Mayor's Banquet

General
1

Hi all. We are currently organising this year’s Lord Mayor’s Banquet but ticket sales are slow. Does anyone else still organise Banquets and if so can you share details of your attendees, format for the evening and cost of tickets etc. If your Mayor has ceased to organise a Banquet, have you put something else in its place? Many thanks Andrea

2

Hi Andrea - the last time we held a black tie ball was in 2016 and have never had the demand for tickets. If you use the Scrutiny of Engagements this type of event doesn’t score highly at all. We have lower scale events throughout the year e.g. quiz / race night and coffee mornings, usually with a community centric topic and these are well attended, fairly easy to organise events. Hope that helps

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3

Hi Andrea, we hold a civic ball every year. We have a local hotel who offers us 3 course dinner with welcome drink and half bottle of wine pp for £33. they provide the venue, tableware and table decorations. We sell the tickets for £55pp- so a £22 profit for the charity. We invite our senior leadership teams, local businesses, chamber of commerce, our big employers in the area, solicitors firms etc and also invite all of our Councillors. We rely on the mayors charities selling 50 tickets each and we can guarantee between 50-80 guests on top. Try to engage with people on your civic list for remembrance sunday, alderman, freedom of borough, LL office etc. I must admit, it does get harder and harder every year. If you want a chat let me know.

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4

Really helpful, thanks Kris.

5

Hi Andrea
We stopped with a Ball several years ago and moved to a less formal Civic Dinner. Over recent years ticket sales reduced and sponsorship was Nil. This year we moved to a Civic Luncheon which although not great in ticket sales was a success. Our biggest ticket sale is for a pie & pea supper which generates good returns on the raffle and tombola. As an aside, we have for the last two years charged for attendance at our “At Home” afternoon tea which has proved successful. Good luck, perseverance is the key!

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