2009 Budget-cutting tips: Have fun! Go lean! Go green!

Planners at MPI’s MeetDifferent conference in Atlanta February 7-10 said frugality is the biggest trend of this economy and they shared these budget-stretching tips:

• Cut breakfast and do a more lavish dinner. Or cancel lunch and encourage attendees to experience the community or the venue’s on-site restaurants.

• Downsize meals. Serve lunch portions for dinner. Everyone is cutting back and calorie conscious these days anyway.

• One planner suggested talking to the behind-the-scenes hotel staff for some great, cheap eating spots. She arranged an impromptu lunch outdoors with the help of a taco-cart vendor recommended by the hotel’s housekeeping staff.

• Another planner invited attendees to create their own “haute dogs,” providing a selection from turkey dogs to Polish sausages with an array of toppings.

• If the property has a specialty coffee shop, cut out the coffee during the morning break, especially if you’re serving a continental breakfast before the program starts.

• Cut pastries and snacks in half to make them go further and cut down on waste. Carb-conscious attendees will do it anyway. At one recent event, the giant cookies were broken into halves and quarters by attendees.

• Giorgi Di Lemis, vice president of corporate F&B for Gaylord Hotels, suggests planners move away from lengthy meals to more action stations, where attendees can mingle and sample. At a recent event, Gaylord Hotels showcased regional samplings from its four resorts with fried alligator sliders, portobello mushroom sliders, crab sliders and Kobe beef burger sliders.

• Comfort food continues to be a crowd pleaser—creamy mac and cheese and local fare, like fried green tomatoes or Boston baked beans with brown bread.

• Chefs are moving from primary cuts to secondary cuts, creating new twists on forgotten recipes—shanks, presented with fresh herbs and root vegetables. Bold flavors at a lower cost are a winning combination.

• Use themes to stretch your meeting budget, incorporating inexpensive props and decorations. One example: Cheap, plastic mirrors were placed in envelopes and taped to the underside of chair seats as a surprise gift to reinforce the event’s message—“Look at Yourself First.” Another idea: Inexpensive, bright fabric was stretched over two chairs around the meeting room, creating a colorful atmosphere and delivering the meeting’s message—“Working Together to Stretch Budgets”—as soon as attendees entered.

• Use your theme at the table, too, says creative consultant Dianne Devitt. She works with the caterer or chef to put together a color-coordinate meal that is showy and memorable, yet inexpensive. For breakfast for a meeting of women, she suggests raspberry oatmeal, strawberry pancakes and cranberry yogurt parfaits.

• Create multiuse settings. Instead of going to three different venues for meals or events, create three different experiences using the same room. Design the room for breakfast, turn it over for lunch and again for dinner. Inexpensive lighting and props can create dramatic effects.

• If you’re meeting in a hotel, ask about plants, linens and other items the hotel will let you use at no charge.

• Instead of a sit-down dinner, have a buffet dinner with games.

• For a 1950s theme, one planner found diner booths that were cheaper to rent than exhibit booths, used a juke box to play 50s music, and gave away pies, along with bottles of Orange Crush and root beer.

• For an inexpensive teambuilding activity, supply attendees with dried pasta and marshmallows (mini- and regular-size) to build towers.

• Create a chef’s tour for a spousal group; have them accompany the chef to the local marketplace as he picks out the ingredients for the event’s main dinner.

• Offer smoothies with protein powder between sessions, rather than the usual sweet treats.

• Thumb through home decorating and fashion magazines to see what colors and patterns are hot now.

• Movies and television shows provide easy, popular theme ideas.

• Go green by using online registration forms, document downloads, e-mailed bar-coded receipts that can be printed and presented at the door, and post-conference electronic surveys. All save paper, costs and time. You’ll be helping the environment and employing new technology—a marketing bonus that appeals to attendees, especially younger groups.

• Ask attendees to be green and bring their own bags for collecting handouts and goodies.

• Have fun! Most planners we talked with agreed that the challenge of being more frugal and creative was fun. While they might miss the spa events and built-in conveniences of resorts, they were energized by the back-to-basics attitude required by today’s economy. Your attendees will be, too.