Friday morning was spent sitting in the Goldsmiths office continuing with my my own work while listening in on the daily activity of their office.  Two new inquiries came in for the summer of 2011 and it was interesting to hear what types of groups were calling in. Goldsmiths has the same limitations as LMU: a lack of classroom/meeting space in the month of July since many of our existing groups utilize most of our campus space.  Where I am trying to get groups to visit LMU in June (our low season), Goldsmiths is trying to promote groups to visit in August since school does not start until mid-September.

In the afternoon Vanessa and I met with Steve Eagle, General Catering Manager at Goldsmiths College.  Catering at Goldsmiths is contracted out to Chartwells.  Steve tells me Chartwells is the largest university dining service provider in the world.  I was a bit embarrassed to tell him I had never heard of them.  After doing a check on the Internet I discovered they operate under the name of Compass Group in the U.S. (Bon Appetit is part of the family of companies).  He kindly took us on a trip to UCL (Univ. College London) to take a peek at their facilities since they provide food service on that campus as well.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Goldsmiths and LMU have a similar type of group - what they call "summer school" and what we call ESL (English as a Second Language) programs.  These are groups from Spain, Italy, France, China, etc that visit England or U.S. and take English classes in the morning and tour the surrounding area for the afternoon.  Their diet is typically different than that of an average US guest so I have been making personal observations about the food while eating in the dining hall at Goldsmiths.  First of all, I noticed the options are limited (one meal choice), whereas at LMU we offer an all you can eat buffet with a variety of options.  I was discussing with Vanessa and had been advised that some European groups like to keep meals quite simple and fresh.  Adding a popular spread like Nutella at breakfast could make all the difference.  Hmm...I wonder if Sodexo would let me do this?