Vendors can Make or Break Your Event.

Part of any event planning will include getting vendors to your event as this is a key source of revenue for you. Vendors are also providing a service that is seen as essential by your customers as part of the whole event experience. Choose your vendors wisely for a trouble-free event and satisfied customers.   

Vendors selling merchandise and other services should never present any problems or issues. With your pitch map and pricing just match the vendors budget to their space requirements and treat them like a paying customer, which of course they are.   

For Food and Beverage vendors you should be more selective and make sure you do your own due diligence on each vendor. If you have regular events then you will already have built up your own database of trusted catering vendors. In general, the requirement you should specify for catering vendors handling food should include:  

• Being registered with a local authority to sell food and/or alcohol. 
• In receipt of a food hygiene rating and, 
• have received food hygiene training if they are handling food.  

 More specifically a food catering vendor should be able to supply: 

•  Health and safety documents.
• Evidence of food safety management systems.
• A written scheme of examination (WSE).
• Clear allergen, dietary and nutritional information.
• A commitment to being eco-friendly in terms of packaging and recycling rubbish 

There are a lot of potential problems and pitfalls in the provision of food and beverages at events and you only need to do a few searches online to find some horror stories emanating from customers in relation to this. This is particularly true for music festivals where the audiences can be large and your caterers have to service thousands of people during set changes in a short time span. In light of this consider the speed of delivery for food and drinks services, check with vendors serving alcohol that they are geared up for high volumes in short periods and ask them about the number of staff and their experience along with any new technology they may be using. 

Take a look at the latest beer serving technology solution 'Bottoms Up Draught Beer System' now being used at some sports stadiums and large scale events where they need to serve up to 10,000 customers in interval breaks of just 15 minutes. This technology is being combined with cashless payments to:  

• Increase speed of service and shorter queue times.
• Provide more payment options – bank cards, mobile, gift card.
• Provide mobile and wearable payment, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Improve hygiene – catering staff won’t be handling cash. 

The days of waiting and hour or two to get a pint of beer should be well and truly behind us. You are competing with other events and if you're not using vendors that embrace new technology to improve the customer experience then you could lose out on potential customer ticket sales.  

If you use an event software solution like FestivalPro it provides specific functionality for managing vendors and recording all the necessary documentation required. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and are performance artists themselves. Using FestivalPro provides you with a ready-made system for vendor management, saving you time and effort.  

Photo by Adrianna Calvo from Pexels

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