How to Register for Food Truck Events

From corporate meetings to employee appreciation events to music festivals, you will find that a good percentage of events in this modern age tend to utilize food trucks to cater to the refreshment needs of their attendees.

While it is possible to make good money from serving the downtown lunch rush on the daily, catering at events has proven to be a better way to generate more substantial and stable income.

Depending on how big the city you live or do business in, there could be around five to 500 different events happening in a particular month. As someone who already owns a food truck, you may know a few of those events or even people organizing them.

While you might want to aim for the big one, you shouldn’t really neglect smaller events because that can prove to be a good opportunity. The advice is to locate as many events as possible and then cut down the list to those that align with your truck.

Steps to Register for Food Truck Events

Different events will have varying registration requirements and procedures. Nevertheless, to ensure you are well informed, below are general processes to help guide you.

1. Find out the events available

One thing is certain, you will first have to find the ideal events that align with your truck brand and your menu. If you make and sell burgers or hotdogs, you wouldn’t want to take your truck to vegan or vegetarian events.

You will also want to consider whether the festival will help you turn a profit. You will find that a good number of food truck festivals necessitate all truck vendors to provide a percentage of their sales coupled with their application fee.

This might mean that you have to raise the price of your menu items and this could turn people off and negatively impact your brand.

You should take your time to read the application process of each event carefully and do some number crunching to make sure it’s worth the invested time and money.

Ensure to have the necessary information regarding the events as you find them—such as the date, name of the event, website address, contact information for the organizers, registration or application deadlines, and a rating to track how interested in the event you are.

2. Narrow down the options

At this point, you already have a comprehensive list of events that probably match your menu and the sort of branding you want for your truck.

You will now have to narrow down the list and evaluate your options to understand the events you have to apply to. It is advisable to apply to more events than you actually want to attend, as you will not really be accepted by all of them.

In addition, it is recommended that you evaluate your options before you begin sending off those applications. Prior to applying to an event, take into account:

• The date of the event
• The possible traffic the event is likely to get
• The level of sales volume you expect
• How much volume you genuinely require to make the event worth your time
• The sort of exposure you could possibly get from the event
• The sort of connections you may be able to make from taking part in the event

3. Prepare Your Application

This is where you start sending out your application to ensure you get accepted on time. One thing to understand is that individual events might necessitate different materials from potential applicants, but a good number of them will be after the same type of information.

Owing to that, it is advisable you prepare as many application materials as you can ahead of time. Keep in mind that this makes it easier to apply any time an interesting event comes up. Below are some of the most common items event organizers will want to see:

• A copy of your menu
• Photos of your truck
• Information on your team and your service capacity
• Details on your previous experience with events
• Links to your website and social media pages

4. Promote Your Truck

After you have sent in your event application, don’t think you can then go home and relax. Magic doesn’t always happen in business, so you need to ensure that the organizers see a valid need to accept your application.

Owing to that, consider promoting your truck and doing everything you can to let the event organizers know that you are a perfect fit for their audience. Outlined below are some ways to seal the deal:

• Advertise or promote the event on your social media pages to illustrate how much you care about the event.
• Ensure your social media pages are valid enough with the right image of your truck (especially in places where fans can take part, such as your Facebook wall and Yelp page).
• Ensure to send a follow-up email to the event organizers some days after sending in your application to let them know how eager you are to hear from them. You can also inform them of the creative idea you had for an event-exclusive menu item or promotion you can bring to the table if you’re accepted.