Banquet Planning Software

Create a banquet plan, event floor layout, seating chart, and other visuals

The Easy Choice for Banquet Planning Online

Easy to Use

Start with the exact banquet planning template you need—not just a blank screen. Then easily customize it to fit your needs with thousands of ready-made symbols like chairs and tables that you can stamp directly onto your diagram.

Easy to Work With Other Apps

SmartDraw is easy to work with no matter what other apps you use. You can add banquet plans to:

Microsoft Office^®
- Word^®
- PowerPoint^®
- Excel^®
Microsoft Teams^®
Google Workspace^™
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
Atlassian^™ apps
- Confluence
- Jira

Easy to Save to Your Existing Storage Solution

SmartDraw works hand in glove with most file storage systems. You can save your banquet plans directly to:

SharePoint^®
OneDrive^®
Google Drive^™
DropBox^®
Box^®

There is no need to create a parallel set of common folders and permissions, SmartDraw can just save files directly into your existing set up.

Easy to Share

Share your banquet plan with anyone, even if they don't own a copy of SmartDraw, with a link. You can also easily export any diagram as a PDF or common image formats like PNG or SVG.

Easy to Get Help

Have a question? Chat or email us. SmartDraw support is in-house and free!

Easy Collaboration

SmartDraw makes it easy to get feedback on your banquet plan from your team and clients.

You can work on the same plan in real time or have your team leave comments.

SmartDraw makes it easy to collaborate on a shared vision.

SmartDraw also works where your team already communicates. You can also easily collaborate on conference plans in Microsoft Teams^®, Slack or Confluence.

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 to 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: Budgeting

SmartDraw provides easy-to-use charts to keep track of expenses related to your banquet.

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.