Dr. Wayne Pernell explains the Jeffersonian dinner, where one continuous conversation flows among all guests. The host must be confident enough to draw out quiet people and rein in talkers, or risk losing control of the room.
Chapters
But I first just want to note what Dr. P was talking about, which is that structured dinner is a very advanced level move. And for the average person, if you haven't hosted a lot of social events, you are going to get in over your head if you go from zero to trying to host a structured dinner. And that structured dinner, sometimes called a Jeffersonian dinner, is where there is one conversation that is maintained throughout. And it takes a very, how can I say this confident or assertive host to be able to pull from people who are not speaking and push, not push down, but to gently ask people that are speaking too much to zip it up so that you can move it along and have a productive discussion with everyone at the table.