Skip It

One of the easiest ways to save on a food function might just be to not have one at all. “People get really bogged down with the food aspect at a conference,” notes Kyle Peterson, manager of conferences and group services at the Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado. “But in real life, how many people eat three meals a day and have two full snack breaks? Sometimes it’s just too much.”

Maureen Gross, director of meetings and events for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, based in Washington D.C., has almost entirely eliminated food functions from her programs since 1999, which can consist of some 25,000 Catholic youths of varying ages. “It was just too difficult to do a cost that people could afford,” she says. “We used to end up with a hot dog, chips, and soda that we’d have to charge attendees $10 for. I know why it costs that much, but it was just too much money for that kind of food.”

Instead, now she intentionally looks for sites that offer many dining options within walking distance, and also works with hotels and convention centers to help them offer the right choices for her group. “We will work with a facility to help them capture as much of our business as they can,” she says. “We let them know the price point that our attendees are comfortable with and they can go from there.”