All Hail the Veggie Plate - Being Vegan at a Conference

I go to a lot of conferences - ones my office puts on for our members, ones in the industry and ones for my professional association.  While you may luck into a buffet where you can pick and choose your ingredients, conferences will almost always include plated meals, which means vegans like me need to be prepared.

Any hotel or conference facility can make you an amazing fruit plate, salad, veggie plate if you give them notice. Some organizations will ask you in advance if you have any dietary prefrences, in which case, happily tell them you're a vegan or a vegetarian.  If, when you register, there isn't a place to note this information, contact your conference organizer to ask if a special meal might be available, and be very clear if you are a vegan what that means. I've asked for vegan meals before and, because of confusion in the kitchen, ended up at first with eggs.

This past week, my office held a conference here in Washington, and our director of meetings was able to arrange for some amazing vegan meals for me! 

This is a plated breakfast - tofu scramble with grilled pineapple and roasted grape tomatoes:

Here's a lunch platter with butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower. green beans and grilled raddichio.

This is another lunch platter, including a grilled portabello mushrooms, carrots, sweet peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and spinach.

Here's a dinner platter of butternut squash, broccoli, snow peas and rice.

What are some of your favorite vegan dishes you've had at a conference?  What suggestions do have for vegans attending these types of events?