Better Than a Binder of BEOs Using Trello for Onsite Event Management
Event Logistics Can Make A Lot of Paper
If you have ever seen a 300 - 18,000 person multi-day event come together, then you know that behind that neat and tidy block schedule with keynotes and breakouts is a logicistal orchestration that can rival air traffic control. This beautiful symphony of clients, agencies, vendors and attendees needs to be synthesized, sorted, and shared in a manner that ensures that when two people look at the same document, they understand the need in the same way.
This means that every chair, table, piece of a/v equipment, linen, snack, meal, cup of coffee, badge scanner, sign, and piece of swag needs to be accounted for.
This can make for a lot of printing, and use A LOT of paper.
The “Old” Way of Managing Food & Beverage
Focusing in on just one of these many moving parts, food & beverage is easily one of the most complex pieces of the logistical puzzle. Each service is organized by what is known as a Banquet Event Order (BEO), and depending on the complexity of the show, there can be anywhere from 200 - 1200 banquet orders generated.
Why so many?
Think about it, when you fill up your water bottle at a water cooler, or grab a soda as you swing into your break out, that beverage has to be accounted for by the banquet team of the property. Not only are BEOs used for the attendee experience, they are also utilized for clients and other vendors. You have an executive that wants some water and coffee for a pop-up meeting? BEO. You need bottled water for speakers in 10 different rooms? 10 different BEOS. The tech crew responsible for the keynote session needs to work overnight and want snacks? You guessed it. BEO.
Traditionally, any meeting planner responsible for food & beverage would tote around a 5-8 pound binder filled with every BEO sorted by date and time. This master copy would mirror a sister copy carried by the facility’s catering manager, and as the show flowed any updates needed would be “sticky-noted” and added for nightly revisions.
For larger shows, BEOs would be distributed to a team of support people, so that each member of the team received marching orders for the day dictated by a much smaller stack or BEOs they carried in a much lighter binder.
The Problem With Binders of BEOs
Not only is lugging around a binder of BEOs hard on your back, but beyond the copies that the main planner and the catering manager have, there is no complete picture of the event from a food and beverage perspective.
Picture this, you have been assigned to check on all services on the third floor of the conference center. You’ve studied the BEOs that you’ve been handed and you know that your next break is scheduled for 1:30 PM. After quickly grabbing a bite to eat after your attendee lunch, you are headed back to the third floor by way of the first floor. Suddenly you get stopped by the client, who asks, “Do you know what time the breaks are scheduled for this floor? I just got word that this room is going to let out 15 minutes early and I want to make sure that the breaks are set.”
You look at them, smile, and your mind races trying to think of who on your team is responsible for the first floor. “Yes,” you say, “I will make sure they are out as soon as possible. I know that the breaks on the third floor are set for 1:30 PM, so it may be the same time down here.”
The client’s gaze seems to pierce through you, and you are feeling smaller by the second. They begin, “I thought you were on the food & beverage team, shouldn’t you know when the breaks are out?”
Of course, good clients get it, and not all are prone to have “Miranda Presley tendencies”. But in the heat of the moment, being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, can mean misinformation, the dreaded, “I don’t know”, or damage control for your planning team.
Putting the Answers At Your Fingertips with Trello
Just as we have encouraged event management with Trello, we are also happy to share that there is a way to share every BEO to key teammates with a few clicks of a button.
This means every service and every answer to most every question in an easy to use desktop and app interface.
But the paper, it’s like a security blanket.
We get it, and we also understand the adage, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” But as we’ve defined above, this process is broken. The “paper way” sets your team up with blinders on, and with the pace at which events are moving these days, it’s only a matter of time before the wrong information at the wrong time will yield a mishap that is not easily resolved.
This sounds like a lot of configuration.
While itemizing BEOs can be a project, it can be done as soon as the signatures have dried. We have worked hard at making cards for each service as automated as possible, which is another time saving step. Depending on the size of your show, we can also almost guarantee that the amount of manual copying, distributing, redistributing, and version control that happens when divvying up BEOs is comparable, if not longer than the amount of time it takes to configure a Trello board, AND all of that work has to be done on-site when the team should be familiarizing themselves with the facility and event.
While we have honed in on Food and Beverage, a well crafted Trello Board for onsite management can extend into Meeting Event Orders (MEOs), Signage, VIP arrivals, Expo Halls, and even tracking registration counts.
Want to see Trello in Action?
We would love to show you how to streamline on-site event operations by powering up your next meeting with Trello, and help you save a few trees in the process.
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