Ask a guest what made an evening good and they will tell you about a conversation. They will not mention the lighting, the canapés, or the fact that the room turned over in eleven minutes. They will tell you who they sat next to.
We seat people on purpose
For every dinner we run, someone spends an hour with the guest list and a pen. Not a seating algorithm - an hour, a pen, and the question we ask about every pair: what would these two have to say to each other at 21:40, when the food is gone and the room has settled?
It is the least glamorous hour in the whole production and the one with the highest return. A good pairing produces a follow-up meeting. A bad one produces a phone.
Three rules we keep
- Never seat colleagues together. They came with each other; they do not need to leave with each other.
- Put the quiet guest next to the generous one. Not the loudest - the generous one, who asks questions.
- Break the table at dessert. One deliberate reshuffle beats two hours of the same four people.
What this costs
An hour of someone’s attention, and the willingness to be wrong about a pairing and move somebody at the last minute. That is all. It is the cheapest line in any budget we write, and the first one we defend.