This is a solution of Unit 13 Conference and Banqueting Management Assignment given in City of London College. It discusses scope of catering and banquet industry in London and various factors regarding Hospitality Industry.

Introduction

This Conference and Banqueting Management assignment is on banquet management in the hospitality industry with a special reference to the United Kingdom. There are 4 Tasks in the assignment. Task 1 would be discussing on the scope of the catering and banquet industry in London and the various factors that are influencing its growth and development.  Task 2 would discuss on the strategic and operational issues that are involved in the effective management of this sector. Task 3 would give a brief study on the food production systems and the considerations while planning the menu for the catering and banquet functions and arrangements. Finally Task 4 has the ergonomic considerations for the given banquet and catering management systems.

TASK 1: Conference & Banqueting Sector

Describe the nature, scope and scale of the conference and banqueting event that you have identified.

This sector has been divided into mainly two groups: Banqueting and Conferences. Conference group provides the spaces for the formal and the official events or the activities. On the other hand the Banquet facility is concentrating on the special family functions and occasions that have to be celebrated. This industry and the sector have a great scope in its operations and the arrangements. Neither will function nor will the office conferences stop. They will continue and this industry is continuing to get the benefits and facilities pertaining to them. The major differences that are observed in the nature of these two groups are:

Banqueting	Conference
Purpose is enjoyment and personal celebrations.	Purpose is business or official trainings and the business activities.
Here the stress is on the beverage and food.	Stress on the technology, tools and equipment.
High staff is required to serve people	Lower Staff is required to serve the people
Bookings to be done with a longer time.	Bookings to be done with a shorter period.
No Accommodation required.	There is a huge demand for accommodation.
Activities and functions are based on the seasonal requirements	They are not seasonal and depend on the requirements of the company.

There are around 46000 hotels in UK that are into conferencing and the banquet arrangements. As per the statistics of the year 2008, it has been an industry that generates revenue of around 40 billion pounds per annum. It is employing around 1.6 million people with around 127000 properties as a part of infrastructure. It is said to be the 3^rd largest industry in UK that generates employment and income contributing to the national growth and development. It comprises of hotels, take away, pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and motels etc.  The above diagram is also showing turnover, employees and the level of arrangement that this sector has. The various factors that are influencing its growth and development are:

• Number of Visitor attractions in United Kingdom – The more the visiting tourists destinations, the more would be the tourists and their banquet arrangements would differ.
• The number of industries and companies and the commercial industry that organizes the various events and the activities – Based on the size of the commercial industry, the events, seminars and the conferences would be organized.
• Season of family functions, programs and the events – People organize their auspicious occasions and the family functions based on the seasons of these celebrations (McCabe & Weeks, 1999).
• Demography of the Country – The kind, type, category and the culture of the people are also affecting the banquet and the conferencing facilities.
• Size of the Catering and Banquet Industry – The bigger the size means there is greater requirement and scope in the industry.

The event that has to be planned is the conference meeting of one of the FMCG companies in UK. They have to plan the activity on June 15, 2014 from 9 AM to 6 PM for 2 days till June 16, 2014. The number of people who would be attending the conference would be around 150. The catering and buffet management system of the hotel has to plan out the buffet for these 150 people. They need to be served with the few selected items in food and beverages. The second day would have the requirement of DJ party in the evening followed by hard drinks and liquor. Learn about HND Hospitality Assignment Management Help.

The aims and objective of this conference would be:

• Providing the best quality food in terms of items, menu and the preferences for the people.
• Providing all the necessary requirements as have been negotiated in the terms of the contract that has been signed between the company and the owner of the hotel.
• Last day arrangements with few complimentary services that will attract the client to organize all its activities and programs within the premises of the hotel (Lawson, 1980).

TASK 2: Strategic and Operational Issues

Discuss the administrative issues, organization and coordination of resources including the legal and marketing issues relating to the proposed event.

Hospitality industry as discussed above is the 3^rd largest industry in the United Kingdom that generates the revenue and income towards the nation. There are a lot of administrative, operational and managerial issues that the sector has been facing:

• Strict adherence to the standards operating procedures.
• Maintaining the standards in food and safety of the visitors, people, tourists and the corporate.
• Meeting the expectations of the employees who are working within the hotel industry.
• Giving the opportunities of flexible working hours to the people who are employed within the industry.
• The various social and cultural arrangements and facilities to be maintained as per the trend in the conferencing and the banquet industry.
• Recruitment of the right people at the right profiles and with the right timelines.
• Availing the required resources and preventing their wastage in the industry.
• Meeting the legal and the statutory norms towards the employees, land and the capital requirements as per the UK laws and regulations.
• Doing the right marketing with the right kind of tools and equipment (Hartley & Rand, 2000).
• Meeting the expectations of the consumers at national and international levels.
• Providing adequate training and the developmental opportunities to the internal employees so that they are trained as per the benchmarked trends of the industry.
• Meeting the expectations of the industry by including the facilities, amenities and the various requirements.
• Development of the goals, aims and the objectives of the property as per the business model and the expectations from the industry and market.
• For each and every event or the activity, it is necessary to obtain the required licenses and the compliance approvals so that the sector faces not challenges or problems of any nature or types.

Above all these strategic, operational, administrative, and marketing and the management issues that arise, it is also necessary that the conferencing and banquet management should control and keep monitoring the quality and the performance. It is necessary that the sector takes special care of the quality of food and the performance that the sector has to show towards the operations. When the food and the facilities are giving the attribute in terms of the best quality, there would be more attraction and publicity of the hotel or the arrangements among the various kinds of customers. The various techniques that could be used for the quality and performance reviews are:

• Reviewing the performance of the employees (Arcodia & Barker, 2003).
• Analysing and keeping track of the number of customers and the visitors attracted towards the industry.
• Employing the quality enabled techniques like total quality management, Six Sigma and Kaizen principles for removing the number of errors that may arise in the system and arrangements.
• Analysing the needs and requirements of training and development for the various employees who have been working for the company.

With respect to the above event of the business conference for two days, the major issues would be:

• Organizing the best quality food in terms of quality and the number of items that the restaurant of the hotel has to provide.
• Availability of the adequate staff to do the catering and the management of the people.
• Providing the necessary arrangements for the creation of the business ambience and the decor as is been requested by the client to the hotel.
• Keeping a control and monitoring based approach for the production and supply systems within the hotel.

TASK 3: Food Production and Service System

Based on the nature and type of the event identified in Task 1, evaluate the various food production systems, methods and styles of food and beverage services.

Food Services play a very important role in the catering and banquet industry. It all depends on the type and size of the hotel that the various facilities and amenities should be provided to the people who come and visit the hotel. There may be one or many restaurants in the same hotel. It all depends on the size and the level of management that the hotel is having. The various types of food services that are observed in the event or the hospitality sector are: A-la-carte, Bar Menu, Buffet Menu services, room services and the catering services. Restaurants have been giving the following methods and the types of the food services:

• Outlets for the fast Food – It has a production that has fast food that may be displayed in the form of the units or the stalls within the hotel in either an open area or the covered one.
• Take Away Units – These are the arrangements of the restaurants within the hotel for taking the packed food along.
• Catering for a larger group or segment of audiences – This is the catering that is done a large scale for the various customers and the guests in the hotel.
• Fine Dining – This kind of food production systems are having very skilled and talented manpower in the back end as well as front support systems.
• Catering at the Mainstream – This system has a good service level with a theme based approach?

In terms of the food for the restaurants, there are basically two types of restaurants:

• Ethnic Restaurants – These are the restaurants that are producing the ethnic foods like Chinese, Italian and the various other types. These are employing the people who are specializing or belonging to the places from where the ethnic concept of the food is being taken.
• Fast Food Restaurants – These are the restaurants that are producing the foods that are fast types like burgers, patties and rolls etc.

Explore all other Hospitality Management Assignments here.

While planning a menu for food for the event or the activity of specified types, it is always advisable that the requirements and the needs of the individuals, groups is studied. It is being found out that what types of people would be involved in the various activities of the functions. The various issues/considerations and factors that may arise while designing the menu are:

• Kind and type of people in the people in the activity or the event – In order that all the customers are satisfied and happy it is essential that their preferences are been kept in mind while planning the key menu for the event or an activity.
• The price that has been negotiated for the event – Based on the price or the cost that has been negotiated, it is important that the price of the various food items are being kept.
• The different types of menu items that have been kept – Based on the type of people, their origin and the level of preference, the menu could have many options on food.
• Various combinations of food items that may satisfy the people – There should be a great combination on food in terms of inclusion of all the colours so that the menu as well as display looks quite attractive.

HACCP refers to hazard analysis and critical control points. It is an approach or the process whereby the control and the analysis on the food is being done. In case an activity is being planned, along with taste, menu options, the quality and food safety is of great significance. It is a way via which the hazards could easily be prevented and controlled. 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 various principles in HACCP are: Conducting an analysis for the various hazards, 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 ensuring that the HACCP system is working perfectly and keeping the specified records and the data (Fukuma, 1999).

In the case of above event could be organized with the buffet kind of food menu. The menu will have the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner menu that have been planned with different food items. Each will have 3 Non-Vegetarian and 3 Vegetarian Items. There would be around 4 beverages in terms of different types of soft drinks and juices. Last day will have dinner with the liquor options. The liquor will have four main types of drinks that would be supplied in unlimited options. Desserts would be of four types with different options in each meal.

 TASK 4: Ergonomic Considerations

Examine the decor and ambience as well as the setting and layout for the event, including the audio and video/visual equipment and its impact on the environment and the participants.

The conference event is the annual meet for the company wherein the business discussions and the performance reviews of the company would be done. This event has to be organized in such a way that the decor is very simple and light with all kinds of business meetings tools and equipment being available in the event:

• Laptop and Projector Arrangements (Qu et al, 2000).
• Speakers, Mikes and the hand held devices for speaking.
• Music and sound control systems and the devices.
• Screen for visual watch of the conference that will make the atmosphere very lively and bring a zeal and feeling of serious event that has been taking place.

Besides these the system of the tables and chair arrangements has to be done in such a way that they are in the form of a round table with around10 chairs on each table. There would be tent cards for the name of each employee would be sitting on the table. The table will have the major amenities like: Conference notepad, pencils and pens. There would be a small mineral water bottle with the bowl of cookies and toffees to keep the team refreshed. The arrangement of food in buffet format would take place outside the conference hall with the people who will do the serving. This serving of food would also be done on the tables for sitting that would be arranged in the eating hall (Watanabe et al, 2005).

Since the hall has an arrangement for around 400 people so it is quite big for 150 people. The arrangement has to be done in such a way that should look spread out with the bigger sizes of the screens and the sound and audio control systems. The complete environment and ambience should have a big hoarding or a banner on the stage with the name of the event with the logo and event date of the company. The stage will have the arrangement of a dice with around 5 chairs that are arranged and decorated in a linear fashion so that the seniors and the company board can sit and discuss on the evaluation and the performance of the company in the last financial year. Besides this there should be standees and the banners even outside the conference hall that would guide the team on the directions and details of the program that is taking place in the conference hall of the hotel. Read more: Hospitality Provision in Travel and Tourism

Conclusion

Conferencing and the buffet management has been one of the key and very crucial functions that are taking place in almost all the hotel of United Kingdom today. The hotels have seasons when the tourists are visiting and their rooms are being occupied. In order to earn the revenues and incomes in the other seasons when the tourist’s attractions are lesser, they are making the conference halls for the business conferences and the personal family functions. They are creating the vacant hall that could be decorated and arranged in such a way that it looks as per the requirements. For example in case a family function has to be organized then DJ, Stage for family owners and the chairs would be arranged in linear order along with the corners for the food menu planning. On the other hand the business conference would have different requirements like: projectors, screens, round tables, stage etc. The food and beverage menu has to be planned as per the kind of event that the hotel is planning out. The major issues related with the operations, food quality and the managerial problems have to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid any kind of problem during the event. The kind of menu that has been selected will decide on the contract terms that have been signed by the company and the hotel manager. The event that has been discussed above has been an annual conference for the company so all the arrangements have been done accordingly. The most important consideration is that hotel should take care of quality in conferencing and banquet arrangements in the hotel (Lawson, 1982).

References

• Arcodia, C., & Barker, T. 2003. A review of web-based job advertisements for Australian event management positions. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 1(4), 1-18.
• Arcodia, C., & Barker, T. 2003. The employability prospects of graduates in event management: Using data from job advertisements. CAUTHE 2003: Riding the Wave of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 19.
• Bales, B. M., Crumpley, R. L., Gallagher, D. D., & Thieler, S. M. 1994. U.S. Patent No. 5,373,549. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Fukuma, M. 1999. U.S. Patent No. 5,909,668. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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