Ariana Banqueting Hall Case Study: Operational Efficiency

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Conference and Banqueting Management
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Conference and Banqueting Management
Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.............................................................................................................................................................4
1.1...............................................................................................................................................................4
Scope and market size of UK Conference and Banqueting Industry.........................................................4
1.2...............................................................................................................................................................6
Influential factors.......................................................................................................................................6
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................................9
2.1...............................................................................................................................................................9
Strategic and operational key issues of Banqueting and Conference Management..................................9
2.2.............................................................................................................................................................10
Quality control techniques of Banqueting and Conference Management...............................................10
Task 3...........................................................................................................................................................13
3.1.............................................................................................................................................................13
Food-beverage production and service styles for propped Research seminar:........................................13
3.2.............................................................................................................................................................18
Key issues for organizing off-site banquet cum conference:...................................................................18
3.3.............................................................................................................................................................18
Key menu planning for conference and banqueting events.....................................................................18
Task 4...........................................................................................................................................................19
4.1.............................................................................................................................................................19
Ergonomic considerations for Banqueting and Conference Management..............................................19
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................20
Reference.....................................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
This assignment aims to describe the fundamentals of the banqueting and conference management. With
the era of 21st century, the banqueting and hospitality industry have gone through changes to cope with
the changing market. UK hospitality industry has been going through revolutionary changes and catering
customized services to its customers. Moreover the catering and conferences halls have implicated
modernized services to attract customers from different levels. Banqueting and conferences halls offer
catering and hospitality services for various purposes like personal family parties, business conferences,
conferences, business parties, marriage ceremony etc. To elevate the level of operational effectiveness the
catering and conferences halls must understand the importance of effective planning and key functions of
banqueting and conference management. In this detailed report the potential for conference and
banqueting are evaluated while London-based Ariana Banqueting Hall, is chosen as a venue for
identifying operational hindrances. Ariana Banqueting Hall offers conference package with catering or
banquet service. In case of hospitality sectors food service styles and food production systems are
important to attract the customers. Lastly influence of costing and budgeting over organizational
framework and ergonomic considerations in the organization of banqueting and conferences are discussed
in detail.
.
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Task 1
1.1
Scope and market size of UK Conference and Banqueting Industry
With the era of modernization and technological advancement, hospitality sector has implicated
customized and modernized services to cater various occasions. Understanding of banqueting and
conference management has become of profound interest. Revolutionary changes have crossed the global
boundaries and almost event are celebrated with joy (McCallaghan, 2015). Large scale exposure to socio-
economic and cultural diversity has helped United Kingdom to observe decent changes in its hospitality
sector. United Kingdom is like home to many large scale, traditional hotels, banquet and conferences
halls (Taylor, Draper and Hammond, 2018). Being a cosmopolitan city, London has several renowned
hotels, conferences halls to cater every economic class and organize every type of evens like personal
family parties, business conferences, conferences, business parties, marriage ceremony etc.
As reported, England has more than 535 hotels-conferences halls, Scotland has around 350 conferences
halls, Northern Ireland has around 450 conferences halls and other major cities of United Kingdom has
more than 1200 hotels to organize personal-professional-business events and meetings Rogers and
Bender, (Eds.), (2018). As per ranking system across various cities of United Kingdom, in 2018 England
had organized highest number of events and meetings (Venske, 2018). From the viewpoint of a Food and
Beverage Manager, huge planning and potential are needed to perform conference and banqueting events
in a successful manner.
Hospitality sector provides job opportunities to the service sector and helps the nation in terms of
economic stability. Conferences and banqueting industry at UK although has not seen such radical
improvement, the sector has gained stability in terms of market capitalization, market growth, economic
status and popularity (Statista, 2019). To meet financial need and elevate annual turnover of the
conferences and banqueting industry, organization have to elevate capacity and implicate operational
strategies like suitable duration of the program, expenditure, customer preference, food serving style,
menu etc.
Statista, (2019) has recently published that between 2007 and 2017 business events and conference
market in the United Kingdom has seen stable growth. Despite of all odds like political hindrances
(Brexit), inflation, nominal GDP, market expansion and population growth, UK has revolutionized its
events market and has organized more than 1.5 million events in venues in the UK.
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Figure: Number of business events in the United Kingdom during 2007 to 2017
Source: (Satista, 2019)
Conwi, Cortez and Ramos, (2016) mentioned that banqueting and conferences organizations provide a
multitude of services like:
 Banqueting
 Organizing family parties
 Theme based event
 Movie screening venues
 Food buffet and banqueting
 Marketing and advertising campaigns
 Business conferences
 Planning of décor- theme based personal celebrations
As per the description, provided banqueting and conferences services can be segregated into conferences
and banqueting on the basis of facilities that these different services provide (Davis et al.2018).
Differentiation between conference and banqueting facilities:
Sl. Major attributes Conference Banqueting
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1 Most emphasis over Technical staffs, equipment, and
required tools are given more
preference than anything else.
Beverage, menu and food items are
given more preference.
2 Booking technique Booking facility can be short
term or long term is required.
Long term booking facility is
required.
3 Accommodation Demands for accommodation are
on the higher end.
Demands for accommodation are on
the lower end, in fact not even
required at all.
4 Purpose Official training purposes,
business gathering majorly take
place.
Personal celebrations like marriage,
birthday party etc. are celebrated and
enjoyed along with family members
(Andrews, 2013).
5 Activities Formal gathering involves non-
seasonal yet reasonable activities
Informal gathering involves
enjoyable activities and seasonal
requirements are also celebrated.
6 Allocation of staffs Quite lower numbers of staffs are
required.
Higher numbers of staffs are
required to manage the huge public.
7 Way of conduct Much more on the formal side Involves informal conduct among
individuals.
1.2.
Influential factors
In this part, the critical elements of conferences and the banquet arrangements are demonstrated from the
perspectives of a Food and Beverage Manager of Ariana Banqueting Hall. I have seen that hospitality
sector is predominantly dependent on the demand and preferences of customer base (Guilding, 2014). The
changes can be reflected in the changing global trend and market demands. More than 40000 conferences
and the banquet halls are spread over United Kingdom (Kazemi and Sanaei, 2014). The hospitality sector
has created huge job opportunities among the youth. Moreover out-of-the box and innovative ideas are
given great importance in this creative sector (Patiar, 2013). Nearly 1.7 million people are employed in
the hospitality sector. In UK five star hotels, motels, pubs, take away, bars, clubs and restaurants are
responsible for generating 45 Billion pounds annually (Najafi, 2019). Hospitality sector at UK offers
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great organizational framework and infrastructure in term of national growth, income and economic
stability (Karmaker, 2014).
Figure: Hierarchical positioning inside the organizational framework of hospitality sector
I am responsible for the food and beverage department of Ariana Banqueting Hall. I have to work under
Assistant manager. Being the Food and Beverage Manager at the hotel, I have to manage the key strategic
and operational issues. For instance I have to look over the quality of food, arrange theme based menu,
organize theme based parties for various occasions etc.
In terms of the facilities that are provided by conferences and banqueting, banquet facility concentrates on
family or personal occasions and functions whereas banqueting put emphasis on occasions that are
celebrated on official and formal purpose (Perez and Manzano, 2017). Hospitality sectors are much more
sensitive toward global trend and quality standards. The scope of this sector is constantly increasing with
time (Marane et al.2013). Moreover demands of requisite facilities and venue spaces are constantly
increasing in terms of customized and personalized catering of food (Zheng and Xiao, 2013).
Several factors hospitality sector need to follow to serve the various needs and demands of existing
stakeholders. Those factors that are concerned for the development of this sector are mentioned below.
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 The market demand is predominantly important for determining the scope and requirements of
this industry. To organize events that consist of bigger crowd, the training venue, hotels and
banqueting halls need to be arranged properly. Intensive changes are required to meet the
changing global trend.
 To survive and sustain business growth in competitive market of the hospitality industry, the UK
based hotels, banqueting halls and conferences need to implicate revolutionized marketing
strategies to run along the off-seasons.
 Demographic positioning also impacts in terms of creating variations in the organizational
environment of hospitality industry.
 Large numbers of multi-national organizations have commercialized hospitality industry on the
basis of various occasions like theme based parties, research seminars, business conferences etc.
 Hospitality industry is hugely influenced by the seasonal factors. Seasonal parties are celebrated
in hotels, resorts, banqueting and conference halls. Seasonal occasions like Christmas parties,
summer holidays etc. are important for elevating the market capitalization of hospitality sector.
The banqueting and conferences arrangement are generally important for celebrating family
functions and auspicious occasions.
 In such scenario rich cultural heritage play an important role in terms of attracting visitors. Rich
cultural heritage, cultural diversity and historical background of United Kingdom have enabled
the hospitality sector to attract large number of tourists. To retain the business growth and expand
business hospitality sectors need to increase the availability of banquet arrangements and variety
of themes.
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Task 2
2.1
Strategic and operational key issues of Banqueting and Conference Management
Ariana Conferencing hall has been taken for conducting conference package with banquet facility. To
conduct research seminar by Imperial College of London at London, this venue would be perfect. Around
200 guests are going to participate in the event across the nations (Martinez, 2013). This leading city hotel
must consider food and beverage management along with new facilities to suffice the demands of
research seminars in terms of technological gadgets, infrastructure and menu (Kaur, 2017). To maintain
sustainable growth in this sector, Ariana Conferencing hall need to implement strategic plans for reducing
operational issues.
As per the statistical report, hotels have taken the maximum market share of occasions that are generally
organized in the training venue, hotels, banqueting and conferences halls in the UK.
Figure: Market share of business events on the basis of venue type in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017
Source: (Statista, 2019)
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Moreover existing hotels, banquets and conference halls need to abide by rules and regulations of UK
government. As per the Food Safety Act (1990), the hospitality sector needs to manage consumable
processed foods in ethical way. For better understanding of operational framework of Ariana
Conferencing hall key strategic issues are listed below.
 The organization is capable of arranging large to small parties efficiently. The size of the
gathering is important so that the organization can make proper arrangement of menu and open
space.
 The organization promotes open-minded concept toward cultural diversity. Diverse cultural
occasions are celebrated here without any discrimination.
 The organizational framework focuses strictly over standard institutional yet flexible work flow.
Rigid institutional framework can lead to lack of motivation among the employees.
 The organization follows HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) guidelines strictly to
identify hazardous elements and maintain standardized food production system. The served foods
are produced and stored by such guidelines. More importantly excess foods are refrigerated as per
the guidelines to prevent the health hazards (Guerrier, 2013).
 Food choices differ between corporate guests and tourists. Food menu and serving style are
different as per the type of occasion.
 Due to the flexible work hours, rotational shifts, long work hour, lack of variations and less scope
of exposure employees get de-motivated. In such scenario ergonomic factors need to be
considered by the top-level management and arrange work based appraisal system (Pantelidis,
2018).
 The organization must take care of the legal and statutory norms while implicating strategic
decisions.
 The sales-marketing department of Ariana Conferencing hall must focus on generating
promotional offers to the customer base during the off-season.
 Merger and acquisition with larger organizations like 5-star hotels, corporate guest houses etc. to
generate more revenue and attain organizational objectives (Fine and Bean, 2015).
2.2
Quality control techniques of Banqueting and Conference Management
To retain the quality standard of the menu, the conference and banqueting department need to implement
quality review techniques to get proper result regarding quality standards. A range of quality review
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techniques and methods are used by hospitality sector. Among all such techniques, six sigma techniques
is beneficiary in terms of providing security and delivering quality banqueting operations (Lukic, 2014).
Figure: Implication of Six-sigma at hospitality sector
Security and safety
The organization must ensure safety and security of the students, researchers, professors, lecturers and
other guests (Wood, 2018). Checking through CCTV cameras and metal detectors at the security gates
can be taken by the security staffs as precautions to avoid such security threats. On that day, more than
200 footfalls may come for research seminars with guest pass. The security must implicate strict security
options like showcasing of identity proofs, biometric proofs etc. (Shahidi, 2015).
Repair and Engineering issues
Repairing and maintenance of security services, electronic gadgets etc. are of profound interest in terms
of arranging business meetings, public gathering, research seminars and personal occasions.
Food and beverages
Serving styles, availability of food items, room service are very important part of hospitality segment.
Such that quality assured food menu is very necessary (Kotas, 2014).
Front desk operations
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SecurityandsafetyEngineeringissuesFoodandbeveragesfrontdeskoperationsSales-marketingBookingsHousekeepingissues