Are you breaching privacy?

Picture this, you walk into the ballroom, enjoying saying hi and chatting with people along the way and when you take your seat, there in front of you are 3 place cards.

GLUTEN FREE | DAIRY FREE | LACTOSE INTOLERENT

And they’re not small place cards, they’re huge, completely obvious and besides the one in front of you, there are others at the seats next to you.

Your fellow guest takes a seat, looks at the place cards and starts to ask you questions about your dietary card and wait – what ???!!!!

Since when did it become okay to not only share private health information in a public forum, makes the guest feel like a pain in the *ss, embarrassed and self conscious, not to mention, high maintenance?

This happened to the guest beside me at a gala recently.  You see, I hate these dietary cards, for all the reasons above and more.  But what really upsets me is when I asked my friend how these place cards made them feel, her answer wasn’t positive.

You see, I was already sitting at the table when she arrived, and I had already noticed three place cards in front of her setting – all of the above – all different colours, plus another one that was red and simply stated “ALLERGIC”.

Far out I thought, and when she sat down I asked her….

How do you feel about that?  I said.

Embarrassed, she said.

Like I’m a pain in the *ss, she said.

Like I just want to put the place cards in my bag and just not eat the meal that is delivered, she said.

So how do we make it operationally effective so that banquet staff don’t give someone with an allergy the wrong meal, but also not shout to the rest of the room, private health data of our guest?

Well, I’m not sure when this changed, and if you’ve been in the venue game a long time, maybe you can enlighten me, but I’ve only come across it recently.  To me, it seems a simple case of asking at the table who “Mary Smith” is, because I’ve sent the list of dietaries and noted that Mary Smith on table 12 is allergic.  But as someone pointed out to me recently, maybe you need silent service so the banquet staff can’t ask the question – what then?

Well, there must be a private, inclusive and subtle way of identifying the person at the table with dietary requirements.  Is it by simply placing a name place card, so they’re easy to find?  Or maybe there’s an inconspicuous identifier on the back of a chair, like a small coloured dot sticker, that only the banquet staff know what it means.  

I’m sure the clever people in venues and events can come up with something less conspicuous than these huge place cards that seem to be a common occurrence, and please if you work in banquets and can share a good argument to keeping this system, please reach out!

Until then, you might need to ask your venue how they manage placement of meals for people with dietary requirements, and if it’s via a giant place card like these, it might be worth a discussion on your guest’s behalf, to find a different, less obvious way of ensuring your guest enjoys their meal, without having to disclose their medical history.

And in case you’re wondering what different dietary requirements are, I’ve put together a handy list – you can download it here - Download now.

Remember Sally, it’s at this point in the game where we really have to work hard to continue to remember the guest experience, and not get lost in the logistics.