Banquet Manager or Events Manager is a mixture of Harry Potter and Merlin. Have to have plenty of energy, in order to be present in all fronts (Harry Potter) as well as the experience and the knowledge to be calm, confident and pass the image of serenity before, during and after the events (Merlin).
Please see below a rough job description:
The role of event organizer will vary depending on the organization and type of event they are involved in. Typical activities include:
- Researching markets to identify opportunities for events;
- Liaising with clients to ascertain their precise event requirements;
- Producing detailed proposals for events (e.g. timelines, venues, suppliers, legal obligations, staffing and budgets);
- Securing and booking a suitable venue or location;
- Ensuring insurance, legal, health and safety obligations are adhered to;
- Co-coordinating venue management, caterers, stand designers, contractors and equipment hire;
- Planning room layouts and the entertainment program, scheduling workshops and demonstrations;
- Organizing facilities for car parking, traffic control, security, first aid, hospitality and press;
- Identifying and securing speakers or special guests;
- Co-coordinating staffing requirements and staff briefings;
- Selling sponsorship/stand/exhibition space to potential exhibitors/partners;
- Arranging accommodation for exhibitors and/or delegates;
- Preparing delegate packs and papers;
- Creating, implementing and monitoring marketing and PR plans;
- Liaising with clients and designers to create a brand/look for the event;
- Liaising with newspapers, TV, radio and other media;
- Writing press releases or briefs in order to gain maximum exposure for the event;
- Organizing the design and production of tickets, posters, catalogs and sales brochures;
- Co-coordinating everything on the day of the event to ensure that all runs smoothly;
- Handling client queries on the day and troubleshooting exhibitor and visitor problems on the day;
- Overseeing the dismantling and removal of the event, and clearing the venue efficiently;
- Post-event evaluation (including data entry and analysis and producing reports for event stakeholders).
- Responsible for soliciting banquet business and ensuring customer satisfaction with all functions booked.
- Coordinates and supervises the execution of all banquet functions to ensure clients' specifications are adhered to
- Make sure that the function runs smoothly and efficiently.
- Possesses knowledge of food production and service
- Should have the ability to perform all position in banquet operations in order to supervise, direct, and train all banquet personnel.
- Oversees management, budget, and operation of the food service outlet, catering services, and kitchen, and maintains liaison with sales department to ensure maximum profitability
Additional input from Contributors:The description of a banquet manager is completely wrong!! What you have described here is a Catering Manager, not a banquet manager.
Having worked as a hotel banquet manager for 10 years I can tell you with some authority that the banquet manager's job DOES NOT involve the description above:
A Banquet Manager's job is to organize and run an event, NOT to SELL or PLAN it.
The Catering Manager's job is to sell all aspects of an event - food, beverage, facilities, A/V (not sleeping rooms - there's a Sales Dept that handles booking guest rooms for events) - and to plan an event with the designated event planner who becomes the Catering Manager's client and the Banquet Manager's point-of-contact for the event.
The Banquet Manager staffs the function based on the contract guarantee established by the Catering Manager (a standard catering contract includes a guarantee and a set # - that is; the hotel will set-up for X guests and the client must pay the minimum guaranteed # even is their actual attendance #'s falls short). I'll staff 1 waiter for 12-15 guests (at standard rounds of 10 - that's 10 guests at a 6' round table) and 1 bartender for 30-50 guests. I'll staff the party, organize the set-up, manage service, ensure that the event stays on schedule and do the paperwork at the end.
The Banquet Manager is the Sergeant Major of the catering business. He or she amasses an army of waiters, housemen, stewards, cooks, bartenders and bar backs in a smooth running machine to tackle a meal, whether it's a luncheon for 30 or a dinner for 3500 including a presidential visit - which I have done 23 times (I was the Banquet Manager at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in
Washington DC, so we did a lot of political events.) They must interact with and organize departments all over the hotel - culinary, convention services, stewarding, catering, sales, housekeeping, engineering and rooms and bring all of those depts. together to produce one event. This is a massive job. Anyone who has fed 1500 guests a three-course lunch in 25 minutes can attest to the organization, energy and skill this kind of management requires.
And the pressure can be enormous. Customer service has a whole different meaning when your customer is the mother of the bride!!! Banquet managers live under constant stress, moving from one disaster (What do you mean this room has been double booked!!) to another (Someone dropped the wedding cake) and handle it all with ease and professionalism to ensure that the event goes off as smoothly as possible and that hundreds - or thousands - of people leave the function pleased with the food and service.