Corporate Event Invitations: Ask About Dietary Needs

Forty people for a team lunch. The corporate event invitations went out three weeks ago, the room is booked, and the caterer wants the menu signed off on Friday. Two of the forty don't do dairy. One can't eat gluten. One won't eat fish. That isn't one special diet — it's three different plates and a separate tray.

Dietary requirements reach the kitchen in one of two ways: as a list you send on Wednesday, or as a problem you explain at the door on the day. The difference is a handful of questions asked in the right place, and it costs you nothing but five minutes.

Corporate event invitations: ask about dietary requirements first

Take the same forty people. Two lactose-free, one gluten-free, one no fish. A caterer can cook all three — with notice. What a kitchen works from is a name plus a specific need. 'Marta, gluten-free, no traces' gives the chef something to do on Tuesday. 'There are some intolerances in the group' gives them nothing until the plates are already out.

• Name and need together: 'Marta, gluten-free, no traces' can be cooked. 'A few people with intolerances' can't.
• Ask with the invitation, not on the day. A late answer is a tray that doesn't exist.
• Say how serious it is: intolerance, allergy or severe allergy. The kitchen handles each one differently.
• Close the count the day before the caterer's deadline, not on the day. Someone always replies at 23:41.

One clear question beats a twenty-field form

The confirmation questions inside the invitation are the ones you write. Keep it to a single open question: 'Is there anything you can't eat or drink? Tell us, and add your name.' Add an example in brackets — gluten-free, no nuts, vegetarian, no dairy. Without the example, half the replies say 'I'm a bit special' and there's nothing to pass on. With it, people answer in the shape you need, and you can forward the answers straight to the kitchen.

Send what arrives as three columns: name, need, how serious. That's a format any head chef reads without asking you to explain it. If the room has tables, add the table number next to each name so the waiter can put the right plate down without announcing it to the room. If the caterer wants their own sheet in their own format, keep a parallel copy — the invitation doesn't replace their paperwork. For a severe allergy, don't leave it in a text field: call the person, confirm it in writing, and tell the kitchen separately. A filled-in field is not the same as a conversation.

A ticked box is not a conversation. For a serious allergy, pick up the phone and then write it down.

Change the time or the menu without resending anything

The invitation is a web page behind a fixed link. If the lunch moves from Room A to Room B, you edit the location and the map and anyone who opens the link sees the new version — no second email, no reprinted cards, no new envelopes. RSVPs arrive inside the same invitation, in one ordered list, so you're not rebuilding the diet list from chat messages at midnight. It's €29.99, one payment, and you can put the cover together for free before you decide. Set your confirmation question, keep the three columns open next to it, and send the list to the caterer the day before they asked for it.