Two through the door: taking a guest to the firm's drinks, and leaving on time

Read the invitation twice

Before anyone is booked, go back to the invitation for the two details that decide everything. First, does it say 'and guest', or name you alone? Arriving with a plus-one at an event that never offered one draws exactly the attention you are trying to avoid. Second, the dress code. 'Business attire', 'smart' and 'cocktail' call for three different outfits, so pass the wording to the desk exactly as it is printed.

Then consider the venue. Plenty of drinks on the estate take place on client floors behind the turnstiles, where every visitor has to be registered with reception in advance. A reception in a hotel, the private room of a restaurant or the upstairs of a bar is simpler for everyone, and those are the invitations where a guest fits most naturally.

Meet first, then arrive together

Never arrange to meet at the door of the event, and never leave her to walk in alone and hunt for you. Choose a hotel lobby or a quiet bar ten minutes away and meet there twenty minutes beforehand. Spend that time on the three things that make the next two hours easy: who will be in the room, what you want from it, and when you are leaving.

Then walk in side by side, hand the coats over together, and go straight to your host. Everything else in the evening follows from that first greeting.

Introductions, kept short

Say her first name clearly and stop there: 'This is Sonya.' Everybody at corporate drinks is juggling twenty names and a glass; nobody wants a biography, and a long explanation only invites follow-up questions. When somebody wonders aloud how the two of you met, a smile and a question about their own evening usually closes the subject. She has fielded that question many times and takes her lead from you.

Introduce her to your host first, then to the two or three people you most need to see. Make sure she catches their names as well, because remembering them later is a large part of her value.

Sharing the small talk

The real work of a good plus-one happens when you are pulled away. Your head of desk wants five minutes on a deal; a client corners you by the window. That is when she turns to whoever is standing beside her, often a spouse or a new joiner who knows nobody either, and makes their evening noticeably better. Good companions are curious about other people, which at these events is rarer than it ought to be.

Do not leave her stranded, though. Come back within a few minutes, bring her a drink when you fetch your own, and bring her in the moment the talk turns from shop to anything else. Receptions pour generously and feed people lightly, so take what comes round on the trays and alternate with water. She will match your pace, or quietly set a slower one for both of you.

Some subjects travel well at a Wharf reception: the new restaurants at Wood Wharf, the public art dotted around the squares, somebody's commute on the Elizabeth line, summer plans. Others stay parked for the night, starting with bonuses. If business cards come out, she takes none and hands none over; a warm 'lovely to meet you' does the same job and leaves nothing behind in anyone's pocket.

The exit you agreed before you arrived

Most corporate drinks have no natural ending. The room thins, a group sets off for another bar, and someone insists you join them. The answer is a time fixed before you walked in, say a quarter past eight for a nine o'clock table, plus a single word between you that means 'now'. Thank the host, shake the one or two hands you came for, and slip out while the room is still full. Nobody at a work event has ever regretted leaving on schedule.

Decline the after-party with a smile. The group heading down to the bar on the ground floor will ask you along for one, and one is exactly how a planned evening dissolves. 'Another time' does the job, said on the way to the lift.

What follows is already arranged. A dinner for two is the natural finish, and so is a quiet drink back at your hotel. That part of the evening is as much what she was booked for as the room full of colleagues.

Lengths, and who to ask for

For a drinks reception on its own, two hours, £500, is enough. If dinner follows, book four hours instead, the dockside dinner date at £900, and let the reception fill the first of them. Awards nights and receptions that turn into a seated meal are covered by the corporate event companion itinerary, which explains the three-hour booking at £700.

Michelle can turn a stranger into an acquaintance before the first tray of drinks has gone round, which makes her a natural at a reception, and she will spot an empty stomach at twenty paces. Sonya keeps her evenings between five and ten, precisely the hours a drinks reception fills, and brings a stillness that calms a crowded room. Angelika is the confident one: expect a remark about your tie within the first minute, then a sharp opinion on the sculpture in the square outside. Michelle sits on the curvaceous page; Sonya and Angelika are among the toned and athletic companions.

Send the invitation's details to booking, and see Canary Wharf for the hotel bars close to the lifts.