For years, the food truck craze has been sweeping the nation. Literally. While food trucks date back to the chuckwagon of the 1800s, the modern-day food truck originated in LA in 1974 when Raul Martinez opened up King Taco. Fast forward to today, and you can find food trucks just about anywhere in the U.S. Taco trucks are still wildly popular, but many trucks have become known and created a serious fan base for their fresh fusion cuisine.
For years, the team at Simply Food Trucks has partnered with event planners across the U.S. to assemble a selection of locally sourced trucks to feed their guests. This includes working with marketing agency Octagon, which organizes re-opening events for The Home Depot in cities such as Phoenix, Charleston, Houston, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, and Shawnee, KS.
The key to successful multi-city events is finding the right partners. We love to use our Meeting Professionals International (MPI) network to hire meeting experts to work on-site who ensure the event runs smoothly. For our recent Home Depot event in Phoenix, Lynne Wellish, CMP CHSE, said,
“Working with Paige at Simply Food Trucks was a dream situation because she had everything preplanned and organized, leaving nothing to chance. As a result, the event was well-executed, the guests were delighted to get a meal crafted by themselves, and the clients were happy!”
Multi-city events come in all shapes and sizes, including:
· Roadshows
· Tradeshows
· Product Launch Events
· Charity Events
They can also be for large corporations with offices around the country rolling out company-wide initiatives. Or those who just want a way to thank and appreciate their many teams across the country. Over the past few years, multi-city events have also grown in popularity as an alternative to hosting one massive event that requires everyone to travel. Hosting multiple local events is often cost-effective while being more intimate due to the smaller size.
If you’ve been tasked with planning or hosting a multi-city event, keep in mind there are significant advantages when working with one planner.
1. Save Time
Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day”? Planning a multi-city event can be a little like that. Imagine repeating the same information over and over to different vendors for the same event at multiple locations across the country. There has to be a better way! And there is. Find a planner who can handle your needs nationwide. This includes selecting a single caterer who can satisfy your culinary requirements at each destination. And you only provide the event details once. They handle the rest!
2. Learn From Mistakes
Yep, mistakes happen. Your event will evolve and improve from the first to the last. Often the last event is more successful than the first as a result of learnings along the way. When you work with multiple vendors, information continuity gets lost the more people that are involved. A single event partner will learn with you and avoid repeating mistakes experienced from earlier events.
3. Economies of Scale
Hiring a planner or caterer for each event when hosting multiple is time-consuming as you repeat the same details repeatedly. Not to mention costly. Instead, using the same contacts from city to city means they already have the details, so they don’t need to set aside additional time – time you’re paying for – to be educated about the event. And once they have the plan figured out, they replicate it from one location to the next, allowing you to focus on other tasks.
Orchestrating the planning of multi-city events can be a challenge for even the most experienced of planners. Identifying ways to streamline the process and using the same vendor for all events can make the process much more manageable. Working with a new caterer for every location is time-consuming and may result in an inconsistent guest experience. Finding a single partner who can lead the charge and deliver a unified experience will make your job easier and result in more successful events.
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