UK College Unit 13 Conference Banqueting Management

Introduction

The UK College conference banqueting management assignment is based on the hospitality industry and its facts and figures with the related operations in the country of United Kingdom. There are in total 4 tasks in the entire assignment. Scope, nature and scale of services of the conferencing and banquets in London would be studied and presented in Task 1. Task 2 will give an insight on the various administrative, operational and strategic issues that arise and are involved in the management of the conferencing and banquet sector. Planning of effective menu and the food production system related aspects would be considered in Task 3. Lastly the ergonomic considerations for the conferencing and banquet management systems would be analysed in the Task 4.

TASK 1

Nature, scope and scale of the conference and banqueting event

Conferencing and banquets are two most important parts in the hospitality industry of United Kingdom that generate a lot of revenues even when there is no season for it. Conferences are said to comprise of the professional events, programs and the activities that are organized for the corporate or the companies. Banquets may be personal, individual specific, family specific or even company specific. Banquets are majorly classified in the family events like marriages, parties, family get together and birthday celebrations etc. This sector is said to be the 3^rd largest revenue generator and profit oriented sector. This sector will never face any issues of recession as there will always be good and bad times with the people which they will celebrate in the halls in the hotels. The variation could be explained as under:

Banquets

Related with family and personal occasions.
Purpose is enjoyment with food and beverages.
There is requirement of more manpower for catering.
There is a process of advanced bookings.
Accommodation may or may not be required.
These are seasonal activities.

Conferences

The objective is professional or official for the business events.
There is requirement of tools, equipment and the latest technology.
There is requirement of lesser staff.
Bookings may be done not in advance.
These are not the seasonal activities and depend on the need and period of the company officials.

United Kingdom has around 46000 hotels. The sector generated revenue of around 40 billion pounds on an annual basis as per the statistics of the year 2008. There are around 46000 hotels in UK that are into conferencing and the banquet arrangements. There is an employment generation of around 1.6 million people in the hotel industry (Brotherton & Shaw, 1996). The hotels have various facilities like bars, pubs, rooms, conference halls, banquet arrangements and the party lawns. It is a sector that contributes a lot to the national capital of the country. The sector has a great scope in the time to come. The factors that are determining the growth of the sector are:

Level of Tourism and top tourist destinations in United Kingdom.
Type of people living in the United Kingdom.
The amount of flair in the people to celebrate the occasions.
Country’s demography and culture of the people.
Level and size of the hotel industry with the conferences, banqueting and catering arrangements

There would be a program of 3 days for a retail company based out of London. This is a training seminar and a company’s performance review that would be taken by the CEO of the company. The program is planned with breakfast, lunch and dinner of around 400 people with even the accommodation. The last day would be DJ, Gala Dinner and even the unlimited party event with liquor in unlimited amounts. There would be booking of around 200 rooms with even the room divisions services.

The purpose of the program for the seminar arrangements would be providing thebest quality food to all the guests. The seminar will be arranged with the variety of food items in the breakfast, lunch and dinner without any kind of repetition. The hotel facility will provide all the necessary and agreed items and products in the agreement with the client. The hotel will make sure that the staffs that is appointed for the purpose of providing the services is well trained and equipped to serve and guide the visitors, guests and the senior leaders of the company. The company will organize its next year event also with our specializedconference and banqueting management. We will ensure that as per the hotel rules and regulations the complimentary services if agreed and planned are being provided to the company and its guests who would be attending this seminar (Lawson, 1980).

TASK 2

Administrative issues, organization and coordination of resources including the legal and marketing issues relating to the proposed event

United Kingdom has its income and GDP being raised by the 3^rd largest operating sector that is Hospitality Industry. This sector is important as it has been a major contributor towards the travel and tourism and even the banquets & conferencing facilities for the family programs and corporate events. This sector also faces many operational, administrative and managerial problems or issues like:

Compliance of the governmental rules, regulations and legislations for operations and manpower handling.
Follow of the SOPs of the hotel industry in carrying out day-to-day operations by the team.
Fulfilling the needs and requirements of the visitors, guests and the clients.
Keeping strict follow on standards for the hygiene and in food production systems.
Bringing a healthy work environment and culture for the people working for the hotel.
Benchmarking and following of the trends and styles of the hospitality industry.
Selection of the right manpower for the right profile at right time with the right compensation.
Procurement of the resources for the arrangements of the programs by keeping back up of the suppliers, vendors and the associates of the hotels.
Following the principles of ethics, morality and the corporate social responsibility with the corporate governance.
Effectively doing the marketing and sales operations with discounts, offers and benefits for the regular customers.
Providing training and development on regular basis to all the employees working in the hotel as per the designing of the modules with respect to their levels and hierarchy.
Mapping the business, individual and group objectives, goals and targets.
Bringing changes as per the industry norms and standards on regular intervals (Farkas & England, 1988).

It is always advisable for the hotel industry to keep a close monitoring, check and audits on the quality, foods, hygiene and safety of the internal as well as the external customers for the company. When the services offered by the hotels would be as per the promises and the standards of the industry then all kind of operational, managerial and administrative issues would be addressed automatically. The hotels should have great and inspiring leadership arrangements at the senior positions that could guise and instruct the teams and people working under them. The techniques that could help in bringing the quality and best performance levels in the hotel are:

Directing and consistent guidance to the staff working for the hotel by the seniors.
Making policies, practices, procedures for the operations and the administrative handling of the hotels.
Increasing the footfall of the customers and the clients on regular basis by sales options and the facilities.
Working on total quality management programs and guiding the leaders on spreading it among the teams working in various departments.
Making automatic and technical operations through the installation of the software and bringing technical expertise in the hotel operations.

As far as the program of the three days for the seminar is concerned there could be following issues:

Arrangement of the program as per the discussion.
Maintaining high quality in food and services to the guests and clients.
Keeping track of time and then making arrangements.
Availing enough staff to cater to the needs of the guests and the people in the seminar.

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TASK 3

Food production systems, methods and styles of food and beverage services

The arrangement and the right menu planning make a lot of difference among the customers. It is always suggested that the food that is offered and presented should have the right combination of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items as per the type of occasion. The factors that affect the food selection, menu and the production systems are: type of contract, level of event or the program and the combinations that will define the best menu options. There are mainly the following types of food services in any kind of a hotel:

Ala Carte – This is food service where the items are brought by the staff as per the consumer order.
Bar Menu – This is the menu for the drinks which are soft and hard drinks.
Buffet Menu services – This is the specific and selected food menu that is chosen as a part of the contract.
Room services – These are eating in private place inside the room as per the order of the customer.
Catering services – These are the services in specific event or a program where food is made there only for consumption by getting the logistics.

The types of places where food is available are:

Fast Food Outlets – These are small kiosks, restaurants or the food chains in vans that are providing the fast food either inside or outside the hotels.
Restaurant’s Take Away – There are certain outlets that only produce food that is packed and taken away by the consumer (Atkinson & Brown, 2001).
Event or Program Catering – This catering or production systems where the food is produced, made and cooked at the place of the event and the client gets the inventory and the logistics for the food for caterer.
Fine Dining – This kind of system has very competent and trained personnel being appointed for making and hosting of food to the consumer.
Mainstream Catering – It is said to be an approach that is based on a specific theme or basis.

Similarly there are mainly two types of restaurants:

Fast Food Restaurants – These restaurants sell the food that is easy to prepare, cook, produced and consumed like Burgers, pastries, rolls etc.
Restaurants with ethnic styles – These are the restaurants which are based on certain themes and ethnic styles and may be Punjabi restaurants, Italian Restaurants, Chinese Restaurants.

Whenever there is any program or the event that is organized the right selection of menu helps in satisfying the people for the food services. There should be food services and types that suit all types of consumers. The factors that have to be considered while planning or designing the food menu are:

The contract agreement and its terms and conditions.
The kind and level of people who would be attending the program.
The level or the scale at which the program has been organized.
The cost of the food menu that has been decided and agreed.
Menu that satisfies the kind of gathering and the backgrounds of the people.
Inclusion of all kinds of food and related items.

HACCP is defined as hazard analysis and critical control points. It is a process whereby a monitor and control is kept on the food production systems and the procedures. The quality and hygiene are the most important factors for the food production along with the other factors that have been studied above. Through this approach a prevention and control is planned for the hazards and the critical points while preparation and serving of food. There are certain principles that the catering and the banquet departments keeps in mind in order to control and monitor the making and the production of foods and related items. The principles are:

Conducting an analysis for the various hazards in food production systems.
Identification of the various control points.
Establishing the limits for the critical points.
Establishing the requirements for the monitoring.
Taking the corrective actions.
Development of practices so that the food production systems work for maintaining and ensuring quality (Donald, 1921).

The program is a 3 day activity with accommodation of the employees. There would be arrangement of buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and they can also take the room services on odd hours if required. The last day of the program would have a gala dinner with DJ and unlimited consumption of the hard and soft drinks. The food menu will have:

3 Non-Vegetarian Items.
3 Vegetarian Items.
4 types of liquor.
4 types of desserts.

TASK 4

Decor and ambience, and setting and layout for the event

There has to be organized a seminar for the company wherein the annual results and the performance review of the company has to be done. The program has to be organized on round tables with around 20 chairs with each table. There would be a total capacity of around 400 people attending the seminar. Initially for 2 days when there would be seminar cum training session by the external faculty for the new software and projects being launched in the company, the arrangement would be on round tables. Then last day the program would be performance review by the CEO, then the arrangement should be like classroom session with chairs in line and an elevated stage for the CEO sitting with board of directors. There should be proper lighting and arrangements (Cloonan, 2013). The following equipment and things should be available in the program:

Sound control systems and related tools.
Arrangements for projectors for presentation with laptops and screens all over the hall.
Mikes, speakers and the standing board with audio and visual arrangements.

The entire event would be hosted by the hotel people with their availability for tea, coffee, snacks and soft drinks availability for 24 hours. The arrangement of the chairs and tables has to be same in round table format with around 20 people on one table and covering 400 people on 20 tables. These tables should have the name plates of each and every employee sitting on the table. The details of the names of the people attending in the alphabetical order would be given to the hotel manager or the project manager or the developing manager. Each table should have the following items:

Pencils and Pens.
Mineral water bottle.
Glass (Lewis & McCann, 2004).
Bowl of Cookies and toffees for refreshments.

On the sides of the round tables with the walls, the arrangement for the breakfast, lunch and the evening snacks with the special tea has to be done. The staff should be available to serve the employees and the guests.

The hall should be selected with a minimum capacity of around 500 people as the strength may go up or down. There should be equal spread of people in the entire hall and the arrangements for the audio and the mikes has to be enough in number as the people are more and bigger is the hall. The voice clarity and the quality have to be maintained by the use of branded devices for the audio and visual arrangements. There should be specially screened and easily visible standee for the guidance of the location of the hall to the people attending the program. The logo and the tagline of the company with the objective of the program have to be boldly highlighted in the banner on the stage. Every day the things on each table have to be replenished so that people do not miss out on the amenities like pencils, notepads etc.

Conclusion

Conferencing and Banquet management services are the most important services in the country of United Kingdom. It all depends on the kind of services that the owner of the hotel or the banquets gives to its consumers that his selection would be done again. It has been an industry that has gained a lot of popularity in last decade. There have been many developments that are taking place in it. The amount of revenues, profits and the money that this sector makes depends on the various seasons. It is also true that when the season comes then the hotels get more income from these services than from regular travel and accommodation services. Hotels in UK have been running hotel and banquet services together as hotel services for the tourism would not be available for the income in the lean seasons so they spend time and effort in conference and banquet arrangements. There are many changes in this sector and all the factors are determined when the designing and the arrangements of the conferences and the banquets would take place. They have been making such a setting that it could easily be broken and the same hall could be utilized for banquets and conference arrangements. For marriages, family functions and the get together programs the kind of set up is different whereas on the other side the arrangement for the official and professional conference, seminar and the program would be entirely different. Planning of food menu and the food production systems would be one of the most important considerations while organizing conferences and banquet programs. There are certain ergonomic factors that have to be considered while planning for the conference and banquets arrangements (Lawson, 1980).

References

Atkinson, H., & Brown, J. B. 2001. Rethinking performance measures: assessing progress in UK hotels. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 13(3), 128-136. Brotherton, B., & Shaw, J. 1996. Towards an identification and classification of critical success factors in UK hotels plc. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 15(2), 113-135. Cloonan, M. 2013. Popular music and the state in the UK: culture, trade or industry? Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Dolan, J. E., & Langer, S. S. 1997. Explosives in the service of man: the Nobel heritage (No. 203). Royal Society of Chemistry. Donald, R. 1921. The Imperial Press Conference in Canada. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd. Farkas, G., & England, P. (Eds.). 1988. Industries, Firms and Jobs: Sociological and Economic Approaches. Springer. Hoque, K. 1999. New approaches to HRM in the UK hotel industry. Human Resource Management Journal, 9(2), 64-76.

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