The race that kind of pauses the office for half an hour

By far the most enjoyable task I had during my internship was organising the staff Melbourne Cup lunch. Whilst by no means a large-scale event, it lasts just over half an hour, is set up in the warehouse the company operates out of and people generally stand around instead of sitting, it still came with its own set of challenges.

Whilst the idea I've always had of Melbourne Cup lunches is semi-formal dress and nice sit-down lunches, I soon realised that wasn't anything like what the corporate culture or the facilities of Printforce needed. Considering the staff is made up of customer service reps, printers, dispatchers and other various administrative staff we don't have the luxury of spending a long time sitting down and eating nor would a lot of the staff members want to.

Instead we set up the big screen television in the dispatch area, opened the huge roller doors and everyone stood around eating and drinking (there was champagne but the printers were kept far away from it) as we watched the race.

The major responsibility I had before set up and organisation on the  day was catering. The company has used the same catering company for the last few yeas of Christmas and Melbourne Cup lunches, however the receptionist who has organised these menus over the last few years has gone on maternity leave, so I was left to pull together invoices from previous events when trying to figure out which food platters to order.

I had to take a lot of things into consideration, vegetarian options, the fact that the food had to be predominantly finger food due to the stand-up nature of the event and things that could suit everyone's taste. It was definitely a little intimidating because the company is so small people don't have an issue offering advice if they think you made the wrong choices with the catering. The other thing we had to consider was the prices of the platters had gone up; the usual budget is $15 per head however if I stuck to that budget we'd have had less food than in previous years and therefore might not have enough. In the end, after talking to the accountant, we decided to go with as many trays as last years lunch instead of a set budget.

One table worth of beautifully presented food

The other thing I had to organised independently of the caterers was buying soft drinks, alcohol and utensils in my own personal time. As someone who doesn't really drink champage I was pretty worried about getting a good kind, but no one complained so I counted that as a win.

The one thing you can't have a Melbourne Cup without is an office sweep. I spent the Monday before, and parts of Tuesday morning where I wasn't setting up, running around the office trying to fill enough spots of our sweep. It was pretty fun, I'd never been involved in a Melbourne Cup Sweep, and my horse came last so at least I got my money back.

The actual day was pretty hectic, though nothing as hectic as the major events it seems people have been involved in reading other blogs, lots of running around, filling the last few spots of the sweeps, getting the tv set up, clearing the production area out so there was room for us all to stand and making sure the food arrived on time and was what we ordered.

What I'm sure all Melbourne Cup lunches look like

It was really rewarding to hear so many people come up to me at the end of the lunch and tell me how much they enjoyed everything and how well I'd done. In fact, I've been put in charge of organising the Christmas luncheon now as well!

Organising the lunch was definitely an interesting part of my internship because it opened my eyes to how much work goes into even small, super casual events. Every event is different, and casual events aren't necessarily easier to organise or worse options than formal sit down events, it entirely depends on what the event is trying to achieve and who your attendees are. That's definitely a lesson I'll be taking away from this experience.

Until next time,

Elizabeth