How to Host a Banquet
Whether you are a professional in the hospitality business or simply an amateur stuck with the role, developing the skills it takes to host a banquet will help lead to its success. Understanding the subtle intricacies of your social environment and the ways in which you can influence it can separate a fondly remembered host from an avoided one. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Consider the needs and preferences of all your guests. The best quality a host can have, aside from remembering her guest's names, is to ensure as little awkwardness and discomfort as possible. Therefore, take the extra time to plan out details such as parking, wheel chair access, special diets (vegetarian, kosher) as well as other special needs your guests might have.
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Plan the necessities: food and beverage catering, decoration, music and other entertainment all fall into this step. If certain guests will be providing dishes, call them the day of the banquet to make sure they haven't forgotten. Arrive to the space early to make sure it is clean well before setup time for the banquet. Consider the event as keenly as if you were both a stage designer and interior decorator: make sure the lights are contributing to the mood, that the acoustics are conducive to conversation over the music and, most important, that the space is clean.
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Ensure the promptness of your food, drinks, and décor. While it is generally acceptable for guests to appear a little late to the banquet (after all, that is what the "cocktail hour" is for), your duty as host must be to accommodate that one person who arrives on time. Plan ahead to spend more time than you expect preparing the banquet area.
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Compile a mental checklist of your guests and their various professions, abilities and talents. Nothing impresses a guest more than a host who can remember their last book signing or family birthday. Though the temptation may exist to play "match-maker," consider the comfort zones of your guests and make yourself available to everyone at the banquet. Also: personally greet each guest as they enter (and leave).
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Make it your mission to spend time speaking with as many guests as possible, if not everyone. Though this step may sound a bit over-the-top and can be downright uncomfortable for the introverted, remember that this is the job you signed up for. While the host holds the chief duty of hospitality, it is perfect etiquette to relax from the role of "entertainer" once in a while and be entertained by the eclectic mix of you guests.
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