Meetings Matter Chatter
Industry trends and topics pertaining to the travel and meetings industry
Meetings Matter Chatter
Food Inclusivity: Rethinking Menu Options for Today's Attendees
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Listen in to hear Shweta Sharma an Experience Designer from The Collective share her perspective on what we can all be doing to be more inclusive when it comes to picking menus, hosting events and frankly elevating menus even when going out to local restaurants with friends. Inclusivity starts with awareness, so thank you for listening to this episode and share with your friends, colleagues and families.
Welcome, listeners, to the latest episode of Meetings Matter Chatter. I'm your host, Nikki McLean, and today I have with me one of our fabulous experienced designers, Shweta Sharma from the Collective. How are you, Shweta? Welcome.
SPEAKER_00Hi, Nikki. So happy to be here and speaking about this topic that I'm so very passionate about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so let's tell everyone about the topic. So we are talking about rethinking menu items for today's attendees. And one of the things that I always like to start with is I like to tell the listeners a little bit about your background so they can kind of understand your education and how you kind of came to your position as an experienced designer because that sounds like such a fabulous job. And how you came to working at BCD. So I'll let you start there.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Um, so I studied architecture back in India, and then I did my internship in an interior firm and just they had event design as a side uh business, and I was like, oh, I like that. So I moved into event design. So space design is definitely one of my specialties. And now I have been working in events for about 10 years. I joined BCD three years ago, and my current role, like you said, is I'm a senior experience designer sitting with the collective here.
SPEAKER_01That is so cool. I love how you went from architecture, space design to experience design. That's fantastic, that's fascinating. So let's break it down a little bit further. What is experience design? Maybe for the listener who doesn't know, doesn't understand that.
SPEAKER_00To put it in the most simplest words, experience design is when we intentionally design and elevate the experience of the attendees, right? So when we get an event, we pause, we look at what are the event goals, we look at what the attendee needs, and then we project what this attendee is going to experience from the very first moment they hear about the event all the way on site and then all the way to post-event. We then dissect and find out intentionally where we can design experiences so that the attendee experience can be elevated, so that when the attendees leave, what will they feel, hear, and think during this entire event? This could be an event, meeting, incentives. Um, and to give you a little rough idea, this can range from anywhere from uh agenda design, creative, gifting. It could be personalization for the attendee well-being, it could be event design, or in this case, what we're discussing today, it could be food inclusion.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that is fascinating. So let's, you know, we're talking about food inclusion. And I think that people think that they might know what that means, but I'd love for you to explain that further for the listener.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and like you said, people might think they know what that means because in the event world, menu options have always included considerations for like dietary restrictions or food allergies, right? But we're in a world that's shifting the focus on inclusion. And just like any other inclusion-driven effort, may it be DEI, may it be ADA, gender equality, the goal of inclusion is to make sure that every attendee has the same level of elevated experience. It doesn't matter what your food choices or preferences are, you should have the same elevated experience at your event.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that makes sense. So before we get into more details about how you could make this happen at an event, tell us why you're so passionate about this. Like why did you even start thinking about this as a topic?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I could go on and on about that one. But I am from, like I said, I'm from India. So I was born in a vegetarian family, and I have spent most of my adult life in India. And never has food been an issue where I had to rethink what I will put on my plate when I attend weddings. And you know, Indian weddings are huge. Um, or events, never was it an issue. Fast forwarded to living in the US, and in my current role, I am attending industry events, I'm going all over the world to attend supplier events, and oftentimes, unfortunately, I find myself in a sea of food options, and yet what I can eat as a vegetarian or what I can put on my plate is less than glamorous. It's it's glad. And like I said, being a vegetarian all my life, I know that doesn't have to be the case. So it definitely stems from a very personal pain point that I have had in the last few years. Um, but it also makes me a good advocate for the attendees who are vegans or vegetarians or who have allergies. And the best thing is that now I am in that role. I am an experienced designer. I'm looking at our attendees' experience. So it also puts me in a really good position to change the perspective of our event stakeholders. We are a hospitality industry. We are the change makers. So I think with my personal pain point, being in this position, being in the event in this industry, I really think we can revolutionize this.
SPEAKER_01I totally agree. And I can I can hear your passion for it, and I can feel for you because no one should feel left out because options are not inclusive, right? And I think this is why I'm glad that you agreed to do the podcast with me, because I think this is such an important topic. I'm so glad we're discussing it today. You know, as an event stakeholder, why should this matter to me? Like, why should I as I'm talking to my customers and you know, some of our accounts that we have, and as we work with your team as well with Experience Design, why is food inclusivity so important?
SPEAKER_00So I'll start with talking to the budget. One thing we really overlook is around 40% of the event investment is spent on food and beverage, which means that your menu selection, your catering service are playing a huge role in how your event is going to feel. Will it be a memorable experience for your attendees? Uh, on the other hand, if you don't pay attention to that, if your menu is not inclusive, if it doesn't, it has a negative consequence, right? Poorly chosen menus can really result in unhappy guests. And that can really plunge not only brand loyalty, but it can reduce your average ROI and ROE. Uh, and I can give you an example that I recently experienced. So I attended this award function, uh, and the main dish, which was a meat option, was lobster and steak. And then the vegetarian dinner that I was served was this um the best way to describe it is a lentil and a rice soup thing that I kid you not, Nikki, I could probably cook better in my kitchen. Oh no. No, exactly. So now the thing that us as event stakeholders we don't realize is that it's not just that one person having that experience. If I'm sitting on my table having that lackluster experience, I am going to discuss this with my table, right? And that effect suddenly is not just on me, but my entire table is seeing me have this less than, you know, kind of an experience. So if you put that in perspective, let's say in your overall event, you only had four attendees that are vegetarians, but what you're overlooking is that is four tables experiencing someone have not a good experience, right? And that can really affect the ROE and ROI. When you get your event surveys, you will see that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And you know that people love to talk about the food, whether they like it or they love it or they hate it and all of that. So, oh, I'm sorry, that's really disappointing. Yeah. So your experience in research has been that event stakeholders are not really doing this, like they're not taking this into consideration yet. Like it's it's still kind of a new thing for event planners, hotels, chefs. Like, is this still fairly like new?
SPEAKER_00Correct. So, right now, what I'm seeing and what I have experienced as a vegetarian, there is a huge opportunity in this area. Um, vegetarians, vegans, they are definitely a second thought. And these attendees are not getting that same level of culinary experience as everybody else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's so disappointing. And why do you think that there's resistance to this? Like, why are they not embracing it? And like, how can we help change this?
SPEAKER_00I think there are two things that I would like to speak to. Um, one of the biggest hurdles is just like I said, it's the mindset around the proportion of the attendees. So when events stakeholders they get their surveys back because there's a question, right? Who's a vegetarian? What's your dietary? They get their survey back and they see, oh, only a small percent is vegetarian. Like I said in my example above, let's say only four people are that. So suddenly the stakeholder thinks, I don't want to spend so much time or effort or brain power in thinking about this because it's only a small number. Here is where the change needs to happen, and here is what we don't realize. When you solve for some, you extend to all. And this is true for all inclusivity, right? Yeah. When you make something inclusive, it does not mean you're just catering to, let's say, 10% of your audience. Instead, you just created an option that can be enjoyed by now the 100% of your audience. So this shift in perspective is huge. You need to realize when you actually cater for somebody for the inclusive groups, you're actually creating something that can be appreciated by your entire audience. Yeah, I definitely see your point there. Mm-hmm. And I think the second thing that is becoming I've seen as a hurdle is some event hosts or maybe even chefs, they think that the meat option, it needs to be the main dish, right? People have this notion that, oh, vegan or vegetarian dishes are not as elegant or maybe as upscale. And I'm here to say that is a myth. It's definitely a limitation that we're putting on ourselves. And I wanna, I wanna paint this picture for you. I want to give you this example uh to put this in perspective. Let's say you heard of a really famous restaurant, and you're like, oh my God, I have been hearing raving reviews about this. I want to go check this out. You go there with a bunch of your friends and you ask the server, what is your best seller dish? What is that dish that is just like, you know, finger-lick and delicious? And I want that. Give me that. That's what I've been hearing hearing reviews about. Yeah. And the server brings out this I don't know, just say something. It's like this cauliflower-based salon gravy dish that's just awesome. You loved it. But you won't sit there and say, oh no, no, no, I'm an exclusively made eater. Some serve me something else. Serve me what's your second best. No. As long as that, as long as you're having this delicious experience, you're going to, you are going to eat that dish. So I think that's that's a major mindset uh shift is that, and again, you don't have to change your main dish. You could still be one of the main two top dishes, still be your meat option. But if your secondary dish, or if if the top two dishes, one of them is vegetarian and it is delicious, a hundred percent of your audience is going to be happy and excited about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. Like, I think you're not gonna go to a top restaurant in a city and say, please give me your second or third best thing. You're gonna wanna go with what the chef says, like the chef special, or like let the chef guide us here with their suggestions. And I mean, they love that, right? Especially when, you know, things that can appear to be so fantastic, they don't always have to have meat in them, right? And I think another thing is is you you mentioned budget earlier. And I think that's something that our clients are always conscious about, especially in these kind of like inflationary times, is that everyone knows that things cost more now, and especially meat like beef, chicken, pork, everything's more expensive. So imagine being able to, as you're planning an event or you as a designer, you know, helping them design this amazing event and saying, oh my gosh, I can provide you with something that is one, inclusive, two, probably tastier, three, less expensive. You're solving multiple event owner and event planner problems and providing, like you said, an elevated, upscale, delicious experience. Like that just feels like a win-win to me. So, you know, you're winning across the board. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You said that so well. You put it in such a good perspective there. Uh, and talking of like multiple use cases, I'll bring us to another point, which is sustainability. There is a huge push on being sustainable, right? We're realizing that we need to be mindful, especially being in the event industry. There is a huge uh effort that everybody is making towards making sure that our industry is less harmful to the planet. And vegetarian and vegan food groups are huge in that effort. Yeah. Vegetarian options, vegan options can really help reduce carbon emissions. They help us save water, reduce deforestation. It's an excellent tactic to make your event eco-friendlier. And what you can do here is you can really put a focus on that and you can involve your guests from the get-go. This is a sustainable event. We have spent more time and effort into creating vegetarian and vegan options because it's a mission of ours. And suddenly your attendees will not only appreciate that, they will feel like they are a part of it, right? They are being a part of that sustainable effort.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great point. I hadn't thought about it like that because a lot of our clients are asking about how we're weaving sustainability into things. And that's a really great point there. Um, I'm gonna take it a step back to, you know, you it sounds like you travel a lot, you're going on a lot of sites, you know, looking at venues and stuff like that. Like when you are traveling, like, how do you decide? You're you don't always get a choice on the plane, what you get to eat, if you even get a meal, or when you're at grab and go places at the airport. Like, how do you make decisions on the fly about what you get? Because that probably doesn't feel like a very elevated experience sometimes.
SPEAKER_00No, it is not. And I will say it has been a struggle. Um, so specifically, let's say pre-event surveys. I do enter that I'm a vegetarian, right? But then to me, it's it does not guarantee that what I will be served will be something that I'll actually enjoy. Yeah, and it's unfortunate, but I always carry snacks with myself because I might get into this. And I give you another example, which is, and the reason I'm giving these examples is so that it brings awareness to our event stakeholders on what your attendees are experiencing so that they can do better next time. So I had I went on a conference in Hawaii, and it was the third night of the conference, and every single night they did a really good job at creating these land and sea themed uh uh farmer, food um farmers. Like farm the table, yes, yes, yeah, beautiful menus, and it was like a it was a huge conference, so there was a lot of people, and uh we had buffet style. And on my third night, I was like, there was not enough options for me. There was probably maybe one option in this plethora of food because most of it was like land and like seafood and things like that. So, and I was for the third night in a row feeling hungry, and I felt so upset and just just like disappointed in a way that I literally left the dinner, went out and had to get dinner for myself because I did not want to go back to my room another night munching on Smacks. Yeah. So that's the kind of experience we don't realize that we're putting on our um attendees by not being mindful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, and especially like you said, like this could have been like their reward trip or like their big, you know, incentive that they're going on, and then they're like, wow, this is what they're serving me. Like that's so disappointing, you know? So or you are going to experience a destination and you're like, wow, this is what I get. Like that's so that feels so lackluster. So oh, that's such a bummer. Um, as an experienced designer, how does this topic flow into how you're creating events for your clients? Obviously, it's top of mind for you, but how do you get others on your team or other people to like think about this as they're designing your their events?
SPEAKER_00Right. So, like I said, experience design is all about being intentional, right? So this is something that because it's personal, I have been educating our team as well. But then we also sit with our clients during the menu planning, and then we're educating them. And this is something that I invented. It's it's what I call the complete formula for a successful inclusive food menu. It has to be functional, which means obviously, obviously, it's food. It has to be inclusive, which is something you're still doing. So you will see um vegetarian options. But then the third thing, which is what we're missing, is desirable. It also has to be something that I would like to eat at your event. You know, it is not just about having a vegetarian or a vegan option, it's also about your vegetarian and vegan attendees to truly get a remarkable food experience at your event.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I love it. Fid, functional, inclusive, and desirable. I love it. So, what are some tips for the clients to make the food and beverage experience more inclusive?
SPEAKER_00Um, so in addition to the things that we have already spoken about, there are a lot of things I could say here. But I think the most important thing is, and it's with true with any change. It's about acknowledging that this is an issue. It's about becoming aware. So, as I think the biggest thing is to prioritize that. Uh, as a host, as a planner, as the event stakeholder, you need to ensure that everyone in at your event feels satisfied and impressed. You know, you need to put priority into creating special dishes that are specifically for these food groups and make sure that they are delicious and flavorful, just like the main uh meat option. Another thing that I um, again, with my background from India, I find it really interesting that here in the US, when I do attend these events, there is not a lot of diversity in cuisines, which I think is something that is untapped right now. By exploring diverse cuisines, so you know that Indian cuisine remains one of the world's most vegetarian-friendly options out there. Japanese food has a lot of vegan-friendly options, Greek, Mediterra, Middle Eastern cuisines, amazing choices for a gluten-free diet. So by bringing this in, by exploring and expanding your menu with different cuisines, uh, not only does it give you variety, but I think it it gives you enticing delicacies. Food really brings people together. So why don't we use that by exploring these diverse cuisines? Um, another thing I would say is with today's day of alternatives, you know, there is eggless eggs, meatless meat, beyond, um, impossible. With all those options, there is really no excuse as to why your attendees should be served something bland. Yeah. You can you can literally, with all the alternatives, it's so amazing that you can take any recipe and you can just easily convert that into a vegan or a vegetarian, even if you don't want to uh experiment, just take your option and add impossible, add beyond things, add egless eggs, and just make that. Um here are a few options.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, those are great, those are great ideas. And I think that that's something that you have to keep in mind is it it doesn't bland is not boring. It doesn't need to be basic, you know. So um, well, thank you for sharing those tips. Um, so kind of as we wrap up, if you were to give the listeners your final thoughts, what do you want to leave them with today?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think the biggest thing would be to be mindful, to be intentional. Um, and if you want ideas, by the way, our team experience design is here and I'm here. But I think in the end, we need to make sure that everyone feels welcome, everyone feels included, uh, all your attendees should feel respected, honored, irrespective of their dietary needs, irrespective of what their preferences are. And this really creates this sense of unity at the table. Um, if I want to leave our your listeners who are chefs, who are catering companies, hotels, event stakeholders, I would love to leave them with a creative challenge. For your next event, can you think outside your comfort zone and create a hundred percent vegetarian event? What would that look like? Can you create a wholesome, delicious experience for your attendees with those parameters? And as someone who's been a lifelong vegetarian, I'm here to assure them yes, they can.
SPEAKER_01I love it. Did you hear that, listeners? That is your challenge from Shweda to create a 100% vegetarian event. So we will be waiting at our next event. All right. Well, final, final question. And I ask this to usually all of my guests is if you weren't doing what you're doing today as an experienced designer, what would you like to be doing and why?
SPEAKER_00Oof. Um I think I still do all the things that I like to do, even if they are not my job, even if I'm not getting paid for them. Uh, but if I had to pick up, I think I would be as my second job, I would be a full-time artist. And I still make art um or a dancer, maybe. I just love anything and everything creative. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love it. Well, you are so creative, and thank you again for joining. And so, listeners, we hope that you learned some great tips today about food, inclusivity, and how you can elevate your menus at your next event and be more exclusive and inclusive. I'm sorry. So, um, thank you again for joining, and um, thanks for listening to this latest episode. Yeah, thank you, Shweda.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Anakin.