At a work dinner the introduction is doing more work than it appears to. It tells the table how to speak to your companion, and it gives them somewhere to start. Done badly it leaves eight people making polite guesses.
The formula
A name, a relationship in three words, and one thing they can be asked about. "This is Aurelia. She used to work in the auction world, so she knows more about the pictures here than I do." The table now has a name and an opening, and nobody has to invent one.
That last part matters most. A guest introduced with no hook gets the same four questions from every person at the table. A guest introduced with one gets a conversation.
Brief in both directions
Send your companion the names and roles of anyone you expect to speak to, and tell us which subjects to leave alone. A restructure nobody is discussing openly, a colleague you are in a dispute with, a client relationship that is more delicate than it looks.
- Names and roles of the people who matter, four or five is plenty
- What you do, in the words your colleagues would use rather than your job title
- Subjects to avoid, stated plainly
- The agreed answer to how the two of you know each other
The drinks window is the event
On most corporate evenings the useful conversations happen in the first forty minutes, before anyone sits. A companion who understands that will help you move through the room in that window rather than settling into one conversation early.
Once the room sits, the evening becomes whatever your seating plan decided. Which is another argument for looking at the plan beforehand if you are given one.
Leaving
Set the departure time before you arrive and let your companion be the one to signal it. It is a small thing and it saves you the negotiation in front of colleagues.