PerfectTablePlan 5.3.4 > How do I? > Assigning seats > Arrange multiple seatings for an event

If you have an event that includes several seatings, you might wish to have each person sit with different people at each seating. PerfectTablePlan can help you achieve this.

Professional edition only

Select File>Auto Assign Multiple.... The Auto Assign Multiple Seatings window will appear. Set Number of seatings, how you want the guest proximities to change after each seating and the multi-plan report you wish to display, then click OK. The seatings will then all be calculated in a single operation and the report shown.

Example 1

We are planning a 3 course charity dinner and want to mix up the couples so they sit with different people each course, but still stay in their couples.

1.Create a plan with all the guests and the floor plan.

2.Give all the couples 'Next to' proximity (you can do this during import).

3.Select File>Auto Assign Multiple... .

4.Set:

a.Number of seatings to 3.

b.set guests next to each other with proximity to Neutral or Not next to and Not near to.

c.set guests at same table/section with proximity to Neutral or Not next to and Not next to.

5.Click OK.

This will set the proximity of guests sat next to each other as 'Not near to' and on the same table as 'Not next to' for the next seating, but preserve the initial 'Next to' and 'Near to' proximities. This means the couples should be kept together for every seating.

Example 2

We are planning 5 consecutive business dinners with a mix of investors and founders. We want to sit investors next to different founders for each dinner. Each founder has also expressed a preference for 3 investors they would most like to sit next to at one of the dinners.

1.Create a plan with all the guests and the floor plan.

2.Create a custom field 'guest type' of type 'selection' with possible values 'founder' and 'investor'. Set the values for the guests appropriately (you can do this during import).

3.For each founder set proximity 'Next to' for the 3 investors they would most like to sit next to (you can do this during import).

4.Create a custom proximity to sit guests of type 'founder' 'Next to' guests of type 'investor'.

5.Select File>Auto Assign Multiple... .

6.Set:

a.Number of seatings to 5.

b.set guests next to each other with proximity to Any and Not near to.

c.set guests at same table/section with proximity to Neutral or Not next to and Not next to.

7.Click OK.

This will set the proximity of guests sat next to each other as 'Not near to' for the next seating, regardless of their initial proximity. This means a founder should only be sat next to a preferred investor once.

If a guest is unable to attend a particular seating, you can open that plan, unassign them and set their RSVP to Declined after you have generated all the plans.

It is also possible to do it step-by-step, however it is a lot more work.

1.Do the first seating plan as usual and File>Save the plan.

2.Right click on each table and select the Proximity>Not Near to.

3.Recreate any Next to or Near to proximities (e.g. for couples) using +click and then selecting the proximity from the right click menu. This may be easier if you display groups.

Professional edition only

Instead of steps 2 and 3 above, in the Bulk Edit Proximity window:

•Set Change proximity for to Guests seated next to each other, Guests seats at same table or (if you have 1 or more E-shaped tables) Guests seated at same table section, according to your preference.

•Set With proximity to Neutral (so you don't overwrite existing proximities).

•Set To Proximity to Not Near to.

•Click OK.

4.Select File>Auto Assign Seats.

5.Use drag and drop to fine-tune the seating plan as required.

6.Select File>Save As... to save the plan to a new file.

7.If another seating is required go to 2.

Advanced and Professional editions only

You can check who each guest is seated next to across multiple plans using the Summary, Pairs and Matrix Multi-plan reports in the Report pane.

Note If you have guests you don't want moved you can lock them to their seat. If a guest isn't attending a particular seating you can lock them to no seat: Ctrl+click to select these guests, Edit>Unassign, Edit>Guest Property>Locked>Yes.