Taste of Downtown is a self-guided walking tour of Downtown Kelowna’s restaurants, pubs and cafes. This year’s event took place yesterday, and was a huge success that drew as many as 1,000 eager visitors. With 35 businesses signing on for this year, the crowds were able to mill about the downtown core and sample free food and drink from the participants. And although we had a good number of businesses showcasing their fare, there were certainly some who shouldn’t have bothered. That might sound harsh, but it is also true.
This event will bring literally hundreds of enthusiastic, hungry patrons through a given establishment over a three hour period. Every year the numbers grow, but organizers always prepare a specific number of passports, so every participant knows the upper number of people who might be visiting. So, why then does a restaurant run out of food during the first hour of the event? This happened not once or twice, but at five places. In fact, I could understand if you run out and the kitchen is scrambling to prepare more. But those businesses just flat out said “we just ran out.”
The public impression you give on this tour will translate into how much business you get after the event. One of the people we went with mentioned that she had found some of her current favourite restaurants at the previous year’s event. Impress people with your food and you will generate more subsequent visits.
What makes me scratch my head is, “why participate if you are not even going to try?” Creating food for 200 people at a 1,500-person event means you have left a large majority of people with a bad impression of your business.
So here are some tips that you should follow if you are ever going to take part in an event like a festival, trade show, or conference:
Research Before You Sign Up
Talk to the event organizers before you decide to participate. You’ll be able to better understand what you are getting yourself into. If any of those errant restaurants at Taste of Downtown had done this, they would have known what to expect.
Put Together a Plan
If you know you might be serving 1,000 people in a 3 hour period, make a plan that can handle that volume. Many of this year’s participants actually planned out how to move large volumes of people both into and out of their establishments. Just that much attention to detail gave visitors a much higher level of satisfaction with those venues. Coincidently, the participants who received the most votes for their business also happened to be the most organized and efficient.
Showtime
During the event, you and your staff need to be ‘on.’ Everything you are doing can be seen by everyone. In one place we went to, a person in line ahead of me asked the server what he would recommend from the six choices they offered. The server’s exact words were “I would recommend whatever you choose!” Completely unhelpful – and a lost opportunity. He could have asked her a couple of preference questions and then guided the lady to a choice. She would have appreciated this and, most likely, enjoyed the recommendation. Instead, he made the guest feel like an intrusion. Not a great strategy.
Debrief
Ask yourself (and staff) the following three questions:
- What should we continue doing for this event?
- What should we stop doing at this event?
- What should we start doing at this event?
No event ever goes perfectly, but it is critical to review the event and make improvements for the next one.
Summary
If you are not going to try, don’t bother participating. You at least don’t do your business any harm by not participating, but you do lose an opportunity to impress. Your competitors who did it right, who invested in planning and preparation … they moved further ahead of you. If it is worth doing it is worth doing right.