Doug Quattrini

Throughout my catering career, the consistent factors that have always played a part in the success or failure of an event have been organization, consistency, and following processes. Whether your event is for 5 people, 500 people, or 5,000 people, many of the same steps need to be followed, and no matter how many people you have on your team to support you, if you are not in control and organized, you will likely not succeed. Some tips to make it all a little easier:

Develop checklists and timelines for items common to all events
(i.e. placing rental orders, doing production sheets, securing staffing, etc.) They will not only help to keep you organized, but they will help you to communicate your vision, and when shared with your team, help to track overall progress.

Communicate, communicate, communicate! 
It is simply not possible to have TOO many planning meetings and brainstorming sessions.  Make sure though, that you have an agenda and structure for your meetings to keep them on track.

Make sure to have regular and consistent contact with your client(s) throughout the process, and find out what criteria THEY use to evaluate the success or failure of an event.

Work in a logical order. 
You cannot calculate the amount of staff you will need before you write a menu, for example, and you cannot accurately place a rental order without doing floor plans, diagrams, and checking your total equipment needs.    

Being able to control as many variables as possible prepares you to handle the additional, unplanned variables that will inevitably pop up!

Company Name: AMARAK

City: Philadelphia, PA

Facility description: ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world.

Annual sales: over $10 million

Employees: 225,000 worldwide

Awards and recognitions: ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, and businesses around the world. The company is recognized as one of the "World's Most Ethical Companies" by the Ethisphere Institute, as the industry leader in FORTUNE magazine's "World's Most Admired Companies," and as one of America's Largest Private Companies by both FORTUNE and Forbes magazines. ARAMARK seeks to responsibly address issues that matter to its clients, customers, employees and communities by focusing on employee advocacy, environmental stewardship, health and wellness, and community involvement. Headquartered in Philadelphia, ARAMARK has approximately 255,000 employees serving clients in 22 countries. Learn more at the company's website, www.aramark.com, or www.twitter.com/aramarknews.

Company Description: The mission of ARAMARK Higher Education Catering Excellence is to support a wide variety of campus activities and be seen as a seamless and integral part of the campus  community. Our charge is to maintain exacting standards, representing the college or university with every event we do. Catering is the one type of service where our clients can have as much or more at risk than we do.