference or banquets
According to Laudon and Laudon (2016), as it is an official meeting, the staffs of Service on a plate must thoroughly analyze the physiological and psychological status of the guests attending the meeting. The high profiled people are provided special seats. The whole seminar hall should be air-conditioned. No power failure should occur in the mid of the conference. Stable internet connection will be provided. Each chair will be provided with a glass of water, a paper pad and a pen. The seats of the chairman and client's executives must be in the proper position so that they can able to monitor the conference accordingly (Schwalbe, 2015).
Conclusion
Thus, Service on a plate is one of the reputable catering company in UK. It has successfully served almost 50,000 conferences in UK. Thus while organizing any seminar or conference, thorough research must be done in every perspective. The venue of event, number of invitees, time of the conference, likes & dislikes of the invitees etc. must be made. Psychological and physiological analysis of the clients should be used to decorate and serve foods to the guests. Proper decoration relevant to the topic must be done.