 |
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. - Luciano Pavarotti
Regardless of whether you're producing a trade show, concert, or arts festival, one thing is for certain. If you are interested in creating an all-encompassing and guest-friendly environment, you must make some consideration as to providing your guests access to food and drink. This can be done a number of ways. You can institute a liberal re-entry policy for your event, which will allow your guests to seek out their own meal options. Although this is an easy solution to the meal “problem”, such open access can present additional access and security challenges, not to mention ignoring an additional revenue opportunity. If your event facility has an established food concessionaire, you can simply utilize them to provide food services. Depending upon their menu, this can be a viable option. However, anyone who has been to a concert or sporting event can attest to the inconsistent nature of traditional “concession” food, both in quality and variety. Thankfully, there is a third option – soliciting and securing contracts from outside food vendors.
Before you run right into pursuing food vending deals for your event, realize that working with individual food vendors can be a double-edge sword. On one hand, the variety provided by individual vendors can add color and an uniqueness to your event. Likewise, you can tailor your offerings to fit the occasion (hot dogs and potato chips go quite well with events geared towards children. Less so with an orchestra performance). Perhaps most importantly, individual vending deals can offer you additional sources of revenue from both participation fees and revenue splits.
However, unlike standard event sponsorships, food vending deals carry with them specific requirements that make them more difficult to negotiate and execute. These can include special business and health licensing, scheduled and impromptu inspections by city officials, and the tracking and reconciliation of any revenue split that may be negotiated. Despite these issues, food vending deals can both add to the event experience and generate a nice profit, if you keep the following points in mind.
Ask for references – request a list of references from any vendors you may be considering for your event. Most reputable vendors should have this information available, and be more than willing to provide it to you. Likewise, their references will undoubtedly be happy to give you an overview of both the vendors operation and their guests' response to their offerings. Don't be afraid to ask for specifics (display and employee appearance, attitude, special requirements, and issues). However, stay away from questions pertaining to the revenue they generated – this is usually confidential and will undoubtedly end your conversation).
If this is the first time a food vendor has participated in live events (very possible given the up-tick in new business ventures as of late), don't let this discourage you from pursuing them! Although they may require more hand holding than established vendors, they often make up for it in attitude and a willingness to be flexible.
Appoint a vendor liaison – One of the downside of incorporating individual food vendors into your event is that they requires more of your time and attention than an established concessionaire. That said, I highly recommend you appoint someone to be your “vendor liaison” for the event. This person should be placed in charge of all “facilitation” aspects of your vending deals. Responsibilities might include gathering the appropriate licensing forms and requirements from the city or county, as well as insuring all materials have been completed and returned to the appropriate source BEFORE THE EVENT. They should also be tasked with creating, distributing, and tracking advance information forms, as well as checking in with vendors continually throughout the event (more on this in a bit). If your staffing plan doesn't allow for a dedicated position, consider distributing some of these tasks as additional responsibilities to multiple people.
Know your local licensing requirements – Unless the vendor operates frequently within your jurisdiction (or has a brick and mortar location), they'll undoubtedly need to secure a business license to operate at your event. As requirements vary widely by locale, it would be impossible to list exactly what a vendor may need or where to go within this article. As the event producer, you should seek this information out well in advance of your negotiations, and have all forms and information available to your vendors upon contract. Your city or county website should be able to provide a contact telephone number and name to get you started. Your best bet is to turn this project over to your vendor liaison or other staff member, as dealing with government agencies can be a time-consuming enterprise .
Know the vendors physical requirements, and make sure they know yours – It's always best if a food vendor can be self-contained, with their own power, water, and sanitation capabilities. However, this is rarely the case. You or your vendor liaison should develop an “advance” sheet that requests the vendor's resource needs (how many power outlets, water hookups, etc) and details what you can reasonably provide to each. It is important that your vendors are fully aware of your facility capabilities, and that they inform you of any special needs they may have well in advance. Believe me, engineering four additional electric circuits on the day of an event is a frustrating experience.
Be prepared for the health inspector - As a matter of course, most local health inspectors are skeptical of food vending operations. Whether their scrutiny of temporary vendors is justified or not, it does not change the fact that a food vendor operates primarily by the good graces of the health department. That said, it is in your best interest to anticipate an inspection and accommodate them as best as possible should one occur. Get a copy of your local laws and fastidiously confirm vendor compliance to them before gates open. If the inspector arrives, drop whatever it is you are doing, meet the inspector with your vendor liaison, and then have your liaison walk with them as they perform their inspection. Even though you may not have time to walk with them personally, a moment of respect shown from the top will only help should issues arise.
Constantly check in - As the event wears on, your vendors may become busy and/or complacent, and therefore pay less attention to following health and safety requirements. Better that you identify and correct any issues than the aforementioned health inspector, who may be less likely to grant a chance to correct problems before shutting a vendor down.
Enforce your own customer service standards – Even though they are their own separate businesses, all vendors act as representatives of your event. How they treat their (your) customers are a reflection of you and your event. Make sure that their customer service is up to your standards, and never hesitate to correct any major issues right away. In my opinion, poor customer service is an impeachable offense, by my own staff or a vendors.
If your vendor deal includes a revenue split, validate your figures - Even if you're not a food expert, ensure you have some means of validating your end of night sales figures with the vendor. This may include tracking their starting and ending inventory, reviewing receipts, or simple observation – any means you feel comfortable using to ensure that the final settlement is accurate. In most cases, such steps aren't necessary, as the vendor will have accurate receipts and records. However, some operations are a bit more “fly by night” and may not have an sales tracking process beyond a ketchup-smeared piece of notebook paper. Make sure you're doing your own legwork in these cases, and aren't solely relying on their figures.
Given the detailed considerations required, I have saved a detailed discussion on setting vending fees and revenue split percentages for a future post. Feel free to leave any additional items and considerations you may have in the comments section.
No comments:
Post a Comment