Meals

We want to make sure everyone has the best possible time at Summit, and we know that means feeding you well. But “good eats” means a lot of different things to different people, and so we wanted to take a moment and make sure you knew what to expect on site. We mentioned earlier that our conference is different: You’ll find here that we’re being unusually honest about food choices, conference costs, etc.

Summit has a wide variety of food available for attendees. We provide premium food and drink choices for all meals provided, as well as an array of snacks throughout the day. However, your choices directly impact how we plan our event and the cost you pay. There are a few things that we ask for your help with while dining at the Summit.

Portion Sizes Please take only one serving of each item on our buffets. A “serving” is one piece of anything served in pieces, such as most proteins, and a spoonful or two of anything else. Go back for seconds after everyone has had a turn, but please allow everyone to get through the buffet lines once before you make a second pass. Why do we even bring this up?

We’ve had a genuine problem with people taking way more than their fair share, leaving nothing for those behind them to eat. If you’re an athlete or someone else that requires more-than-usual calories, please bring some supplemental meal bars with you to make up the difference. PLEASE don’t make us stand around and “enforce” the one-serving policy — it’s embarrassing and frustrating for everyone. Enjoy the food, just be considerate of others.

Why don’t we simply add more food? Approximately 50% of your registration fee goes towards food. Conference food, especially good food, is costly. We are required to put in our orders well before our conference, so we can’t just ask the kitchen to whip up another roast or whatever.

Menus When feeding 300 people, we put ALOT of effort into creating menus that provide a variety of food options. However, we also put an equal amount of effort into providing meals that follow standard nutritional guidelines. It’s hard to make everyone happy, but we take your feedback each year and make adjustments to our menu options.

In our meals, expect about 20% of your calories to come from proteins, and about 60% from carbs, with the rest from healthy fats. We also try to accommodate common dietary choices like vegetarianism, along with food sensitivities and allergies. If you’re on a low-carb diet, consider bringing some beef jerky or other high-protein snacks to help round out meals for yourself.

The Plan Each day, we’ll serve a hot buffet breakfast. This will probably be the same or very similar every day, as there’s only so much variety you can glean from the “standard American breakfast” — expect eggs, potatoes, fresh fruit and the like on most days. We’ve moved away from breakfast sandwiches because in the past we’ve had the first 150 attendees consume 400 sandwiches, which isn’t financially sustainable, and leaves the next 150 attendees hungry.

We keep coffee and tea out all day, along with soft drinks in the afternoons. Note that beverage services move to the meal area shortly before lunchtime. It’ll return shortly after lunch. If you’re just going to flat-out die for lack of a Coke at 11:30, we suggest grabbing it a bit earlier. We do this because beverages cost a lot. Re-using the same set for breaks and for lunch helps us save a lot of money (and keep ticket prices as low as possible).

Be aware, we get charged around $3 for a can of soda. Yeah, we know. Conferences. So please don’t grab eighty cans and shove them in your backpack, or you’ll blow our pricing out and next year will cost a lot more in ticket prices.

Lunch will be a different buffet each day, built according to the guidelines we’ve outlined above. We’ll also have something sweet for dessert on most afternoons. Most buffets will include a couple of entrée items, a salad or two, and a couple of side dishes. Main buffet offers everything vegetarians and vegans need, with clear food sensitivity labels.

On most days, we’ll also have a morning and afternoon snack. This doesn’t happen every day, but on days when it doesn’t, it’s because we’ve scheduled something else. For example, there’s no Monday afternoon snack, because at 5pm we head right into our reception, which includes plenty of food. When we offer a snack, we’ll try to include some lighter and healthier options, like fruit, besides more decadent sweet-or-salty selections.

Special Requests You can specify dietary needs during registration. Email summit@powershell.org ahead of registration to confirm your specific needs.We’ll follow up with you to confirm.

Every single year we have people request special meals — “gluten-free” is popular — only to have those special meals go to waste as the requestor decides that the main buffet looks more enticing. Special meals cost us extra; if you order a special meal and do not pick it up at the special meal table, then we will cancel all special meals requested by you for the rest of the event, to help cut our financial losses.

As a note, “gluten-free” does not mean “carb-free,” nor does it mean “giant chunks of meat.” Gluten-free meals are more likely to be veggie-centric than anything else. Please do not order gluten-free because you think that’s going to result in a giant pile of pork chops for you.

Variety We absolutely recognize that some folks like “fancy” food, while others prefer a more “plain” diet. Our aim is to offer a wide selection of tasty options that cater to different dietary requirements and preferences. If you’re strictly a burgers-and-fries sort of person, please don’t be upset that we don’t offer that as a menu every day (or even any day); we unfortunately aren’t running a restaurant and simply can’t provide a massive variety of options. And trust us — based on past years’ feedback, y’all are an incredibly diverse crowd when it comes to chowing down! You might think that everybody loves the stuff you love, but you’d mainly be wrong. We hope we’re able to please as many of you as possible, and apologize in advance to those who aren’t able to find something to their liking.

Outside Food Aside from small snacks that fit into your bag or pocket, we cannot allow outside food to be brought into the venue. This is a requirement of the venue, and it is driven by local health codes, which require that the venue be responsible for any illnesses arising from food service in the venue.

Have a Question? Drop a line to summit@powershell.org, or in the Summiteer group forum on PowerShell.org. We’d rather sort things out up front so that there are no surprises on-site!