Successful Meetings And Conferences Leverage Food As Fuel (Facilitation Friday #55)
How well do you use food—and the ways it is served—to fuel energy, attention, engagement, and community?
Facilitators spend a lot of time planning content and formats to achieve the intended outcomes for a meeting or a workshop. But how much attention do you invest ensuring breaks and meals drive those same desired results?
Clients seem surprised when I ask about menus and room sets for meals and breaks at events where I am speaking or facilitating. Why do I do so? Because some meeting professionals focus primarily on tasty food that meets the budget. That’s important, but food’s role in determining a gathering’s success goes beyond satisfaction and finances.
Food—and how it is served—is fuel. Just as meetings, workshops, and conferences opt for the best content and conversation to feed people’s brains and hearts, so should they make the best food selections possible to fuel energy, attention, engagement, and community. The right choices can accelerate each of these desirable outcomes.
Let me offer two guiding principles to better leverage food’s potential for supporting event outcomes. The tips that follow each are meant to spark your thinking, not be a comprehensive resource on this important topic.
Principle #1: Make more nutritious selections.
You don’t need a degree in nutrition to make better choices. When speaking with a meeting planner, a hotel convention services staffer, or a restaurant’s catering contact, I try to enlist them as a partner or ally and use their expertise to achieve the goals that follow.
Make inclusive selections.
Provide appropriate options for vegans, vegetarians, and those who are gluten-free or have other restrictions. Participant should not struggle to maintain energy or focus because little of the food available meets their dietary needs. I also communicate basic menu information in advance so participants know what to expect.
Serve whole grains.
Opt for brown or wild rice instead of white rice. Ensure that whole wheat bread isn’t made from the less nutritious “enriched wheat.” Include other protein- and fiber-rich grains like quinoa, wheat berries, and farro.
Have protein at every break or meal.
For breaks, add hard-boiled eggs, cheese chunks, cottage cheese, and almonds or other nuts. Hemp seeds and chia seeds are good yogurt mix-ins. Nut butter spreads are also good options.
Small servings of protein shakes are a nice break surprise. So is popcorn covered with “cheesy” nutritional yeast in the afternoon. Roasted chickpeas are a tasty snack.
At meals, choose green vegetables richer in protein: broccoli, spinach, asparagus, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, peas, edamame, and sweet potatoes. Protein-rich lentils and beans also are an easy and affordable yes.
Right-size portions.
While most hotels and conference centers no longer serve gargantuan muffins or cookies, it is still worth inquiring about portion sizes, particularly for desserts. The same is true if you order from a restaurant or caterer.
I tend to favor dessert samplers, small portions of a variety of treats. This makes it easier for people to have a taste of just one or to try a few with less of a sugar crash.
Ask for mini bagels or muffins, cut banana or pumpkin bread into smaller slices, display sliced bagel halves instead of whole bagels.
For a plated meal, I’ll often bump up the vegetable portion and reduce the meat or vegetarian protein a bit if the latter is large.
Cutting large sandwiches in half allows people to perhaps sample more than one kind. Sandwiches on slider buns are also a good right-sized choice.
Reduce sugar.
This often depends on the venue or caterer and their recipes, but we can almost always ask for lower-sugar (and less processed) yogurts and protein bars.
Putting wrapped candy on the table? Opt for the mini sizes and also include a non-sugar option like bagged nuts, toasted chickpeas, or roasted seaweed sheets.
Somewhat controversially, I rarely serve juice at breakfast because of the high sugar content, opting instead for a fruit display. If I do include juice, I always request smaller glasses be available.
Avoid heavy carbs.
Thankfully the days of having to facilitate an afternoon session after a lunch of creamy pasta alfredo seem to be gone. But do proof menu selections to avoid any unhelpful carb overloads.
Principle #2: Serve food to facilitate community.
When I offer this counsel in one of my meeting or conference design workshops, I’m sometimes met with puzzled stares. Many facilitators don’t think enough about how the logistics of their food service and room set enhance or impede community. They should. Simple shifts can make a big difference. Let’s examine a few.
Use two-sided buffets.
Not only does this speed up self-service, it immediately doubles the number of people you might speak with while in line. Instead of only talking to the person before or after you in a single-line buffet, those directly across from you become potential conversationalists. This means more possible connections, more possible conversations, more possible community.
Have food stations instead of a buffet line.
While we shouldn’t make people work a lot to get their complete meal, splitting some of the food and beverage among different stations increases the number of different people with whom they might connect. I often place beverages and desserts at their own stations (usually near each other).
Use table sizes more conducive to interaction.
If your meal is in a separate room from your meeting or workshop, consider a different room set. Smaller rounds (48” or 60” instead of 72”) increase the odds that people can hear and engage with more people at their table. Communal conference or library-style tables can create the feeling of a picnic gathering and draw you closer to others.
Offer a mix of seating options.
Individuals may wish to engage or experience community differently, so consider providing a mix of table configurations. People can select the one that best meets their mood or interest. When implementing this approach, I usually include some highboy tables for those who might like to stand and eat. Small cocktail rounds are nice for those who may seek some solo time or a quiet conversation with only one or two others.
Switch one meal from plated service to family-style.
Not every hotel or conference venue will do this, but I like the family and communal feeling of people passing dishes around the table and serving themselves. If this may seem a bit much for an entire meal, try it just for desserts and pass a sampler platter of one-bite options.
Try a “bulk food” break.
A highlight of the first TED Conference I attended was a bulk food break display similar to what you would encounter in a grocery store. This self-service option increased the number of people I met during the break and also was an easy catalyst for conversation: “Ooh, what did you just find over there?” Just be sure to right-size the cups or bags people can fill so that they neither break your budget nor their daily calorie count.
Add a conversation catalyst.
I never want to over-program a meal or break, but sometimes adding an optional conversation catalyst can help enhance the learning and conversations. A few compelling quotes or conversation prompts displayed as the centerpiece, on the buffet, or at each person’s seat is easy to do. These prompts can be related to the event’s outcomes/content or something simply for fun like brainteasers or trivia questions.
Table topics, either professionally or personally focused, are a common approach to build community at a meal function. They make it easier for individuals to engage with each other on a topic of mutual interest. Just be sure to offer a few “topic-free” tables for those participants who prefer a less structured meal.
Bottom Line
Food can—and should—fuel energy, attention, and community at meetings, workshops and conferences. Facilitators and meeting planners should embrace this intention, make more nutritious food choices, and serve them in a manner that enables connections, interaction, and community.
Getting in Action
Grab a few colleagues and brainstorm how else food could be used as an accelerant for energy, attention, engagement, and community at meetings, workshops, or conferences.
Think of a recent meeting, workshop, or conference you attended or helped plan. Using the two principles and corresponding tips from this essay, identify how the event design could have better used food as fuel.
Treat the next few times you go out for a drink or meal as learning field trips. Try to identify one idea from each outing to adopt or adapt for your own efforts to use food as facilitation fuel.
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude. All rights reserved.
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