NBBQA Conference 2013
March 28th, 2013I’ve been wanting to tell you about the annual NBBQA Conference and Trade Show in Mobile, AL last month. I was honored to meet a few of my email subscribers at the conference, but many of you were not able to attend.
I can’t give you a thorough overview of every part of the event, but maybe I can feed you a few nuggets will inspire you to attend next year. Barbecue has quite a few different segments by now: Backyarders, competitions, caterers and restaurants, fund-raisers, and even disaster relief. It has become a serious enterprise and the National Barbecue Association supports every segment of barbecue.
The event offered a lot of different learning and networking opportunities for caterers, competitors, restauranteurs, and more.
Cooking a Whole Pig for the Butcher Class
View From my Room
StoryQue Won Second Place in the Awards of Excellence Contest for Books/Publications
First Place Winners in the Awards of Excellence Contest
Social Media Class by Malcom and Rachelle
The trade show was interesting. Here are Cliff and Mollie from fareapps, a company that provides mobile apps for restaurants and caterers.
Lots More Photos: Browse my 2013 NBBQA Album on Facebook to see dozens more photos of this event. You don’t need to have Facebook to see the photos.
Scott Frantz from Sonny’s BBQ and Richard Chenoweth from Scranton’s Restaurant and Catering taught on “The Business Side of Catering”. We published a lot of notes from this class in the latest issue of StoryQue and I’d like to give you an excerpt from it below.
One thing I learned at the conference was that many people who have a barbecue restaurant also cater. In fact, at this particular class they said if you have a restaurant, you need to offer catering too. Your restaurant is already paying the overhead and hopefully making some money. The catering part of your business can add a lot of profit to your bottom line because you already have staff and a kitchen in place.
I don’t have personal experience in catering, but from what I could tell, they covered it very thoroughly.
Key Takeaways From the Class:
- A business plan and mission statement are critical. Or you can join a chain where the structure is already there.
- An attractive logo that shows people what you offer is vital.
Licenses:
- Get a state business license. Not all states are the same.
- Rules on county licenses vary from one county to another. Check with the DBR in your area to learn more.
- Sometimes the health inspector requires you to put your license number on the menu. Some potential customers are looking for a legal caterer so having the number on your menu makes it clear that you are licensed.
Equipment and Storage:
- Equipment required: Chaffing dishes/hot and cold boxes/linens/themed décor/tents/portable cookers/fryers /van or truck/warmers/refrigeration.
- You need the ability to keep cold food cold and hot food hot at all times.
- Keep the important stuff for catering out of the restaurant and in designated storage. Otherwise, it will probably get smoked up in the restaurant or disappear.
Your Menu:
- What do you want to sell? You can cater based on your restaurant menu. Take small steps forward.
- Observe what other people do. Richard gets ideas from the catering association.
- Some things don’t travel well, such as garlic bread and fried foods. Use buns or white bread.
- Can you mass produce the items? Know your limits and don’t be afraid to say no. You may be able to do something, but if you’re not comfortable with it, don’t do it. Adapt to what you have to work with. Outsource the project to someone bigger if it’s more than you can handle.
- Do you want to price as a package or custom build based on items and options?
- Think about offering variety that accommodates any crowd: Children (lower price, mac ‘n cheese), gluten free, vegetarians. (Richard doesn’t offer much off for children because they waste more food than adults.)
- Keep desserts simple. Do interesting twists.
- Hire a designer to design a menu that matches your brand.
You can get the rest of the article in the March issue of StoryQue, as well as a story by Richard Wachtel on the butcher class. (If you have an iPad, download the StoryQue app and subscribe to the monthly issues. You’ll immediately get the latest issue FREE and if you do it now, you can get the March issue free as part of your trial.)
There were a lot of other classes during the event too. They ran three at a time, so I couldn’t catch them all, but I attended classes on internet marketing, building a brand, starting a food truck business, beef cuts and qualities, and the business side of catering.
They provided a wealth of value in these classes, but what’s even better is to mingle with big name barbecue people like Mike Mills and Famous Dave. You may feel intimidated approaching the legends of an industry, but it’s different in the barbecue world. Many of these people are very genuine and willing to answer questions and help where they can. As the folks at The Shed said, “NBBQA is the best family in the world. We have your back. We will help.”
I headed for home on Saturday and missed the butcher class, auction, judging classes, and most of the backyard competition out on the street. I did get some video footage of the teams at the competition, which I hope to publish later.
As for myself, I came home very blessed with a stack of great contacts and new acquaintances. Whether you are struggling to get your barbecue business off the ground or you are a barbecue writer/journalist or you are just trying to figure out how to master great backyard barbecue#mdash;I think this event would be worth your time. Besides the team at NBBQA is working to make it even better next year, so stay tuned!
And don’t forget to check out the rest of my photos on the event here.
Have fun,
Lavern Gingerich
March 28th, 2013 at 9:18 am
We need better BBQ places in Vermont. Maybe they need to go to this conference haha. We’ve got an upscale restaurant, but nothing that’s down-home southern style.