Tips for Banquet Planning
If you're responsible for banquet planning, it means you are probably responsible for putting an entire event together from flowers, to a menu, drinks, music, decorations, entertainment, and seating charts. SmartDraw may not be able plan your banquet for you, but we can provide the tools to make it a bit easier.
You may want to brainstorm ideas for your event. Collect offers from possible vendors, photo inspirations from Pinterest, blogs, or magazines. SmartDraw helps you organize your ideas using a mind map. You can link to PDF offers, images on the web, and more.
Banquet Plan: Choosing a Venue
When choosing a venue or room consider the following and make sure it fits with both the size and feeling of your banquet or event:
- The appearance of both the entire venue and your room. Does it give off the correct vibe?
- The neighborhood the venue is located in. What are the parking and transportation options?
- The dimensions of the room. If you put too few people in a big a room, it will make your event appear smaller than it is, but you also don't want to cram too many people into a tiny event space.
Keep in mind how many guests you will be expecting. You will be about 10 square feet of space per attendee. 7 and 1/2 square feet is considered "comfortably crowded".
- Check to the ceiling height if you're going to be hanging anything like custom lighting or banners. Also the higher the ceiling, the more elegant an event will appear.
- Number and placement of columns. Will they effect visibility if you're planning on giving a presentation?
- Colors and types of floor and wall coverings. Will they fit with your theme? If the event is non-carpeted, how much echo will you have to deal with? If the venue is carpeted and you plan on a dance floor, will it have to be installed separately? Is there room for it?
- The proximity, number, and quality of nearby restrooms
- How far is your room from the kitchen if food will be served. How about the parking lot, elevators, or other areas your guests may be coming from. Is your room easily accessible for all your guests?
- Keep in mind the how much electricity you will need. DJ? Microphones? Projector? Count the number of electrical outlets, find out the room's HVAC capacity, and learn what speakers are available.
- If hosting a professional banquet or event, does the room have wifi?
Rules of Serving Tables for Your Banquet Plan
- A round banquet table will make for a lavish presentation, but will make it difficult for guests to line up for food.
- Consider moving a rectangular serving table away from the wall so the line can form on both sides making serving quicker.
- An 8 foot long table will need about 24 square feet of floor space for the table and about 60 to 100 square feet of aisle space.
- Allocate about 2 feet of the buffet table for each food container. So 3 hot offerings, 3 cold offerings, and a condiment basket will require about 16 feet of table space.
