People tend to sit with people with whom they share similar opinions.
Fill a meeting room with a large number of people and do not give them specific instructions on how to sit. They’ll tend to end up sitting with people they know and agree with broadly on a specific topic of discussion. During discussions, those at the front tend to have the most say – that’s why they sat at the front. Those at the back tend to feel they have minority ideas and are thus less prone to talk. To have a broad discussion of all views that exist, it is therefore important to make sure each table has at least one chance to speak. Time constraint should not be a limiting factor in those instances. It becomes too easy to keep out minority opinions.
Round tables have signify equal participation for each members sitting at the table. Extrapolated over many round tables, the essence of equality dissolves.
