Conferencing and Banquet Management Assignment

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of conferencing and banquet management in the hospitality industry. It highlights the importance of planning, operational efficiency, and quality control in ensuring successful event management. The document includes references to relevant studies and research papers on event management, highlighting key considerations for managers to tackle during events.

Conference and Banqueting
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 Scope and size of conferencing and banqueting event.......................................................1
P1.2 Analysis of the factors that influences the development of this industry...........................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2.1Criticall analysis of the key strategic and operational issues involved in the effective
management of a given conference or banquet...........................................................................3
P2.2 Discussion on performance and quality review techniques used by the conference and
banqueting industry.....................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P3.1 Evaluation of the suitability of a range of food production systems and styles and food
and beverage service styles for a given conference or banquet..................................................7
P3.2 Discussion on the factors to consider when organizing an off-site conference banquet....8
P3.3 Analysis of the key menu planning consideration for conference and banqueting events. 8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P4.1 Assessing the ergonomic considerations for a given conference and banquet...................9
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Conferencing and banqueting industry is one the fastest growing industries in UK, as
both conferencing and banquet are of prime importance in a hospitality industry. These two parts
of the sector holds an important place in generating revenue irrespective of seasons.
Conferencing is generally consisting of business events whereas banquets are comprising of
private events such as family functions, etc.
The assignment is on hospitality industry and the report is pertaining to operations of
conferencing and banqueting in context of United Kingdom (Bowdin, et. al., 2012). The report
discusses the scope, nature and scale of services in the hospitality sector in London. Further, the
factors involved in management of conferencing and banqueting are addressed, , such as,
administrative, operational and strategic issues. And, lastly the ergonomic considerations for
managing conferencing and banqueting is explained in the report.
TASK 1
P1.1 Scope and size of conferencing and banqueting event
Conferencing and banquets are very important parts of hospitality industry. The term
conferences means the group that provides the space for the formal and the official events of any
company or organisation. On the other hand term banquet facility means the facility of providing
space for various family functions, birthday events, wedding receptions and occasions (Berners,
2018). Nowadays this industry is growing at faster rate as people are coming out and wants to
celebrate every little occasion at a large scale. This industry has a great scope in its operations.
This sector is 3rd largest revenue generator in the world. Future of this sector is predictable as this
sector will never face the issue of recession as people will always celebrate their good times in
the hotels and halls.
There are certain variation in both the terms which are mentioned below:
Basis Banqueting conferencing
Purpose Purpose in Banqueting is
enjoyment and personal
festivity celebration.
Purpose of this is official
trainings of the employee's or
organising business activities.
Emphasis The main emphasis is on The main emphasis is on
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Beverage and Food and party. technology, tools and
equipment use and training of
the employee's.
Staff Always requires more number
of staff
Number of staff required can
be low.
Time period The booking has to be done for
a long period
It can be done for shorter
period.
Accommodation Little or no demand for
accommodation arises.
Huge demand for
accommodation arises.
Dependent on The parties and functions are
based on the seasonal
requirement.
They depends on the
requirement of the company
and not on the seasonal
demand.
This industry comprises of hotels, pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, motels, etc. In UK
around 80k hotels and restaurants are operating. They are providing the service of conferencing
and banquet. This industry generates receipts of around 60 billion pounds in a year. The industry
is also helping in giving the employment to the unemployed. They are employing around 2
million people.
P1.2 Analysis of the factors that influences the development of this industry.
Banquets and conferencing industry is growing at a faster rate in today's world. There
are certain factors that influence their growth. Such factors plays a vital role in influencing the
development of this industry (Bladen, et. al., 2012.). These factors affects the industry
economically and financially. These factors influence the industry in both positive and negative
way. Various factors that influence this industry are:
 Number of visitors: This is the one of the main factor that influence the growth of this
industry as if there is increase in the visiting tourist the more will be the requirement of
banquets. This will enable the industry to build a infrastructure which will also help
country in development.
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 Number of industries: This factor also affects the development and growth of any
industry as there would be more number of industries the more is the requirement for
training the employee's will occur. Conferencing needs will also be generated because of
increase in the industry.
 Seasonal factor: The factor which is responsible for developing and increasing the
turnover of this industry is this (Chibili, 2017). People organise various functions and
events in accordance to this factor.
 Demography: The behaviour, type, culture and the preference of people affects the
facilities provided by banquets and hotels.
 Size of banquets and catering sector: it defines that the bigger the size of the
organisation, more bigger will be its scope.
These factors helps in analysing the effects of development of the sector. By making
analysis of these factors industry can boom itself and can also enhance their productivity.
TASK 2
P2.1Criticall analysis of the key strategic and operational issues involved in the effective
management of a given conference or banquet.
The responsibility has been given by the managers to organise the event of the famous
FMCG company. This event would be a conference meeting which will held on June 15, 2018
from 9 AM to 6 PM for 2 days consistently. Number of people who will attend the conference
would be around 100. Catering and buffet has to be arranged for the set out number of people by
the management (Davis, et. al., 2018). The menu has been decided by the company they have to
be served with selected food item and beverages. The next day would be followed by the a party
at the roof top where Hard drinks would be served. The aims and the objectives of the conference
are discussed as under:
 Providing attenders with the best quality of food and beverages according to the
preference.
 Serving them all the necessary products as defined in the contract with the company.
 Giving them few complementary service which will help in grabing the interest of the
client. Which will motivate the client to give us the chance to organise all the activities
and programmes which will be held by them.
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Various issues are there which are affecting the growth of the organisation and are also
creating the managerial, administrative and operational issues (Hurrell and Scholarios, 2014).
Some of these issues are discussed below:
 Their is strict adherence to the standards operating procedures. Which are making the
organisation to work in the sophisticated environment.
 The compliance with respect to maintaining the standards in food and safety of the
tourists, people and the corporates.
 The task to fit with the expectations of the employee's who are working with them.
 Performance and quality evaluation of the techniques used, guest evaluation
procedures,closed loop evaluation methods.
 Internal monitoring process to be created for evaluation of staff.
 The issue of untrained and unskilled staff.
 Different menu to be served at different tables at the same time effects the operation of
the hotel.
 The need of quality room to be offered to the client as per their requirements.
 As there is numerous number of people visiting the hotel there is always a problem of
providing diversified service to each and every staff as per the requirements.
 The problem of recruiting right people for the right profiles and with right timelines.
 The issue of complying the legal and statutory norms towards the land and construction
of the hotel with regards to UK laws and regulations (Kośmieja and Pasławski, 2016).
 Time consumed while providing training and development opportunities to the internal
sources.
Beside the above mentioned strategic, operational, administrative and marketing issues that
arises while planning an event. It is necessary for the organisation to keep monitoring the quality
and the performance.
P2.2 Discussion on performance and quality review techniques used by the conference and
banqueting industry.
It is necessary for any organisation to take special care in serving the quality food. They
should take special care as to review the techniques and the performance of the employees while
providing the service. If the food and the services that are provided by the hotel is provided in
best quality then it will lead to increase the reputation of the hotel and will also attract the
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publicity (Marane, et. al., 2013). The review will help the industry in laying down the future
points of improvement. This can be analysed by customer satisfaction level. The various
techniques that are used for the quality and the performance review are :
Internal monitoring
 Customer questionnaires: This is the best technique used by the industry. A pre set of
questions are made and are asked by the clients. The usually have to fill those questions
in a MCQ form. Later the data is analysed and sent to the concerned departments for their
implementation.
 Face to Face feedback: This is the informal manner of conducting the review. Here the
staff asks the questions from the clients directly. They get to know how is the service
provided to the client and the feedback at the same point of time.
 Focus group: In this a set of people are made who are supposed to gather the information
from the guests. They provide the reliable information to the management about the
performance of the employee's.
 Observations: The management observe the employee's who are serving the guests. The
management looks at their employee's in order that if any mistake is done then they are
noted at same time and the feedback is given back to the employee's afterwards for their
improvement.
 Management information: This relates to the information which is gained by the
management in the past. This helps in analysing what has changed from the past to
present so as to make the service more productive.
External Monitoring
 Surveys: This method employs professional outside companies who help them in
gathering the required information. The surveys are carried by them to check that if the
guest is satisfied or not.
 Secondary data: This type of monitoring includes data from industry reports and
websites. The current trend in the industry is analysed and the steps are taken accordingly
to provide the services.
By following these performance and quality review techniques management enables the banquet
and the conference industry to improve as per customer needs. It is necessary for the sector to
stay in the competition and to retain the customers (Rahimi, 2017). This helps the industry in
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continuous improvement and making the service provided up to the customer satisfaction. The
monitoring steps of that are taken by the food and beverage managers includes:
 Managing food and refreshment acquisitions for the events that occurs.
 Managing the staff and providing them the strategies to meeting the needs of the
customers.
 Supervising the way of serving the food to the clients.
 Organising the heading and stimulating the cooking department.
 Budgeting the event in favour of the hotel
 Keeping the record and the authoritative records.
 Making good relations with the suppliers and the customers.
 The stock requirement maintenance and coping up with the suppliers as to demand as
and when needed.
 Observing the nature of the items and administrating them.
 Checking that the security is properly programmed and the customer well-being is the
priority.
As the post increases the role of the managers also increases this includes:
 The managers sets and oversees the strategies. It is the most important task.
 Then the process of monitoring the quality norm comes. Where the quality of the product
is monitored.
 The administration of the offices is done by the managers. They distributes the staff to the
different wings of the hotels.
 To resolve the problems of the customers and dealing with the internal problems of the
staff.
 Deciding the menus and improving the things that should be done to attract more
customers.
TASK 3
P3.1 Evaluation of the suitability of a range of food production systems and styles and food and
beverage service styles for a given conference or banquet.
In the catering and banquet sector food service plays a vital role. Hilton Hotel is a global
brand of full services hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational
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hospitality company Hilton. The major purpose of the firm is to satisfying the needs and wants of
people at market place in respect to retain them for long run of business operations. The service
is dependent on the size and the name of the hotel. It varies from the way that the customers
wants. In some cases there are more than one restaurants in the same premises of the hotel
(Pantelidis, 2012). This is depended on the size and the level management that the hotel has.
There are various types of food services that are provided by the hotel industries. These services
includes Buffet menu, Bar menu, room services, catering services and the banquet services.
Different styles of serving by the banquets are given below:
 Outlets: The hotels has the units that displays the types of fast food that they offer to the
customers. These are basically the stalls. They may be covered or may be in the close
premises. As a large multinational company Hilton Hotel has large number of outlets that
are exists in the different geographical areas. The company is concern of offering high
quality products and services with their outlets in respect to enhancing its brand image at
market place.
 Take away departments: These are the units which are build by the restaurants for the
customers who want their food to be packaged and want to enjoy the food at home. As a
large business enterprises Hilton Hotel is providing take away facilities to their potential
customers in order to providing relevancy and comfort zone. The company is offering
variety of food products to their customers in respect to satisfying their needs and wants.
 Catering services: This service is given to the large number of people at the same point of
time. The service is provided by the trained employees. This is the department where the
hotel staff can attract the customer with their way of providing the services. The Hilton
Hotel is providing effective food facility like breakfast, lunch and dinner to their
customers and clients in respect to satisfying their needs and wants.
 Fine dining: This is the exclusive service providing area of the hotel where the extreme
skilled and talented employee's provide the service to the clients.
Providing food and beverage is the vital part of any organisation at the time organising
any event. It promotes variety in food cuisines. The different trends that are followed at the time
of organising any conference or banquet are:
 The clients focus more on healthier eating (Rahimi, 2017).
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 The food sustainability and organic food consumption helps the organisation to provide
various kind of foods to the clients.
Food production systems
 Input: The different ingredients, materials and the items will enter into the production
system
 Process: This is the process that changes the input that are entered into the output.
 Output: This is the final stage of the product that has been derived after following the
above two process.
P3.2 Discussion on the factors to consider when organizing an off-site conference banquet
The management has to take the various approaches while planing an event. In the above
case the organisation has to organise a conference of a FMCG company. The management has
various approaches to conquer conference and banquets event (Seal, and Mattimoe, 2017). These
approaches are self operated, franchise agreement, management contracting and outsourcing.
Some of the main food production system includes:
 Providing food hygiene
 The storage space
 The quality of the raw material used
 The wastage of the food must be restrained
 The food must be prepared at an appropriate temperature and in proper manner.
P3.3 Analysis of the key menu planning consideration for conference and banqueting events.
The menu planning should be done in consideration with the host of the event. This will
enable the planner to plan the event in the best way. The food must be adequate and in the event
the food must not run out. The planning of menu is the comprehensive task and requires and
hence requires lots of efforts. Various types and methods of food and beverage service includes:
 Table service: This is the service where the maximum number of employee's are required.
In this the guest are seated in the specific area and they are served with the food.
 Assisted services: In this type of service, stalls are placed at the part of the area and the
clients has to go their to serve themselves for the food. They may partly get served by the
waiters (Wilton, 2012).
 Self service: In this type the customers enters the area where the food is served and get
their food by themselves.
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 Single point service: In this the guest has to order the food and they are served at the
counter itself.
Hazardous analysis and the critical point is the main point at the time of deciding the menu
planning for the event. This type of approach prevents the food from physical or biological
hazards while in the production stage.
For the event of conferencing that is to be held the best type of service that is suitable is the
Assisted service.
Limitations of the menu of Hilton Hotel:
Low margins: The food industry is very price sensitive, more so in the world of fast food chains.
This leaves an individual with a very fine line to walk with high cost of goods, labour and
making a profit. It is significant that food franchises of Hilton Hotel often see high revenues but
the net margins is high.
Expensive initial investment – The Hilton Hotel will require a substantial investment from an
individual in respect to get started. an individual requires to pay for many products up front in
order to run the business in effective manner. Not only do Hilton Hotel need to pay for the food
and labor, also ovens, grease disposal, venting, furniture, point of sale system, and maintenance
among many other expenses.
TASK 4
P4.1 Assessing the ergonomic considerations for a given conference and banquet.
The important for the organiser to provide the ergonomic consideration at the time of
conference to be held. As the event involves lots of things that is to be held it is the duty of the
organiser to provide it comfortably (Yang, Yu and Wang,2016). The aim of the manager should
be to provide convenient service at the conference. These consideration are based on providing
the flexible and convenient meeting place. The consideration that must be included are:
 Space as per the requirement of the event
 Configuration of the equipments required at the time of conferencing.
 Lighting should be appropriate and in the proper manner, and other basic amenities.
The strains and the sprains must be decreased and the steps must be taken by executives to make
the environment danger free and safe. The steps that must be taken are:
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 Use of the expansive trolleys and the wheel sack that can carry the baggage of the
customers.
 The attendants should carry lesser baggage at once (Pantelidis, 2012). If they are carrying
more weights than it may result in cramps and other issues leading to dissatisfaction
among the employee's and the customers.
 The use of tray convey trolley should be emphasised so that the more baggages are taken
at once without having any physical harm.
CONCLUSION
The banquets and conferencing industries are gaining momentum nowadays.
Conferencing and buffet management is one of the main and vital role that the manager has to
tackle. The food and beverages menu has to planned in a proper manner by the manager. The
major problems related with operations, food quality and managerial issues have to be tackled as
soon as possible to avoid any kind of problem during the event. The most important
consideration that should be taken care of is the quality in conferencing the event and the
arrangements that are made while organising any banquet event.
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REFERENCES
Books and Authors
Berners, P., 2018. The Practical Guide to Managing Event Venues. Routledge.
Bladen, et. al., 2012. Events management: An introduction. Routledge.
Bowdin, G., et. al., 2012. Events management. Routledge.
Chibili, M., 2017. Modern Hotel Operations Management. Routledge.
Davis, B., and et. al., 2018. Food and beverage management. Routledge.
Hurrell, S.A. and Scholarios, D., 2014. “The People Make the Brand” Reducing Social Skills
Gaps Through Person-Brand Fit and Human Resource Management Practices. Journal
of Service Research. 17(1). pp.54-67.
Kośmieja, M. and Pasławski, J., 2016. Flexible designing of large sports complex. Archives of
Civil Engineering. 62(2). pp.77-88.
Marane, B., Asaad, Z. and Omer, A.O., 2013. Evaluation of Hotel Performance Based on
Financial Management, Marketing and Operations and Management Practices Issues:
Case Study on Erbil International Hotel.
Pantelidis, I.S., 2012. The role of events in the hospitality sector. Events Management: An
International Approach, p.253.
Rahimi, R., 2017. Customer relationship management (people, process and technology) and
organisational culture in hotels: Which traits matter?. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 29(5). pp.1380-1402.
Rahimi, R., 2017. Organizational culture and customer relationship management: a simple linear
regression analysis. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. 26(4). pp.443-
449.
Seal, W. and Mattimoe, R., 2017. 13 A Pragmatic Constructivist Perspective on Sensemaking in
Management Control. A Philosophy of Management Accounting: A Pragmatic
Constructivist Approach. 21. p.260.
Wilton, N., 2012. The impact of work placements on skills development and career outcomes
for business and management graduates. Studies in Higher Education. 37(5). pp.603-
620.
Yang, S., Yu, J. and Wang, X., 2016, January. Discussing on Management Accounting.
In International Conference on Accounting and Finance (AT). Proceedings (p. 5).
Global Science and Technology Forum.
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