How the evening runs, course by course
Before anyone sits down. One question, set in the invitation, so that people arrive having thought about it. A table chosen for the tension in it rather than for seniority alone. Where the host wants it, a short anonymous question to each guest a week before, so the evening starts from what they think rather than from what I think.
The starter: the provocation. Ten minutes from me, no slides. One argument and one uncomfortable example, chosen to split the table. Then the table talks, and I chair: drawing in the quiet end, holding the loud end to the question, noting who disagrees with whom and why.
After the main: the playback. While the plates are cleared, I put back to the table what it said: where it agreed, where it divided, and the question underneath the one it started with. This is the turn in the evening. People hear their own argument made by someone else, and the second conversation is sharper than the first.
Dessert: the consolidation. The table settles what it now thinks. Each guest names the one thing they will do or ask for in their own organisation, and the host closes. The evening ends on a decision rather than on coffee.
The morning after. A short written note to the host: the question, the positions, the points of agreement and the open disagreements, with nobody named.
What makes a dinner like this work
Ten to fourteen guests. Fewer and one voice dominates; more and the table breaks into pairs and the argument is lost.
One question, stated in the invitation. Questions that have worked: which decision in this company should a machine never make; what has AI already decided here that nobody approved; and if our best junior people never do the junior work, who runs this place in ten years.
The Chatham House Rule, always. Guests may use what was said and may not say who said it. It is the condition under which a chief executive says the useful thing instead of the safe one.
No pitch, no deck and no sponsor. The dinner is paid for by the organisation whose people are at the table, which keeps the chair independent of where the evening goes.
A private room and a kitchen that knows the shape of the evening, so the playback falls between courses rather than over them. I agree the timings with the venue in advance.
Who hosts one, and why
A chair with their board, the night before a board meeting or an away day, so the formal session starts with the argument already had.
A chief executive with the executive team, when the decisions about AI are being made a layer below the board and nobody has said so out loud.
A chair or chief executive convening peers from other organisations, to hear how other boards are answering the same question.
A firm convening its clients, a law firm, an adviser or a membership body, where the evening is the relationship and an independent chair is what makes it worth attending.
The longer formats, the board briefing, the away day and the chaired roundtable, are at board away days and briefings. A dinner often comes first, and tells a board whether the longer piece is needed.
