Great as you are at your job, what empowers you to think big and chase down those ambitions (not to mention, live a less-stressful life) is a team who takes its work as seriously as you do.
Sure, just about every occupation necessitates teamwork, but very few rely on it to the extent of event planners. For you, the basic math is simply too overwhelming without a competent supporting cast.
We’ve been at this for almost 25 years as a reputable vendor. As you’re probably well aware, no one survives in the catering industry for even a fraction of that time on an average work ethic and reputation. And like any reputable vendor with that kind of longevity, we’ve learned to work smarter, not just harder. A big part of that is realizing our value as an ally.
In the early going, we focused on customer service and quality coffee, thinking positive word-of-mouth would be enough to get us by. And it probably would have been if we were a café. But as a caterer, our network was only as sound as the investment we made in it. So we began listening very closely to the event planners we were working with and tailoring our coffee bars to their concepts and the preferences of their target audiences, rather than just aiming to impress with commercial-grade equipment and social baristas.
We also mined our extensive experience for ways that we could make our component fit seamlessly with the larger fabric of the event. Details like knowing the venue and understanding the traffic around it at a certain time can have a profound effect on the set-up. We’re talking the difference between having fresh-brewed coffee waiting for the early-bird guests and a seemingly permanent line forming.
We still prioritize our equipment—when you’re brewing and serving coffee for a living, that first sip still counts for a lot. And we cultivate a staff that not only works in synchronicity but who engages guests and contributes to the celebratory (or sober) tone of the occasion.
But we’ve also come to value the subtler features, the kinds of things that will likely go unnoticed by everyone but a meticulous event planner.
