Coffee matters

Coffee might sound like the least important component of an event. The reality is that the availability, cost and quality can have a significant impact.

Clearly the main purpose of an event is to create a positive atmosphere and environment for communication. Anything that distracts or disturbs that aim, no matter how trivial, needs to be considered carefully.

Some time ago I supported a client’s presence at a leading trade show which was also one of the most important annual events for them. They invest a significant amount of time and money into their stand and stage time.

However, as budgets got tight and it became necessary to make cuts the team had to think about saving money.

As I have seen so often, in events, it’s the catering where clients make the savings. Other investments are committed much earlier in the planning phase and cannot be reversed, but the catering is typically decided much later.

Instead of a high-quality espresso machine, the client chose a small household filter coffee machine.

So in this case, instead of a high-quality espresso machine, the client chose to use a small household filter coffee machine on the booth. I have nothing against filter coffee. Well prepared with good coffee made with a filter system can actually be very nice. But you need to know how to make coffee this way.

As it were the first few loads of coffee were quite horrible. And it took ages to prepare just a small can of coffee. As a consequence, and not surprisingly, the booth staff and most importantly sales complained about it from the very beginning.

Make the visitor feel appreciated.

So what does this actually do? Quite a lot in my opinion. Not only do the staff feel dissatisfied, bad coffee creates a bad start to the day. On top of this, no one is happy to offer a bad cup of coffee to their booth visitors. They feel embarrassed about the coffee and rightly so.

Because the aim is to make the visitor feel appreciated as a guest and enjoy some nice hospitality while talking about your products or services. Sales people need to be supported, and it is important that they can have a pride in their company, products, services and the way they are represented!

My question therefore is: Is it really worth saving budget on coffee or other catering? The savings seem relatively trivial but the negative effect on the mood during the event and the image of the company suffer considerably. So while it is clearly not necessary to serve caviar rethink before you cut down your catering budget allocation too much.