Entertainment between courses at a corporate dinner: how much is enough

In short

• Entertainment between courses at a corporate dinner means short, optional activity in the gaps while plates are cleared. It does not mean a programme from first drink to last coffee.
• Guests came to eat and talk to each other. Keep entertainment light and let the room breathe.
• A host or magician going round the tables with a game suits the gaps, and Heads Up is a good one.
• Ask the venue when each course will be served and how many staff it will have on the floor. An understaffed venue wrecks timings.
• Decide in advance what you will cut when service runs late.

Entertainment between courses at a corporate dinner is the short, optional activity placed in the gaps while one course is cleared and the next is plated. My view from the host’s side of the room is that organisers plan too much of it, then worry about the timings that decide whether any of it works.

Does a corporate dinner need entertainment from start to finish?

No. A corporate dinner does not need entertainment from start to finish, and non-stop programming usually works against the evening. Guests came to eat together, and the conversation at the table is a large part of what the company is paying for.

Some clients think they must keep guests entertained from beginning to end with wall-to-wall entertainment. I do not think that is the case, and I keep it light during dinner.

There is research behind the instinct. Robin Dunbar’s 2017 paper, Breaking Bread, used UK survey data to find that evening meals leaving people feeling closer to their companions tended to involve more people, more laughter and reminiscing. His path analysis suggested that eating together leads to bonding, not the reverse. Programming over the top of it risks cutting across the thing that already works.

People differ, too. In an Acas poll with fieldwork in January 2025, 19% of employees disliked any social activity with colleagues, and 12% disliked one-off celebrations. Plenty of your guests would simply like their dinner.

Quiet is not the same as dead air. A gap nobody has explained is a problem, and the dead air guide covers it. Tables talking over a course is the dinner working. My gala dinner guide is about a longer evening with formal parts, where lulls do need planning.

What works as entertainment between courses at a corporate dinner?

The entertainment between courses that works best at a corporate dinner is someone going round the tables to play with people, rather than pulling the room towards a stage. A magician can do it, and so can I. Otherwise, let the room breathe.

Heads Up is a really good table game for this. It is charades on a phone: one guest holds it to their forehead, the table gives clues, and tilting it down scores. By my Heads Up page, each table gets a sixty-second round, I carry the phone from table to table, and the two best tables can play a final in front of the room. It needs no screen and no download, and it works with the lights up.

The arithmetic is simple. Ten tables is ten minutes of rounds, plus the walk between them and the final. A full dinner cannot take that in every gap, and it should not try. Use it once, between two courses, and leave the other gaps alone.

What should you ask the venue about timing and staff?

Ask the venue two things in writing: when each course will be served, and how many staff it will have on the floor. I get clear on both before an event. An understaffed venue can have a big impact on the timings, and the host cannot fix that from the stage.

Published planning figures differ, so ask for the venue’s own number. One staffing company advises one server for every 10 guests at a seated dinner, and links cutting servers to cold food and long waits. An Australian caterer’s guide gives one wait staff per 15 to 20 guests for plated meals. For 120 guests, that is 12 servers at the first figure and between 6 and 8 at the second. The same plates, a long way apart.

A University of Birmingham conference-services guide allows roughly 30 minutes for a starter, 45 for a main course and 30 for dessert and coffee, and asks organisers to build serving, eating and clearing into the schedule. Treat those as one venue’s planning guide, not a rule. My Christmas party running order shows a fuller timed plan.

Ask the venue	Why it matters	What it changes for the host
What time will the starter go out?	Everything else hangs from it	The anchor for the whole running order
How many staff on the floor, and for how many guests?	Sets how fast a course is served and cleared	How long the gaps will really be
Who tells the host a course is going out?	The host cannot see the kitchen	A named person with a radio or a signal
Can staff hold service for a short segment?	A catering guide advises coordinating with waitstaff if you need people uninterrupted	Whether a speech or game can run without plates landing

Entertainment between courses when service runs late

When service runs late, the optional entertainment between courses goes first. Cut the table game, keep the speeches where they are, and tell the room what is happening. A late kitchen is the venue’s problem, and the evening should not carry it by being squeezed.

David Maister’s classic essay on waiting says unexplained waits feel longer than explained ones. So the host explains in one sentence, with no joke at the kitchen’s expense. The words for that are in the dead air guide, and I will not repeat them here.

Decide the cuts before the night. A Toastmasters guide for emcees says to build in extra time and to know what you can cut or condense if the programme starts late. My cut list for a dinner is short: the table game first, then trim the speeches, then nothing else.

When is it worth hiring a host for a corporate dinner?

It is worth hiring a host when the dinner has several parts, a mixed room of clients and staff, or a senior person you want to enjoy the evening as a guest. For a dozen colleagues and one short speech, a printed running order and a trusted colleague is plenty.

What a host changes is mostly invisible. I hold the clock with the venue, decide when to go round the tables and when to say nothing, and read the room as it fills up and slows down. Restraint is a skill. A reviewer on my reviews page, Faerch Group, wrote: “Kevin kept the evening flowing superbly and has the unique ability to read a room and keep everyone happy.” The evening was theirs, and my part was the pace.

Quick answers

Should the host speak while plates are going down? No. The Tripleseat guide says to wait until the staff have dropped the main courses before starting a presentation, and I agree. Speak in the gaps, not over service.

Magician or game? Either can go round the tables. What matters is that someone moves between tables and the room is not asked to turn towards a stage. A game such as Heads Up gives every table a turn, and a magician gives each table a moment. Choose for the people you have.

How long should a table round be? On my Heads Up page it is a minute a table, plus the walk. Count your tables, and decide whether the gap in front of you can really hold that.

What to have ready before you get in touch

Have ready the date, the number of guests, the venue’s service times, the number of staff it says it will have on the floor, who is speaking, and what went wrong at the last dinner.

Call me on 07596 851647 or email hello@eventhost.info, and I will tell you honestly how little your dinner needs. I work as a corporate event host from the first briefing to the last coffee, and the event host homepage has the rest.