Forum Discussion
MGCI Training - July Topic: Food! Meals, snacks, and beverages
Another tangent to think about where the food topic overlaps with the speaker side of topics: Do you have a speaker dinner at your event? Something else to plan for, find a venue, make sure you're budgeted for it, etc.
Keep it formal at a restaurant? Host it somewhere else? Try and find a unique twist to represent your city/locale? Or mix it with a fun activity to thank your speakers... So many options.
I think it is a nice gesture to organize a speaker dinner - lovely way to say thank you to the speakers and have some time to chat and munch outside the event. It doesn't need to be a formal dinner at a restaurant. It could be something casual that represents the region and what locals do. Or it could be catered in the cafeteria/space of one of the event sponsors if that is possible.
Agree there's definitely a range of opportunities for speaker dinners. How we go about it depends on a lot of things but showing appreciation to our speakers is the overall goal. We've historically done ours at restaurants. As much as I'd like to do something less formal like a BBQ, etc. so much depends on the weather, etc. and a restaurant removes that risk most of the time. The downside of the restaurant option is its usually more expensive and we've found it to be pretty loud in most venues which takes away from the chat and catchup component.
Some folks do dinners before the event, others after. Lots of opportunities. :)
