Table Sponsorships That Don't Work

I was at a chamber lunch where the sponsor of the lunch was a large law firm.  There were 17 attorneys from this firm at the lunch and when each one was introduced, they were all sitting at one of two tables.  I couldn't help but wonder what bang they were getting for their marketing buck by sitting with each other.

What would have happened if instead, the 17 attorneys sat at 17 different tables?  Do you think their ability to gain a positive return would have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled?

I can never understand the concept behind a company "paying for a table" at an event and then not even thinking about how to use that to their best advantage.

A couple thoughts beyond the one above are:

• They could invite an equal number of clients to sit at the table so a table of 10 would have 5 from the company and 5 outsiders.
• They could spread around to multiple tables, but each staff person can ask one client and one prospect to sit with them.  The client can tell the prospect how wonderful it is doing business with the company!
• The staff person again sits at a table and invites four to eight people, either clients or prospects or friends, who benefit from meeting each other.  Have all sit at the staff person's table.  The staff person gains ginormous bonus points!

I'm sure you can come up with more ideas.  Share them with us.