← Event seating chart optimizer
Given free choice, a company dinner sorts itself by department: sales at one table, engineering at the next, and the people who never meet at work still do not meet over dinner. Mixing the teams is usually the point of the event. The optimizer lets you set how hard it pushes, keeps the host where you want them, and tells you whether your rules held.
Open the free seating chart optimizer
1. Label each person's department. Add a third column to the guest list: Ana Pruitt | | Sales. The second column is the household or party and can stay empty (a plus-one goes there). Any label works.
2. Choose Spread. In the Groups box pick Spread each group across tables (mingle). Each pair from the same department at one table now carries a small penalty, so every team is divided as evenly as the tables allow.
3. Pin the host and add your real wishes. Ana Pruitt @ 1 keeps the host at table 1. Hu Tran + Nia Shaw seats two people together; Vic Hale !! Wes Nash never seats two people together. Wishes and pins outweigh the mixing nudge.
4. Read "Groups by table". The report lists how many of each department sit at every table, so you can check the mix before you print place cards.
Twenty-four invented staff at three tables of 8: six each from Sales, Engineering, Support and Finance. There are seven wishes (six cross-team introductions and pairs, and one pair who must never share a table), plus the host pinned to table 1.
| Seating | Wishes met | Most from one department at a table |
|---|---|---|
| In the order typed | 2 of 7 | 6 |
| Ignore groups | 7 of 7 | 4 |
| Spread each group | 7 of 7 | 2 |
The list typed department by department puts a whole team of six at one table and meets only 2 of the 7 wishes. A search that ignores groups meets every wish but leaves a table with four from one team. Spread seats exactly two from each department at every table and still meets all seven wishes, because the nudge is weaker than a wish. With many same-team wishes mixing would cost something, and the wishes would win.
It balances head-counts by label, not seniority, personalities or who reports to whom. Use a never-together wish for a pair that must not share a table. It does not know the venue, seat positions within a table, dietary needs unless you enter meals, or whether a particular mix will feel comfortable. It knows only what you typed, and it is a starting point for you and your event team.
Add a third column to the guest list with each person's department (Ana Pruitt | | Sales) and set Groups to Spread each group across tables. The search penalises every pair from the same department at one table, so each department is divided about evenly. Wishes and pins count more than the nudge, so the people you asked to sit together still do.
Pin them with a line such as Ana Pruitt @ 1 in the wishes box. A pin is a hard rule: that person is only ever seated at that table, whatever the search would otherwise prefer.
Yes. Write Vic Hale !! Wes Nash to never seat two people together; a single ! only prefers to keep them apart. The report lists every wish it could not meet, so you can see at a glance whether the rule held.
Related: the general seating chart guide, mixing two families' sides at a wedding and seating guests who need step-free access.