Volume 3, No. 13. July 11, 2003
Titanic
undertaking
Terri Spicola was
working at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel and Shula Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida—helping
stage such events as Super Bowl parties—when MOSI (Tampa's Museum of Science
and Industry) recruited her to become its catering and facility rental manager.
Her first thought was, “MOSI does catering?”
Which is precisely why the museum hired Spicola a year ago. “We haven’t had the position before to have someone focused on bringing in that type of business,” said MOSI’s Public Relations Manager Beverly Littlejohn. “We wanted to do it for years, and we’ve had facility rentals, but this takes it to a whole new level. It certainly provides another revenue stream that we did not take advantage of before.”
Spicola brought
along with her from the Wyndham her chef, Pablo McMorris of Jamaica, and catering
manager, Victor Ferguson. With
the ability to serve good food and stage great events, Spicola started peddling.
“Our biggest challenge was letting people know we do it. I will go to shows,
have a booth and the people would say, ‘The food is wonderful—oh!
you’re MOSI? MOSI does catering?’ That’s our new motto: ‘Yes,
we cater.’”
The best way to
get the word out that, yes, MOSI caters was to invite the Meeting Planners International
Tampa Bay Chapter in for a luncheon. In doing so, Spicola was nominating her
team for the chapter’s annual Venue of the Year award, but her primary
purpose for the luncheon was to get word-of-mouth marketing started through
the city’s corporate hallways. That worked: she started getting corporate
business after the luncheon. However, MOSI also landed the big award last month,
receiving the Venue of the Year for excelling in the presentation of food, taste
and service. “We went up against quite a few good venues, too,” Spicola
said.
A party could start
with drinks and appetizers in one of the galleries, allowing the guests to play
with the exhibits in the meantime. Then they would sit down to dinner in the
museum’s grand lobby followed by a movie or presentation in the IMAX Dome
Theatre. The evening could finish with desserts and telescope viewing on the
roof.
Beginning this
fall Spicola is seizing on the perfect synergy between MOSI’s exhibitry
mission and venue rental business. The traveling Titanic artifacts exhibit opens
at MOSI October 4 and runs through the winter. Spicola’s team is offering
Titanic-themed menus for the occasion, including first class and steerage meals,
and the 11-course dinner served the night the ocean liner sank.
Parties are booking up, Spicola said. People have learned that MOSI caters. Boy and how!
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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