Somebody, a long time ago, before folks decided it was snobby and not egalitarian enough, decided to take care of the problems of conversation in groups above a certain size by carefully arranging the environment and choosing who would sit next to who. You can see some of the dedication to detail in The Queen's Castle aka Windsor Castle: A Royal Year, here in the States. They actually have little cards with people's names on them and a board that represents the seating arrangements. It looks like some very old-fashioned board game.
From what I understand, this sort of thing is still de rigueur in the diplomatic world, for conversation is the coin of that realm. I don't know if anyone has studied such a practice in the light of evolutionary psychology, but it appears to me the seating arrangements are meant to create several small groups with the optimal ingredients for a strong conversation to develop within each group. More people feel engaged and are able to contribute.
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