Building the right menu for seminar success

Having decided on optimal geographic locations and facilities for a seminar event, you now face the issue of what to serve your guests. Offering several choices opens you up to problems, such as server issues. That is why I offer only one choice of meal (for example, Caesar salad and chicken fettuccini.) Once in a while, a guest will have special dietary needs, and of course, I try to meet those needs.

The next order of business is filling the room with folks who meet your demographic requirements. For a successful seminar, you have to get quite a few people to come to your event. Anytime you can have three nights of seminar with 25 to 30 people each night, you are doing a good job of marketing yourself. There are lots of ways to get people to your event. If you place an ad in the local newspaper, you will draw many people, but they will not be exclusively your target audience. My experience with flyers, cold calls and senior centers have produced disappointing results. Direct mail, however, can be very successful because you can target a specific geographical area of people who fit your demographic requirements. I mail to this segment within a five-mile radius of the restaurant.