A good seating plan is an integral part of any event that involves a sit down meal. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most challenging elements to get right. As with most things, getting off to a good start is half the battle. With this in mind, here are our 5 top tips to help simplify your next seating plan arrangement:

1. RSVP Etiquette

In order to start arranging your seating plan you need to know not only how many guests are coming, but also who those guests are and how you intend on distributing them across the tables and seats available. Using an online event registration tool can make it both quick and easy for guests to RSVP for your event, whilst saving you precious time. You can also use the opportunity to collect meal pre orders online, if applicable.

2. Seat Allocations

Depending on the type of sit down event you’re organising, it may not be necessary to allocate each individual guest a specific seat on a table. For example, if the event is an informal get together, such as a birthday or Christmas party, then simply organising groups of guests across tables will probably suffice. Alternatively, more formal seated dinners, such as a charity ball or wedding, will undoubtedly demand a more structured approach.

3. Seating Charts and Place Cards

A seating chart clearly shows each guest which table they are seated at. In the UK these tend to be presented according to tables, whereas in the US it’s more common to find guests listed alphabetically. Whilst this is a matter of personal preference, the latter option does present certain advantages with larger events. If you’ve allocated guests to specific seats, then the use of place cards is advisable to minimise any potential confusion on the day. The more savvy organisers amongst you may also go that extra mile and include meal pre orders on the place cards.

4. The Little Details

If you’re intending on having any speeches or announcements, then try and ensure that the people delivering these are seated so as to avoid having their back to anyone. Similarly, try to place pregnant, elderly or disabled guests where they have easy access to toilets and emergency exits. Little measures such as these can go a long way to ensuring a successful event. After all, “le bon Dieu est dans le detail”.

5. Table Planning Software

For most event organisers there are a number of unknowns at the onset of planning a seated dinner. How many guests will be attending? How much food will we need? What dietary and allergy requirements do we need to cater for? Where are guests going to sit? Being organised is key to hosting a successful event. Fortunately, there are a number of online software tools that can help with everything from collecting RSVPs and meal pre orders, to collaborating with fellow organisers on your table plan.

Clearly there are many considerations when it comes to arranging your seating plan, as well as the event as a whole for that matter. Here we’ve highlighted just a few ideas to help you get started. If you’ve got a tip you’d like to share with us, then feel free to reach out and get involved on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

This feature is now available to our ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’ users and is a great way to extend your brand to customers.

At Cenabo, we’re committed to making continued feature and performance improvements in order to guarantee our customers a great user experience. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

When planning a seated dinner there are a number of different dietary requirements and allergies that an event organiser must consider. Vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and nut-free are among the most common, but there are also less well known conditions and preferences, such as soy-free, sulphite-free and pescetarian.

With so many different variations to consider, it’s no wonder that many guests end up leaving weddings, dinner parties and other sit down events hungry. Fortunately, we’ve put together 5 handy tips for ensuring guests at your next event go home happy, full and satisfied.

1. Show and Tell

When collecting RSVPs from guests, make sure you showcase the menu for your event. If you’re having a buffet, list all of the available food options. Alternatively, if you’re opting for a sit down meal, then present the menu with the ability for guests to specify any meal choices, diets or allergies in advance. Forewarned is forearmed.

2. Provide Options

Build your menu in view of your guests. If possible, give them a few limited choices for starter, main course and dessert. Use meal pre ordering software to help collect individual item selections in the run-up to your event. Variety is the spice of life after all.

3. Talk with the Chef

One size fits all; except when it comes to people’s food preferences. When choosing a caterer or venue, make sure you ask the chef what preparations they make for food allergies. Most companies will want to know before hand what type of dietary requirements and allergies they are dealing with. Hosting your event at an established restaurant or banquet hall with a dedicated kitchen will give you a bit more flexibility with any special circumstances.

4. Factor in Seating

Some food allergies are potentially life threatening and need properly accommodating. For example, if you’re aware of a guest with a severe nut allergy, you may deem it necessary to make your event entirely nut-free. If, however, you just can’t live without the double chocolate pecan cheesecake, then make sure your guest with the nut allergy is sat between two guests conscious about their waistline. God is in the details.

5. Stay Organised

As Winston Churchill once famously said, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”. For most event organisers there are a number of unknowns at the onset of planning a seated dinner. How many guests will be attending? How much food will we need? What dietary and allergy requirements do we need to cater for? Where are guests going to sit? Being organised is key to hosting a successful event. Fortunately, there are a number of online software tools that can help with everything from collecting RSVPs to managing your seating plan.

Regardless of whether you know your lacto vegetarian from your ovo vegetarian, dietary requirements are becoming more and more common. Don’t expect those with special diets and allergies to go quietly if there is nothing for them to eat at your next event. At the end of the day, everyone is coming together for a common purpose, so make sure the food doesn’t get in the way of this.

This feature considerably increases the security of your account by removing the need to share individual log in credentials. It also provides administrators with greater oversight of the account, whilst ensuring better accountability for individual managers.

At Cenabo, we’re committed to making continued feature and performance improvements in order to guarantee our customers a great user experience. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

With the use of a simple yet effective interface there are now no limits to the number of choices an item can have. What’s more, we’ve introduced a set of simple rules to ensure the very best quality of information for venue managers and event organisers, whilst maintaining an intuitive and informative pre order process for guests. Pretty neat we feel!

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

At Cenabo, we aim to simplify the managing of menus for hospitality venues, whilst making them more seamless and engaging for their customers.

With MenuBoards™ you get custom branded templates, awesome social features, and a long list of flexible options to enable you to create appealing menus.

Elegant Design

Present your menus in an organised and easy-to-read format. Increase bookings by reassuring potential customers that your online menus match those on offer in the restaurant.

Up-to-date Content

Creating and editing your menus is easy with our MenuBuilder™ tool. What’s more, you can share menus with your colleagues to receive feedback and refine before publication.

Easy Sharing

Allow customers to share your menus via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Help create a buzz around your menu content, as well as any promotional or seasonal offers.

Custom Branding

Menus are hosted at your own Cenabo subdomain (e.g. http://dongiovannis.cenabo.com) along with all your contact information so it’s easy for potential customers to get in touch.

Affordable Pricing

No setup fee – No monthly cost – No contract – Just £3.00 / published menu. All you need to do is purchase some ‘credits’, which can also be used with our meal pre ordering software.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

If you’ve ever had the burden of collecting meal pre-orders for an event, then you will know how difficult it can be to get the relevant details for those last few guests. With our new ‘Send Reminders’ feature you can easily grind out those last few remaining pre orders, without the risk of appearing too pushy.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

Event Activity

No more hassle finding out who’s attending; no more guests forgetting what they pre ordered; and no more time wasted creating and sending reports. Our event activity feature keeps a real-time log of comments, invitations, pre orders and more.

Need to contact the restaurant? It’s covered!

Want to e-mail event reports directly from your account? It’s covered!

Need a quick summary of any special diet / allergy requirements. It’s covered!

Event Tracking

Can’t see the wood for the trees? Don’t worry, you now have a real-time event tracking feature to help you stay on top of event progress.

Over the past few months we’ve been busy adding more and more features to our meal pre-ordering system. Why not take a look at some of our previous posts on preview menu and event assigning / reporting enhancements, as well as new currency offerings.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

Have a great 2012!

During the past few months we’ve been periodically adding new features to MenuBuilder™, such as the ability to handle supplement fees and additional currencies, or clone categories and items from one menu to another. As we continue to add other time-saving features, we thought it would be useful to be able to test menu changes on-the-fly.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on Preview Menu, as well as any additional features you’d like to see us implement in the future.

Happy Pre Ordering!