We make the table.
Every chair filled on purpose.
Tablemakers designs and produces private dinners for eight to twelve guests, for companies that need the right people at one table. We build the room around the conversations you need to have, and we make sure the people who matter are sitting in it.
Before the evening you get a short card on every guest, researched from public sources, so the conversation starts somewhere worth going.
An evening, as we would write it up
Illustrative. A table drawn for a company entering a new market; the seats are described by role, and no real guest, client or dinner is shown.
- 1The host. Your chief executive, or whoever the room should remember.
- 2The buyer you have been working for two quarters. To the host's right.
- 3Her counterpart at a company that already signed. Across from her, not beside her.
- 4A founder she admires. He will carry the first hour, which is the point.
- 5The partner whose introduction made seat 2 possible.
- 6An investor from your last round, seated where he can hear seat 2.
- 7A former regulator who can say what the room cannot ask.
- 8An operator from the market you are entering, with no stake in the deal.
- 9A guest who keeps every table honest. Every good dinner has one.
- 10Your head of partnerships. The only other person from your side.
- 11A writer who covers the category, here off the record and for the company.
- 12The seat we spent longest on. The person nobody else would have invited, and whose acceptance changed three other replies.
The trouble with the usual room
A conference puts your people in front of two thousand strangers for a handshake and a lanyard. A sponsored reception fills a room with whoever was free that night. Neither gets you forty minutes beside the one person whose decision you need.
A dinner does. Eight to twelve people, one table, three hours, no stage. The people who accept are the people who wanted to be there, and the seating decides who talks to whom.
We produce the dinner. You host it.
We handle the evening end to end and stay out of the photographs. You are the host. We are the reason it worked.
- ConceptA reason for the evening that a busy person says yes to.
- GuestsWho should be there, why, and how each of them gets asked.
- CardsA researched card on every guest, in your hands before you sit down.
- VenueA private room, a chef and a menu chosen for the conversation, not the review.
- The roomSeating, pacing, what gets raised and when.
- AfterIntroductions closed, notes written, next steps in your hands.
You arrive knowing the table.
One card per guest, built from public sources and read by one of us before it reaches you. Every fact on a card carries the place it came from.
- WhoTheir company, their role, and the path that got them there.
- LatelyWhat they have been doing in public: a move, a talk, an interview, something they wrote.
- Common groundWhere their work meets yours, and the people you both already know.
- OpenersA few things worth asking about, so the first ten minutes are not spent on the weather.
- YoursA private link a few days before, with the table laid out and a card behind every chair. A PDF per guest to read on the way.
- AfterThe link closes once the dinner is over. Nothing is public, and nothing goes to the guests.
Public professional information only. We do not buy data, and nothing private goes on a card.
Six steps, in order
- 1Brief. One conversation about the outcome you need and the people who could produce it.
- 2Guest strategy. We draft the table with you: names, reasons, the order of asking. Then we do the asking.
- 3Design and production. Venue, chef, menu, invitations, and the details a guest notices without knowing why.
- 4Your cards. Once the table is confirmed, a card on every guest from public sources, checked by us, sent to you by private link and PDF.
- 5The evening. We run the room from the background. You sit at the head of the table.
- 6Follow-through. Within the week: who said what, which introductions to close, what to send.
Built for
- LaunchA new market. The ten people who decide whether a city takes you seriously.
- DealAn enterprise contract. The buyer, the people she trusts, and nobody from sales.
- CapitalInvestor relations. Existing backers, prospective ones, and a reason to share a table.
- PeersAn executive roundtable. People who will not speak on a panel but will talk at dinner.
- PartnersA partner summit. The five partners who matter, with their competitors left off the list.
What every dinner comes with
- GuestsResearch, curation and invitations, sent in your name.
- VenueA private room, a chef, and a menu built for the table. Wine chosen for the menu.
- PlanSeating and a conversation plan, agreed with you beforehand.
- CardsA card on every confirmed guest, by private link and PDF, before the evening.
- ProducerOne of us in the room for the whole evening.
- NotesWritten follow-up within the week.
Not included unless you ask: gifts, transport, photography, and anything with a logo on it.
Asked before booking
How many guests?
Eight to twelve. Fewer and it is a meeting; more and it becomes a reception. Twelve is the most people who can still hear one another.
Which cities?
We produce where your guests are. Ask us about a city and we will tell you plainly whether we can do it well there.
How much lead time?
Enough to get the right people to accept, which is measured in weeks rather than days. The exact timeline depends on who is on the list, and we set it in the brief.
Where does the guest information come from?
Public sources: company pages, news, interviews, talks and anything the guest has published. Every fact on a card carries the place it came from, one of us reads every card before you do, and the link closes after the dinner. We do not buy data, we do not put anything private on a card, and the cards never go to the guests.
Who is the host?
You are. Invitations go in your name, you sit at the head of the table, and we are introduced only if you want us to be.
Is it confidential?
Yes. We do not name clients or publish guest lists, and nobody photographs the room without agreement.
What does it cost?
Each dinner is priced on its brief. Write to us with the occasion and the people you have in mind, and we will come back with a proposal.
Start with the outcome.
Tell us what you need to happen and who could make it happen. We will come back with a table.
hello@tablemakersdinners.com