Seminar Food Poll

I checked the "other cold food item" box. Fruit and veggies are good.

Beer and wine may not be an option for many institutes in the US, particularly if there is any reason to expect that undergraduates may be present. Puritanism strikes again.

No need to make tea, but you should have hot water for the Brits, plus those who want hot chocolate in the winter.

But soda? That is a lot of money when you could just supply water and a bottle of corn syrup, plus some phosphoric acid.

It is risky to have refreshments in a different room. Too easy for the faculty to sneak out after grabbing a cookie.

Where is the "All of the Above" button?

I'm against anything which smells, so hot food is out of the question. Anything more substantial than a doughnut/cookie will make many people sleepy. So will beer and wine.

This is difficult. I have a hard time answer "how SHOULD it be". I keep answering "how HAS it been done". Obviously, beer and pizza should be served - but I don't ever recall this happening (ok, maybe once).

No messy food, so wings are nachos are out, also any kind of dips (not listed). Pizza is iffy, but I checked it off anyway. On a cold day, hot beverages should include hot chocolate (powder in packets, along with the hot water for tea). Cold drinks should include juices, also water and/or seltzer, and maybe ice tea.

Drinks should be caffeinated to delay sleep. Beware diuresis. The purpose of food is to attract an audience. Drinks before the talk, food after. It must be finger food not dinner to encourage dialogue while snacking. You invited the speaker because folks want to converse with the expert or adept after the exposition, right?

If your seminars are so irrelevant or deadly dull that an audence must be commandeered, get better seminars. Uncle Al attended a talk back in the good old days that was punctuated by slides of Ridgid calendar girls. NOBODY went to sleep. Do that now and you'll be FemLipped to death. We are all Gammas. Gammas wear green. It is best to be a Gamma.

Such... substantial foods! I didn't read Sean's post, but when you say "food" and "seminar" I think: A plate of cookies, a plate of cheese and crackers (with optional meat), a plate of fruits and veggies, plus coffee, tea, coke and diet coke, and sprite and/or lemonade. I think that's pretty comprehensive. Not every talk I've been to has had all of those, but most have chosen items from that list. When I've brought food, I try to do all of the above so everyone gets something they like.

Pizza? Beer? Nachos? Those are foods to which you have to commit. You've got to be willing to pay attention to the melty cheese and make other arrangements to get home after a couple of the beers. Sandwiches and hotwings, same thing: they demand your full attention!

The foods I like are easily enjoyed during a talk as well as before and after, and much cheaper and easier to store / clean up afterward as well...

Second the fruits and veggies. And for scientists, a little alcohol goes a long way toward people actually TALKING and asking QUESTIONS at the seminar.

Mary Aileen is right at #6: "No messy food." That's because the seminar prepares mixed states of informal interviews with potential employers and colleagues. It is a rule of thumb at sit-down meals with potential employers that you never order, for example, whole lobster (and get butter or whatever squirted on your coat while cracking the shell) or spaghetti with tomato-based sauce (is that a meatball on your necktie?). So we conformally extend this to stand-up seminar snacking.

Also, if there is pizza or sandwiches (or isotopes of sandwiches such as burritos, eggrolls, wraps) that there be a vegetarian variety available. I admit that Kosher is complicated for most small departments with limited kitchens and knowledge, but if the meal/snack is catered, there may be pre-packaged Kosher items available (i.e. sandwiches).

Some fresh fruit, please.

The cost-benefit analysis is multidimensional, as it involves, financial constraint (budget), temporal constraint (preparation time, serving time, clean-up time, and synchronization with the talks), effect on speakers, effect on audience.

Adult beverages are a problem/advantage themselves. At a sit-down meal at the faculty club, pitchers of beer have added to my seminar happiness. But a hogshead or stack of cold six-packs risks not only misbehavior by overindulgers, but invasion from dry regions of the hotel/campus.

I even admit to going to a few rare events because, though I had low expectations as to academic content, the food was (as extrapolated from past events) likely to be extremely delicious.

For a substantial subset of us, eating sugar and then sitting still is a quick ticket to dreamland. I've been knocked unconscious by Pecan Sandies more times than I care to count, and that includes during my attendance at seminars that I would find very interesting if i were awake. Veggies, or crackers and cheese, would probably be a much-appreciated alternative.

There should always be water! And maybe fresh fruit for non-cookie eaters. I eat cookies, but it's nice to have a snack even for people who eat only healthy things, or vegans.

No one's mentioned milk or danishes yet, although I see plenty of people have brought up the fresh fruit/fruit juice suggesion, and one person brought up cocoa and someone else mentioned water. Good rule(s) of thumb...if you can smell it and it's not coffee or tea, it dosen't belong there. If it requires more than one napkin or utensil, it dosen't belong there. If you really and truly do need both hands to eat it and a moist-towelette to clean up afterward, it does not belong there.

Of course, you can probably squeeze more money out of people if you invite them to a sit down dinner, but again...there's the sleepies problem, once everyone's eaten.

FRUIT!

Before and after foods are very different, so mixing the results in the same poll will reduce the utility of the questioning.

I recommend restructuring to ask one before poll and one after poll, with locational questions listed after food types.

I've never heard of food before a talk except when someone screwed up scheduling else got your reception area first. Interesting idea.

And seriously, no cheese on the poll? The mathematicians would riot. And so far no one has mentioned that the answer also depends on who the speaker is. Nobel laureates and similar class of big wigs always get both more food and better food for their talks.

I didn't mention this before, but one might consider the solutions arrived at by Food Science departments at universities. When I was doing my M.S. and Ph.D. at Umass/Amherst, I often went to seminars in the (large, well-known) Food Science department. The talks were sometimes interesting, sometimes not, but the food before and after was amazing. Of course, their equivalent of the Nobel Prize went to William Mitchell, inventor of Coolwhip, Jell-o, Tang, and Pop Rocks. I did wonder why there existed a "Graduate Seminar in Grits." But every advanced degree looks someone suspect to those for unrelated departments.

Gotta agree with Mary at #8! In fact, I'm going to use her suggestions the next time that I'm the one that has to supply the goodies.