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guests who must be seated at the head table.
Meeting setups: Usually there are two general types
of setups for meetings. The easiest one to set up is referred
to as theatre style. The guests are provide only chairs, all
facing in the same direction. This type of physical setup
would be used when the guests are listening to a
presentation. The second type of meeting where all the
guests have to face the front of the room is set up in a
style called schoolroom or classroom. This setup would
be used for a teaching seminar. Schoolroom style takes
up the most amount of space, which results in a lessening
of the amount of guests that may be accommodated in a
room.
Head tables: These tables are placed in front of the
room, with the guests seated only on the side of the table
from which they are facing the other members of the party.
158 Banquet Management and Room Division
A new trend, at social events, is to have a round head
table placed in the middle of the party. This eliminates
the formality of the event and allows the guests at the
head table to enjoy themselves more.
Cocktail parties: The flow of guests is important for
this type of function. The banquet manager can become
creative and use all types of space for these parties. It can
be the lobbies or pools of hotels, or it can be a function
room. The position of both the bars and food stations
becomes important for guest comfort and ease of service.
Setting up a cocktail party is relatively easy because the
banquet manager only has to use a few tables. At a cocktail
party, there should be fewer chairs than the number of
guests that are expected. This forces the guests to socialise.
Care must be used in locating food and drink stations
away from one another to minimize traffic jams and
facilitate mingling. A popular cocktail party concept that
has caught on is to have stations where food is cooked
and small portions are served to guests.
For instance, there may be a fettuccine station, a
chicken cordon bleu station, and a veal marsala station.
More room must be allowed for this type of cocktail party
than the traditional one in which food is precooked and
put out for the guests in chafing dishes and on trays. At
cocktail parties, during which guests typically stand, many
more guests can be accommodated in the same space than
at a sit down dinner because not that many chairs are
needed. Once the banquet manager and the client have
determined the number of guests expected to attend and
the type of setup desired, the manager can decide which
room can accommodate the group comfortably and
efficiently.
TABLES FOR SETTING BANQUET FUNCTIONS
The manager knows the capacity of all the rooms and the
Organising Events and Functions 159
types of functions that may be booked into each room.
The next thing the banquet manger needs to know are
the types and sizes of tables available, so the function can
be planned with comfort for the guests and efficiency for
the banquet establishment.
Round tables: Round tables are used to create a jovial
atmosphere. They should always be used when the client
wants a function where fun and enjoyment are among the
key ingredients for the success of the party. Round tables
are a must for wedding receptions to encourage
conversation. Most banquet houses use one of two sizes
of round tables. The standard round table is 60 inches in
diameter. This will seat eight people comfortably at a meal.
The other size is 72 inches, which seats ten. The main
disadvantage of a banquet facility using round tables is
that round tables take up more space than rectangular
tables. Therefore, the banquet facility cannot seat as many
people at a function using round tables as it could using
rectangular tables.
Oblong or rectangular tables: The three basic sizes of
oblong or rectangular tables. They are 30 inches wide by
96 inches long (called an 8-foot table); 18 x 96 inches (8-
1
foot by 1 -foot, or skinny); and 30 x 72 inches (6-foot).
2
Each guest needs 24 inches of linear space to be
comfortable. Therefore, an 8-footer will seat eight people
(four on each side of the table).
The 6-footer will accommodate six people, and the 8
1
x 1 -footer will only accommodate four people. The
2
skinny table is used when guests have to sit on one side
of the table (at a head table or for a schoolroom style
setup).
Eight foot by one-and-a-half foot tables can also be
used for a block table. A block table is made by putting
rectangular tables together to form a solid or hollow setup.
160 Banquet Management and Room Division
This style of setup is used when all participants want to
be able to see and communicate directly with each other.
It is usually used at a meeting, but it can also be used for
a small business dinner.
Space between tables: When guests are seated back to
back, which is the case when rectangular tables are used,
it is recommended that 60 inches are allowed between
tables. Using round tables, 54 inches of space is allowed.
Chairs are placed in the 60 inches and 54 inches of space.
However, this is another area in which the banquet
manager should experiment by actually setting up the
rooms to determine if there is enough space between tables
for the guests to be comfortable and for the service
personnel to do their job efficiently. When doing this
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