Tuesday

Take a look at the 2011 Catersource Educational sessions and our guest speakers at this year's Conference & Tradeshow. This year's sessions cover BBQ, picnic and outdoor event divisions, keeping your food costs down with value proteins of meat, HR issues and staff turnover, food trucks, themed menus, compensation packages and commission structures, finding financing, how to get on venue lists, home dinner parties and more.

Making Money with Meryl - DESIGN
Meryl Snow, Owner
Christopher Weidenhammer, Creative Director
Feastivities Events, Philadelphia, PA

Caterers today are not just selling food, but the design that complements the food. Simple yet effective design elements will add dollars to every event. Meryl and Christopher will show you how to sell and incorporate the design dollars into your proposals. Ideas will be presented from Meryl's new DVD Style Me Pretty: Reloaded.  You will learn:
• how to capture design dollars even if you don’t have a design division.
• how to design simple tablescapes that your team can set up in minutes.
• new designs ideas from food to table.

The Perfect Fit Track: Best Selling Menu Ideas
Bill Hansen, Owner, Bill Hansen Catering, Miami, FL
Bill Pannhoff, Owner, B & B Catering and Event Planning, Spring Lake, NC

This session is all about what’s hot and not in menus. Learn how caterers have
increased sales with innovative menus that are also cater-friendly. Bill and Bill have researched what menus are winning by surveying Catersource Magazine subscribers. The results will show what drop-off and full-service menus are selling best. As a bonus, they will share with you the top five foodie websites. You will learn:
• Ways to sell menus that your kitchen staff will love to make.
• Five hot drop-off menus and ten hot full-service menus.
• The hottest menu presentation ideas with amazing pictures.
• Blow torch cooking ideas from Chef Bill.

Negotiating the New Health Care Reform and What it Means for Your Company
Michelle Reinke, Senior Policy Analyst, Labor & Workforce Policy, National Restaurant Association, Washington DC

Worried about how the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will impact you, your business and your employees? Attend this session where Michelle will walk you through the law’s complex requirements for all sizes of employers, and discuss what you need to do to prepare. You will learn:
• What do all employers need to do, regardless of size?
• What are the law’s requirements for offering coverage and penalty liability?
• What should operators be preparing for in 2011, 2012 and beyond?

Big Toque, Small Kitchen
Ken Barrett, Executive Chef, Different Tastes, Boston, MA

Cooking for 3,000 in an 800-square-foot kitchen? No problem! If you have limited kitchen space or small culinary teams, this session will give you the tools to tackle any size party. Chef Barrett will share tricks that smaller companies use in kitchen management, food production and event execution. You will learn to turn those insurmountable numbers into mounds of success as well as:
• The keys of staffing and how to use each person on your team to the maximum
  efficiency.
• How to effortlessly wear seven hats within your organization.
• How to use your limited space to maximum impact and plan for future growth.
• Smart sales techniques for smaller kitchens.
• How to use your vendors effectively.

Roman’s Turnaround Clinic
Especially For Companies Still Feeling The Pain Of Recession
Mike Roman, President, Catersource, Chicago, IL

Is your company off track? Struggling for sales? Are payroll and expenses out of control? While 70% of catering businesses are currently returning to prerecession successes, 10% are still in the seriously troubled category facing possible closure, while another 15% are in limbo and could go either way.

During this advanced consulting session, Mike will lay out a no-holds-barred, honest and realistic action plan that will get or keep your company on track in 2011. Mike will present realistic advice that will give troubled companies the best chance to beat or neutralize their problems.

While this session is designed to help caterers who are facing serious difficulties, all attendees are invited to attend, especially those doing well in the 70% group who wish to hear Mike’s suggestions to insure their own continued successes. 

Serving Dinner One Bite at a Time
Exciting New Hors d’oeuvre Style Dinner Menus
Eric LeVine, Chef/Owner
GREENS, Market Restaurant Catering, Hoboken , NJ

Guests at today’s dinner parties don’t always have a chair, they simply stand and graze through the entire menu of bite sized and uniquely presented hors d’oeuvre and mini entrees. Eric’s new book “Stick It, Spoon It, Put It in a Glass” is filled with creative, cost effective and new appetizer ideas for your menus. Join Eric as he demonstrates several recipes from the book and creates some take home menus that you can use for your events. You will learn:
• how to use multiples presentations for the same recipe.
• resources to get unique “sticks, spoons, glasses” and other mini vessels.
• a complete menu for a butler passed dinner party including  recipes, food costs, and 
  suggested retail pricing.

The Perfect Fit Track: Proper Pricing Techniques
Mike Roman, President, Catersource, Chicago, IL
Bill Hansen, Owner, Bill Hansen Catering, Miami, FL

Mike and Bill will cover proven strategies for pricing catering food and services. You don’t need to be a CPA to run a catering business, but you do need to understand the importance of pricing and how pricing impacts your business and profits. You will learn:
• What costs need to be covered in your price.
• How and when to raise prices.
• The different ways to price your catering.
• How to limit price objections from buyers.

Create Win Win Relationships with Your Suppliers
Warren Dietel, Owner, Puff ‘n Stuff Catering, Orlando, FL

Warren will tell you how to enhance the relationship with your key suppliers and get the best deals on the products you use most. You will also completely understand how the supply chain process actually works and how to control costs as your product moves from manufacturer to final distribution. You will learn:
• How to leverage your purchasing power directly with key manufacturers.
• About master distribution agreements and how to maximize Manufacturer Rebate
  programs.
• How to evaluate opportunities with group purchasing organizations.

Attacking The Corporate Marketplace For Leads
Ellen Harte, Director of Key Accounts, Tasty Catering, Elk Grove Village, IL

Ellen’s company has mastered a lead-generation program that requires salespeople to have at least three “Sales Days Out” away from the office each month. Their system takes the guesswork out of how to find and where to go for new corporate business. Now, more than ever, caterers need to get in front of potential buyers. Ellen will teach her company’s successful methods in this timely session. You will learn:
• How to use databases, referrals, media sources and instinct to obtain leads.
• What scripts work best for setting appointments and making sales.
• Ways to maximize the salesperson’s time and success away from the office.
• How to work your marketplace by territory, business type, size, etc.

From Downturn to Recovery - Learning from the Recent Past and Looking
Forward with Prominent Wedding Venues
Jon Brown, Partner, 24 Carrots Catering & Events/Juice & Java, Irvine, CA
Steve Rice, Vice President of Sales, CPS Events at the Plaza, New York, NY
Domenick Savino, General Manager, Drexelbrook Catering, Drexel, PA
Carl Sacks, Director, Catersource Consulting Unit, Woodland Park, NJ

Hear how some of the most prominent wedding facilities have survived the uncertainty of the last several wedding seasons and have positioned themselves for the coming upturn. You will learn:
• What these successful wedding venues and caterers have in common and how they
  differ.
• About how the downturn was felt differently in different markets.
• What has permanently changed about the wedding market and what is likely to revert
  to past practices once the recovery is solidly in place.
• How social networking has become integral to marketing weddings and how these
  venues and caterers participate.

Value Meats: How to Create Culinary Style and Flavorful Tastes with Less
Expensive Cuts of Meat
Domenic Chiaromonte, Owner/Chef, Tazza Restaurant/Catering Trendz, Woodbridge, Ontario

Client budgets can sometimes prevent us from buying expensive grades of meats and proteins. Today, we have to be crafty and shop for items that meet the budget parameters but allow us to be profitable and stylish. Somehow, we have to transform these lower priced options into tasty, tender and beautiful works of culinary art. Join Dom as he shares some different methods and cooking ideas that will still provide your clients with a beautiful tasty meal. You will learn:
• The proper aging techniques.
• Methods of cooking that will ensure a tender finished product.
• Unique presentation ideas.
• Tips to share with the sales staff when selling value meats.

The Perfect Fit Track: Your Money and You
Bill Hansen, Owner, Bill Hansen Catering, Miami, FL
Bill Pannhoff, Owner, B & B Catering and Event Planning, Spring Lake, NC

Nimble number-crunching fed to you in palatable and tasty bites by both Bills, will take this somewhat boring topic and keep you focused, entertained and engaged. After all, it is about the money, so we’ll show you how to make some! You will learn:
• Five places where money is hidden in your catering firm.
• How to make and take the time to believe your numbers.
• How to calculate the most important number in your business: your break-even
   sales point.
• Ten effective ways to read and understand your profit and loss statements.
• A foolproof system for daily tracking business finances, featuring the trailing 12
   months formula.

Station Creations: Designing Dazzling Displays of Festive Food &
Beverages for Wedding Receptions
Joyce Scardina Becker, CMP, Events of Distinction, San Francisco, CA
Leighsa Montrose, AIFD, Branch Out Floral and Event Design, San Francisco, CA

In recent years, event designs have become increasingly personalized to reflect the
client’s individual tastes and preferences. Often overlooked during the design process, cleverly crafted food and beverage stations provide a highprofile opportunity to artistically express the design concept. After attending this eye-popping session with “Wedding Professors” Joyce and Leighsa, you will never look at stations the same way again. You will learn:
• Basic steps for developing a design concept.
• The advantages of utilizing food and beverage stations at a reception.
• Tips for creating cutting-edge designs for food and beverage stations.
• Tips for working with event industry service providers who are unfamiliar with
  contemporary station design concepts.

Group Dining Experiences That Are Relevant And Profitable
Joyce Inderbitzen, CMP, Vice President Events, Hilton Worldwide, McLean, VA

This session has been specially created for hotels, country clubs, universities,
independent banquet facilities and other on-premise caterers who wish to create successful synergies between their culinary and sales teams in order to sell the right products at the right time to the right customers. Joyce will share on-premise concepts and strategies that are successfully used in North America and around the world. You will learn:
• How and why to sell only what you do exceptionally well.
• Portioning concepts designed to create great presentations and better profit.
• Service training and equipment “must haves” needed to stay competitive.
• Proven collaborative sales approaches that will get a higher check average.

You Made The Sale – Now What?
Frank Christian, Executive Vice President
Hospitality Inc. Festivities Catering, San Diego, CA

The front of the house has done its job… the sale is done. Frank will teach you about what the back of the house needs to do to ensure that the event will be executed as sold. Frank’s company caters thousands of events each year, and he has developed a foolproof operational plan that simplifies the process and guarantees a successful outcome for each event. He will help you understand how to develop your own systems that will create similar success in your company. You will learn:
• ways to develop and implement operational processes.
• techniques to ensure that your staff participates in event knowledge management.
• how to be ready to handle any size or number of events at any time.
• how to “map out” your systems and processes.

*Speakers and schedule are subject to change.