Blog posts from August, 2015

The special event industry is made out to be a glamourous lifestyle full of parties but event rental and event venues know that there are times it can be nothing like what outsiders expect. An overlooked and often forgotten drawback is the amount of cleaning and maintenance that needs to go into rental inventory and event venue products to ensure they meet stringent customer needs. One of the worst things to clean on anything – Red Wine. Makes me cringe just thinking about staining something with it. But it is for that very reason that I decided it was time to stain a vinyl Chiavari cushion with the stain of death and then attempt to clean it. Here’s how it all went down.

1. I poured (while cringing) remnants of a red wine bottle onto a white vinyl Chiavari cushion.

2. I then let the wine stay on the cushion for 2 hours

3. I wiped the wine off the cushion and proceeded to let it sit untreated for 2 days

4. I took a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser damp with water to the cushion – this seemed to get the darker small stains out but the larger stains lasting yellow marks on the vinyl.

5. I decided to try another step and gather the following materials: a clean white rag, bleach and the stained cushion

6. I made a solution of ½ cup of bleach with 2 cups of filtered water and put the rag in it to soak

7. Once the rag was fully soaked I wrung it out so it was still wet but not dripping and lay it on the stained vinyl for 1 hr.

8. DING! Once the hour was up I took off the rag, wiped the cushion down and it looked as good as new

A restaurant has to work like a well-oiled machine in order to properly function and turn tables enough to make a profit. While certain measures can be taken to optimize the back of the house, ensuring the front of the house is also running smoothly helps guarantee that customers are being promptly and properly handled and repeat business can occur. Chefworks.com created a great infographic on tips to increase Front of the House Productivity to not only increase a restaurant’s revenues but also the wait staffs'.

by eshagoyal24.

It’s no big secret that the event venue space is extremely competitive. In the Greater Toronto Area alone there are over 2000 event venues for event and meeting planners to choose from. Being able to differentiate your venue from the pack and create a memorable site visit helps keep your site top of mind with your target market. A sales & marketing coordinator at a banquet hall posed a question on LinkedIn asking fellow industry professionals what a good giveaway would be besides just the standard portfolio / brochure. Here’s what some of the commenters had to say:

If you have a separate restaurant onsite, a gift card for a free meal or free appetizer / dessert with entrée

A small bag of chocolates or snacks to go – even better are chocolates branded with your logo

A custom USB flash drive is a great way to share a creative presentation with your guests that they can check out later and re-use the drive in the future.

Custom labeled bottled water makes a great giveaway item and promotes your brand or event relatively inexpensively

I think a mug is always a good gift, they're going to go back to the office and leave it on their desk, so when they have an event to plan they'll see it and think of you.

Photo Source: 4imprint.ca

Breath spray or chap-stick with your logo is a good gift

A nice recycled pad and pen.

Photo Source: Vistaprint.ca

One Item we have had luck with is a custom printed mouse pads. You can target any promotion you want to. We use it to promote our take home dinner program. Even with the new optical mice you still need to use a pad. We make the message very short and sweet along with the easiest way to contact us.

Photo Source: Oh Happy Day

A goodie bag for their drive or flight home filled with small snacks with custom wrapping with your logo, small juice or water bottle again with your logo and a little something that they can use over and over with your logo, such as a pocket lint brunch, compact mirror, sanitizes, or note pads.

Photo source: Ovation Group

A leather coaster with your logo on it for their desk.

Photo source: Ovation Group

A desktop multi pen holder.

Photo Source: 4imprint.ca

In thinking more about what event planner’s need, my suggestion is handing out on-the-go phone chargers such as this one. Event planners and meeting organizers are constantly on the go and don’t always have an office / home base to always dock at. Being able to provide this helpful and considerate giveaway may give you the edge you need to win their business.

Part of managing a restaurant includes a marketing component – especially if you’re not part of a large franchise. With the advent of social media and online reviews, diners can instantly become food critics – potentially making or breaking your restaurant’s reputation. Restaurant patrons rely on others recommendations to determine what restaurants they try out so staying competitive by engaging online with your customers is extremely important. Check out this infographic to learn more about reviews and ratings are shaping the foodservice industry and get some tips on how to manage your online reviews.

 

While not often used for events, 48” round tables can be perfect if you’re wanting a more intimate setting with less people per table for better conversations. We had a prospect come to our site asking how many Chiavari chairs fit at a 48” round table and I thought what better way to answer their question than to blog about it.

In general our resin Chiavari chairs have the following measurements:

Our wood Chiavari chairs have the following dimensions:

Here’s how many resin Chiavari chairs fit around a 48 inch round table:

With ample room and no straddling table legs 4 Chiavari chairs fit around a 48 inch round table.

If you’re looking to fit the maximum amount of people possible at a 48 inch round table with people straddling table legs, 6 resin Chiavari’s are the maximum number that can fit around a 48” table.

Here’s how many wood Chiavari chairs fit around a 48 inch round table:

With ample room and no straddling table legs 4 Chiavari chairs fit around a 48 inch round table.

With no room and people straddling table legs, 6 wood Chiavari’s is the maximum number that can fit around a 48 inch round table.

Hope this helps you visualize how many people can fit in a room with Chiavari chairs around 48 inch round tables.