How to Choose Your Companion for a Corporate Event

Of everything we arrange, corporate bookings are the ones we take slowest. A dinner date that misfires costs you an evening. A corporate event that misfires happens in front of your clients, your partners, and that one colleague who never forgets anything. So when a gentleman calls about a gala, a client dinner or an industry evening, we ask more questions than usual — and over the years those questions have settled into a method. Here it is, in the open.

Start with the room, not the woman

The instinct is to open the gallery and pick the most striking face. Resist it for a minute. First describe the event to yourself honestly: a black-tie gala at a five-star, a quiet dinner for six where a deal is being circled, a loud product launch, a conference mixer full of name badges and warm prosecco. Each of those rooms wants something different. The gala wants presence — a woman who photographs beautifully and holds a room's attention without chasing it. The deal dinner wants the opposite: quiet polish, someone who makes the table feel settled and lets the conversation happen. Pick for the room and you'll pick well. Pick for the photos alone and you might bring a spotlight to a chess game.

Languages are the most underrated line on a profile

Half of corporate Dubai happens in a second language. If your guests are Russian, Chinese, French or Gulf Arab, a companion who can greet them properly in their own tongue — even just the pleasantries — changes the temperature of the entire table. We've watched a stiff dinner turn warm in one sentence of politely-accented Arabic. When you enquire, tell us who's coming. We'll tell you who on the roster speaks what, and how well, honestly.

The two-minute briefing that saves the night

This is the part most men skip, and it's the part that matters most. Before the event — a phone call is plenty — give her the shape of the evening:

• The story. How are you introducing her? A friend, a date, a plus-one? Pick one and keep it. (She's comfortable with any of them; she just needs to know which.)
• The names. Who matters in the room, who's the client, who talks too much.
• The no-go topics. Every industry has them. Thirty seconds now beats a wince later.
• The logistics. Dress code, arrival time, whether you're arriving together or she's joining you there.

Two minutes. That's the whole investment. A briefed companion looks like she's known you for a year; an unbriefed one has to improvise, and improvising in front of your CFO is nobody's idea of fun.

Introductions, without the awkward

Keep it short and confident: her first name, nothing else. "This is Elena." Full stop. No biography, no nervous over-explaining — over-explaining is the only thing that ever raises an eyebrow. Say it like it's the most natural thing in the world, because it is, and the room will treat it that way. She'll carry it from there; making the next thirty seconds easy is precisely her craft.

What she's actually doing all evening

A good corporate companion works the way good lighting works — you don't notice it, you just notice everything looks better. She remembers the names you told her and uses them. She rescues you from the man who corners people. She keeps your less confident guest company while you talk to the one who matters. She laughs at the right moments, asks your client the question that gets him talking about himself, and never, ever competes with the business of the evening. The next morning, people should remember that dinner was unusually pleasant. That's the whole job, done perfectly.

A few don'ts, learned the honest way

• Don't book boardroom-quiet elegance and then take her to a beach-club launch party, or the reverse. Tell us the truth about the event.
• Don't spring surprises — a "quick dinner" that becomes six hours and an afterparty is a different booking. Say so upfront; we'll plan for it.
• Don't give different people different stories about who she is. Stories collide over dessert.
• And don't over-schedule her arrival. Ten minutes before your key guests is ideal — settled, unhurried, drink in hand.

The short version

Describe the room. Tell us the languages. Do the two-minute briefing. Introduce her in four words. Then relax — you've done your part, and she's very good at hers. Corporate entertainment is one of the four things we do all day, every week of the year; if you have an event on the calendar, tell us about it and we'll shortlist two or three companions who fit the room exactly. Quietly, of course. That part goes without saying by now.