Resources

Planning Tools for People Who Staff Events

Hospitality Built on Care, Craft, and Community

What you’ll find here: free tools that answer the questions planners ask us most, how many staff an event needs, what to brief a team on before doors open, and how to hold service together when the guest count moves at the last minute. Most require no sign-up.

Featured Tool

The Event
Staffing Calculator

Grow Your Career with HMG+

Tell us about your event and we’ll recommend an approximate HMG+ team. Final staffing is confirmed with your dedicated team.

  • Guest count and event format

  • Food service style, plated, family-style, buffet or passed

  • Bar service and number of bar stations

  • Registration, coat check and hosts as add-ons

  • Standard or high-touch service level

The Library

Guides, Checklists
and Templates

The Foundation of
Our Hospitality

Filter by where you are in the process. Everything here comes from how our captains and managers actually run events.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    When to Book Event Staff

    How early is early enough, and which decisions are worth making before the rest of the event is settled.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    What to Ask Before You Book

    Twelve questions that separate agencies who train their staff from agencies who only place them.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    Post-Event Staff Evaluation Scorecard

    A simple way to rate a team after the event so the next one is better — and so the same people come back.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    Front-of-House Uniform Options

    What our teams wear, from casual through black tie, and how to match uniform to venue and dress code.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    Multi-Day Event Staffing Planner

    A shift-by-shift template for conferences and festivals, coverage, breaks, call times and handovers.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    When the Guest Count Changes

    What to do when forty more people confirm on the day, and what can still be fixed at each hour mark.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    Pre-Service Briefing Checklist

    Everything a front-of-house team should know before doors open, on one page a captain can run quickly.

  • RESOURCE TYPE

    How Many Staff Do You Need?

    Why plated dinners and passed receptions need different teams, and where planners under-staff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything You
Need to Know

Everything You
Need to Know

Yes. The guides, checklists and templates are free to use, and most require no sign-up. A few ask for an email so we can send the file and let you know when it’s updated.

It gives a realistic starting point based on guest count, event format, food service style and bar setup. Venue layout, timing, menu and guest arrival patterns all affect the final number, so our team reviews every estimate with you before anything is confirmed.

Event planners, catering managers, and venue and dining room managers — the people responsible for whether service runs well on the day. They come out of how our own captains and managers work.

Yes, and you don’t need to become one. The tools work whoever you staff with. If you’d like a second opinion on a plan you’ve built, we’re happy to look at it.

As early as you can, particularly through the holiday and gala seasons. We can often accommodate short-notice and same-day requests — if your date is close, contact us directly rather than working through the calculator.

Help With Your Plan

Still Working It Out?

Can’t Find What You’re Looking For?

If you’re working through something these tools don’t cover- an unusual venue, a format we haven’t listed, a staffing question you can’t find a straight answer to- send it over. We’ll tell you what we’d do.