A plus one's briefing for an awards dinner on Park Lane

The room and the season

The building stands on Park Lane, along the western edge of Mayfair, a few minutes north of the landmark at W1K 1QA: a long block from the late 1920s facing Hyde Park, today run by one of the large groups. Its Great Room began life as the hotel's ice rink and was later turned into a ballroom, which accounts for its size. It seats well over a thousand people at round tables, with a stage at one end, and it is the biggest ballroom on Park Lane.

From autumn to spring the room hosts a steady run of trade and industry awards dinners, several a month in the busiest stretch of the season. Publishing, advertising, hospitality, finance, property, retail: many sectors with a London trade press hold their big night here at some point. For the people on the shortlist these are working evenings in black tie. For the people sitting beside them they are long, loud and genuinely good fun, provided somebody has done the preparation.

This piece is that preparation. It is written for a guest who has been invited with a plus one and would like the plus one to be someone who knows how the evening runs, what to wear and when to leave.

Before you accept: what the office needs

Tell the office the date, the name of the awards, whose table you are sitting at, and whether you or your firm are shortlisted. Each of those changes something. The date decides who is free. The table host tells her how formal the introductions will be. A shortlisting means there may be a walk to the stage, photographs, and a different mood at the table once the envelope has been opened.

Ask as soon as the invitation lands. Awards nights are fixed months ahead, and the companions who do this kind of evening well tend to be asked for on the same Thursdays as each other. A week of notice is comfortable. A day is possible, but it narrows the choice considerably, particularly in November and early spring.

Black tie, decoded for two

Nearly every dinner in the Great Room is black tie. For you that means a dinner jacket, a white dress shirt and a bow tie; a tie you can retie yourself is worth having if the night runs long. For her it means a long evening dress, or a very well cut shorter one where the event allows it. The invitation or the organiser usually makes the expectation clear, and she will ask if it does not.

Tell the office what you are wearing and roughly how formal the table will be. She will dress to match rather than to outshine, which at a work dinner is the whole point. Coats go to the cloakroom on arrival, and at an event this size the cloakroom queue at the end is often the longest wait of the night, so it pays to know in advance whether you plan to leave with the crowd or a little after it.

The running order, roughly

Most awards dinners follow the same pattern. A drinks reception from early evening, usually in the rooms outside the ballroom. A call to dinner around half past seven, with three courses served to a very large room at remarkable speed. A host, often a comedian or a broadcaster, who opens proceedings between courses. Then the awards themselves, category by category, which is the longest part of the night and the loudest at any table with something to win.

The formal part usually finishes between half past ten and eleven. After that the tables break up, a bar opens, and a good share of the room moves on to an after party, either in the hotel or somewhere nearby. The printed programme on the table sets out the exact order, and it is worth a glance early so you know roughly when your category comes up.

At the table

A plus one at a company table has one job, which is to make the evening easier for the person who brought her. In practice that means introductions by first name, a simple line about how you know each other agreed beforehand, and conversation with the people either side of her that never needs rescuing. The companions who do this well ask about other people's work and say very little about their own evenings.

During the awards, a table goes quiet for its own category and noisy for everyone else's. If you win and walk up to the stage, she stays at the table and keeps it company. Photographers work the room all night; if you would rather she did not appear in any picture, tell the office and she will step aside when a camera comes round, which at these events passes without comment.

The way out

At the end of the night a very large room wants its coats and its cars at the same moment, and the stretch of Park Lane in front of the hotel becomes a slow queue of taxis and drivers. The quicker exit is on foot. Walk a street or two east into the quieter part of Mayfair, where a cab can pull in without holding anybody up, or north along Park Lane to Marble Arch, the nearest Underground station, about ten minutes away.

If you are staying nearby, the walk is often the best part of the evening. W1K 1QA, W1K 1PN and the hotels around Grosvenor Square are all a few minutes away, and on a dry night the quiet Mayfair streets are welcome after three hours in a loud room. If the evening is carrying on at an after party, say so in the first message so the booking covers it rather than running out at the bar.

For more on the hotels at the edges of Mayfair and which of them draw on companions from the zones next door, see our note on boundary hotels.

Booking the evening

Awards nights belong to the when the invitation says two plan, which covers client dinners, receptions and any evening where your name is on a list with a guest beside it. The four hour dinner date at £900 covers a reception, dinner and the awards. If you want her there for the after party as well, ask for the longer booking in the first message and the office will confirm the length and the figure in writing. The fee is given to her in person on arrival.

The names the office suggests most often for a black tie evening in Mayfair come from the slender list. Samanta lives in the district, dresses in a single colour and says little until she has read the table, which at a work dinner is exactly right. Violetta, the tallest woman on the board, is formal for ten minutes and then entirely at ease. Patricia is an exceptional listener, which at a table of strangers is worth more than any amount of small talk.