Meeting Rooms
Tenants and external businesses alike will find the meeting rooms at the hub a handy option for their next meeting, conference, workshop or event. Whether you are looking to accommodate a large group event or hold a small meeting, there is the flexible space to suit the needs of you and your guests. All meeting rooms include full access to audio-visual equipment and refreshments can be provided if required.
Meeting Room 1
located at the front of Brightfield Business Hub – is a large and flexible space suitable for multiple uses. It boasts 487sq ft of floor space with the ability to seat up to 30 delegates in theatre style, 20 banqueting or up to 16 cabaret.
Meeting Room 2
located overlooking the Brightfield Business Hub courtyard – is a smaller space suitable perfect for smaller meetings, training events and interviews.
Conference Suite is located on the first floor and is a state-of-the-art and highly flexible space suitable for multiple uses. It boasts 6050 sq ft of floor space with the ability to seat up to 150 delegates in theatre style, 108 banqueting or up to 100 cabaret.
Health-related diets include:
- Gluten free
- Celiac
- Diabetes
Religious diets include:
- Kosher
- Halal
Common dietary requests include:
- Dairy free
- Vegetarian including Ovo (permits eggs), Lacto (permits dairy) and Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian (permits some animal products)
- Vegan (eats a largely plant-based diet)
- Pescatarian (eats fish, but not meat)
- Flexitarian (adopts a largely vegetarian diet, but occasionally eats meat)
- Ketogenic (low carb, high fat)
- Paleo
Other dietary requests include:
- Low sugar
- LOW GI (limits carbohydrate intake)
- Calorie-controlled
- Locally sourced /Organic
- Whole 30 (avoids all inflammatory foods and beverages)
- Pregnancy related
1. Understand guests’ needs
Guests may have dietary needs based on religious restrictions, food allergies or intolerances. Whether guests’ requests are critical to their health or simply personal preferences, meeting and exceeding expectations is key. Whatever the reason, it’s important that delegates feel confident they can safely consume menu options presented for their needs.
2. Review dietary requirements
Paleo, low sugar, macrobiotic, vegan… it’s hard to keep up with all the different diets and ever-evolving wellbeing trends. Such is the demand for gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options that IACC’s 2017 Trends in Nutrition & Delegate Wellbeing survey confirmed that menus must include gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan options as standard.
Food label legislation and rules differ worldwide. Businesses must be fully compliant and planners aware of their venue’s policy.
3. Prepare in advance
Planners should allow for advance notice to venues to accommodate special dietary requests. It’s vital that both parties discuss and consider dietary needs from the initial planning stage through to the post-event review. Early collaboration between planner and venue is key.
Adopting a structured approach to gathering delegates’ requests helps to simplify matters and lessens the risk of any last minute issues, such as menu changes. It also allows the venue time to source substitute ingredients and to adapt dishes.
4. Budget carefully
Catering for dietary needs and preferences can prove costly. So, it’s especially important that planners check which special diets their venue accommodates and whether these will incur additional charges.
Venues now have to factor in dietary needs more than ever before. Many venues now design menus with multiple gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian choices as standard practice. This helps kitchen teams to operate a smoother service, with fewer last minute changes.
Vicki Montague, UK-based food scientist and ‘free-from’ blogger states “with so many people now following a gluten-free diet, altering menus to make them entirely gluten-free, or focusing on naturally gluten-free food can help save time and reduce costs.”
Obtaining guests’ requirements in the early stages of the registration process allows both parties to see where costs can be reduced. For example, can one dish cater for more than one type of diet? Often people requiring Kosher or Halal cuisine are happy to consume the vegetarian or vegan options.
It’s not unreasonable to consider charging guests with extreme requests for the cost of their meal. Particularly since specially prepared dishes (with expensive and specially sourced ingredients) often remain uncollected or uneaten.
5. Collaborate on the registration process
Work collaboratively to devise a menu that caters for all guests. Planner and venue should discuss and agree the following:
- What dietary questions should be included on the meeting’s registration form (IACC’s 2018 Guide to Managing Conference Delegate Dietary Requirements features a guide Dietary Planning Form).
- How best to create categories for delegates’ dietary information, such as:
- Allergens/intolerances
- Special dietary requests
- Religion-based requests
- The special diet menu options available (including snacks/grazing foods)
- The venue’s deadline(s) for receiving menu choices (aim for at least 7 days in advance)
- How any last-minute requests will be handled
- How the kitchen and wait staff will be made aware of guests’ specific requests (especially allergy related)
Ensure that registration forms are carefully planned and don’t feature open-ended questions, such as “any dietary requirements?’’ Forms must allow for dietary requests to be clearly articulated and not open to misinterpretation.
Consider asking delegates to state the reason for their request. For example, is their request due to an allergy, an intolerance or simply a personal preference?
6. Plan appealing menu alternatives
Ensure that, wherever possible, any specially prepared meals are just as nourishing and appealing as the other options on offer. UK nutritional therapist Marissa-Catherine Carrarini finds that clients are often insulted or embarrassed when presented with smaller or lighter looking meals.
Marissa stresses the importance of remembering that guests with special dietary requirements “do not have different nutritional needs to others.” Marissa explains, “If a person has Celiac Disease (an autoimmune disease caused by gluten), they still require a carbohydrate. A vegan still requires a protein. Remember that people with special dietary needs are not on a ‘diet’ and ensure their meals don’t lack key nutrients.’’
Religious Dietary Restrictions
The Food That’s Served
Some religions forbid either eating a certain type of food outright, the mixing of some kinds of food, or eating an allowed food that’s not prepared in a specific kind of way.
Preparing Food
Some forms of food must be prepared in pre-specified ways, such as Kosher food, those which meets the requirements of Jewish law. In this instance, cafeteria staff should be properly trained in how such food should be prepared.
Forbidden Foods
In other instances, some religions like Islam forbid eating any form of pork regardless of how it’s prepared. This means employers need to consider providing alternative sources of nutrition to their employees in the cafeteria, kitchen, or during company events.
In this case, that could be providing something like a beef option or a vegetarian option that everyone, regardless of religion, can enjoy.
Mixing Foods
Further still, in some instances, it’s not so much that a food is forbidden but rather the mixing of some forms of food that’s not allowed. A good example of this is mixing meat and milk.
As such, precautions should be taken in the cafeteria to avoid mixing trays, utensils, and other cookware that house one or the other.
Beverages
Beyond food, beverages should be considered as well. Whether it be during religious holidays, or outright, some forms of beverages aren’t allowed in some religions. A good example of this is alcohol.
In such cases, it would be important to provide employees with non-alcoholic beverage alternatives, such as water, soft drinks, or non-alcoholic beer. Additionally, organizations should strive to avoid organizing events where there is wine, liquor, or any forms of alcohol.
The Food That’s Stored
Beyond the preparation and offering of different forms of food in accordance with religious traditions, employers should consider the ways by which food is stored.