What food to serve at a business meeting: Wolfgang Puck offers suggestions and tips.

We all try to maximize our schedules, multi-tasking and meeting through meals. Conferences and working lunches can be productive, but little thought is often put into the menu selection. Boring bagel and dell platters are not the motivation your colleagues need to work through lunch. Wolfgang's Team at Wolfgang Puck Catering and Events, based in Los Angeles with operations in Chicago, Saint Louis and Las Vegas has provided some helpful hints that will leave your meeting attendees wanting to stay longer instead of drifting off with their Blackberrys:

* Think before you order, try to create a theme with office catering. Bring in food and elements of decor that will enhance your meeting. Your catering can be the entertainment for an otherwise, long drawn out day. People have short attention spans, so break up a long meeting with culinary stimulation or conversation pieces. Food can create energy and inspiration with every bite, and spark an idea than can lead to an incredibly productive meeting.

* For Breakfast Meetings--Start the day off right with a breakfast burrito bar. Set up your buffet with all the ingredients to create your own breakfast burrito--Scrambled Eggs, Fontina Cheese, Chorizo Sausage, Black Beans, Green Onions and Tomatoes.

* Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and sets the pace for what's to come--Serve Individual Breakfast Pizzas with Freshly Scrambled Eggs, Parmesan, Asparagus, Goat Cheese, Honey Smoked Ham, Spinach, Chicken Apple Sausage, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Feta, or Smoked Salmon And Dill Cream. These scrumptious morsels help to keep things moving.

* A light lunch can help push through the toughest meeting agendas--provide individual bento boxes with specially prepared bite size items and Asian delights such as Sushi, Chinois Chicken Salad, Chilled Thai Noodle Salad or Grilled Barbeque Salmon with Romaine, Pickled Ginger and Ponzu Sauce.

* Individual picnic baskets are another to set your working lunch apart. Serve Chilled Fried Chicken, Corn Bread, Cole Slaw and Chocolate Chip Cookies in small baskets with a checkered napkin and colored flatware. When you are looking for your staff to come up with unique ideas you need to feed their imaginations.

* The key to success is in the planning--Treat your conference attendees to an afternoon smoothie with fresh fruit. They will have plenty of energy after this pick me up to resume the training or discussion.

* Take a break from your strategy meeting with nostalgic movie treats-a small box filled with freshly popped popcorn sprinkled with butter, and as a centerpiece put out a basket of Theatre Style Candies.

* Instead of the same old coffee break during negotiations, have a chef bring in the doughnut machine, while your meeting continues to roll on into the late afternoon, the chef will prepare fresh doughnuts which will fill the room with sweetness.

* Invite clients over for a martini mixer in conference to celebrate your appreciation for their endorsement. Hire a bartender to make specialty cocktails to order. Provide a martini glass with your company's logo on it to use during the evening and a gift at the end of the evening--this is a great branding opportunity. Fill the conference table with bite size favorites like Chicken And Beef Satay With Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce to allow everyone to talk and mingle!

* Simple decor goes long way--great flowers for the tables are very important (low enough or tall enough to allow you and your guests talk to each other). If you don't have a lot of money to spend on flowers--remember that fruits, desserts or seasonal items are much cheaper centerpieces. A vase filled with lemons, or a pretty silver bowl with colorful apples, or a basket full of artisan breads, such as our crispy lavosh flat bread, add color and excitement to any conference room.

Take the time to create a productive environment to stimulate staff or client innovation! The host sets the mood for any business meeting with professional inspiration--but most importantly, as Wolfgang always says "Live. Work. Eat."

Clare Davis is Marketing Manager for Wolfgang Puck Catering & Events. For more information, call 323/491-1259 or visit www.Wolfgangpuck.Com.