One of the best ways to create a positive and memorable experience for attendees at your corporate events is to serve free freshly brewed quality coffee. In addition to giving attendees a welcome boost of energy in a mug, by properly brewing and serving the highest quality coffee, your guests feel value that creates a positive association with your event. Below are 10 reasons why you should forego the standard convention center snack fare and make free, Starbucks level premium coffee options part of your corporate catering plan.
#1 – Coffee Wakes Everyone Up
What better way to ensure an alert audience than a dose of morning caffeine? A five-star cup of coffee is something participants can enjoy, that will also help event attendees stay alert and energized on your agenda.
#2 – Participants Don’t Need to Search for Coffee
Tracking down refreshments in a massive exhibit hall can be a daunting task for weary conference attendees that have been on their feet for hours. Save event participants time and energy by hiring an external local vendor who uses a mobile cart to serve coffee to guests. Promote your vendor’s location with floor stand signs and announcements to make everyone aware of the free barista location!
#3 – Customized Service from a Barista
There is a big difference between basic convention hall self-serve stations and a made-to-order cup of tasty transcendent coffee from a locally brewed supplier. Make your guests feel valued by hiring an experienced barista to serve your guests as if they were at your city’s top local coffeehouse. Creating ways to enhance your guest experience will help solidify a positive vibe association with your event, conference or trade show.
#4 – Control Service Schedule
When serving the standard “prison coffee” commonly provided for free by convention halls and most conference centers, you are often at the mercy of their staff’s service schedule, and may not be able to provide coffee at all times. By hiring an external coffee vendor, you can dictate when and where all coffee is served.
#5 – Attendees Can Tell the Difference
Seasoned coffee drinkers are familiar with enduring the low-grade coffee typically stocked by exhibit halls and convention centers. Not only will they be pleasantly surprised, but they will appreciate your efforts to accommodate their preferences.
#6 – Promote Your Brand
A key benefit of enlisting the service of an external premium quality coffee vendor is the ability to use customized cups and promotional mugs to advertise your brand. In most cases, you can simply send a high-resolution copy of your logo to your preferred catering vendor, and they’ll manage the digital screen printing process.
#7 – Create a Positive Impression of Your Events
When you serve premium select coffee, your event will be remembered and reflected on by your guests, unlike typical corporate events that provide nothing of value to their guests year after year. Simple event planning innovations like professional top-shelf quality coffee services and other hospitality improvements, will create more positive experience’s for your guests and higher guest retention rates. Showing guests that your event hospitality team goes the extra mile, means attendees are likely to leave with a favorable opinion of your event.
#8 – Options for Non-Coffee Drinkers
In contrast to standard options provided by exhibit halls and other corporate venues, mobile coffee baristas often also include hot chocolate and a handful of healthy tea options, in addition to their five star coffee selection. This is a welcome change for non-coffee drinking attendees who long for a fresh, hot beverage.
#9 – Better Dairy Selection
The dairy (or non-dairy) selection that is served to accompany coffee is a critical part of the refreshment experience. By seeking the services of a professional local coffee vendor, you can typically choose from a wide variety of coffee additions, such as skim milk, half-and-half or soy milk.
#10 – Eliminate Hidden Costs
The absence of any hidden costs is a key advantage of enlisting the services of an external coffee vendor. Top-notch external coffee vendors do not charge additional fees for extras, like flavored syrups or double shots, and offer an all-inclusive type of service.
Clearly, there are many reasons to bypass the low-quality exhibit hall fare in favor of premium coffee options. If you are an individual exhibitor and show coordinators are not offering better coffee, the above benefits still apply to show-site trade show marketing. Serving quality coffee will boost traffic to your own 10×10 trade show booth! Whether you are searching for a way to keep attendees focused on your presentation or simply want to create a positive experience for your guests to remember, utilizing great coffee is a superb solution.
