![]() Date: 2025-01-11 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00012448 | |||||||||
Politics 2016 | |||||||||
Burgess COMMENTARY | |||||||||
Earlier Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump met with a who's who of tech-industry leaders in a summit at New York City's Trump Tower to discuss how they could work together during his presidency. A lot of these leaders had spoken out against Trump or some of his statements during the presidential campaign, and so much was made about the seating arrangement at the event. Was there some kind of rhyme or reason as to who got to sit where? Does it even matter? Turns out, the seating arrangements at high-powered meetings like this one can make a huge difference, according to Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School and coauthor of 'Friend & Foe,' a book on collaboration and competition in the workplace. 'Where people sit has both physical and symbolic effects,' Galinsky tells Business Insider.
As for Trump's tech summit specifically, Galinsky said two things stood out to him about the seating arrangement: Trump sat in the middle of the table. This is standard practice for the leader in cabinet meetings, unlike business meetings in which the person calling the meeting sits at the head. 'This makes it hard for people on his side of the table to see him but it increases the symbolic connection these people have with Trump,' Galinsky said. In other words, physically sitting on his side of the table increases the perception that you're on his side politically, too. This arrangement also means that most of the photos taken of Trump at the event will also include some of tech's biggest and most recognizable leaders, like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. The inclusion of Sandberg and Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz on that side of the table may be especially significant, Galinsky speculates, because it 'might have been designed to ensure that a female would appear in the photos.' People from the same company were seated separately. Google's parent company, Alphabet, was represented at this meeting by Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, while CEO Satya Nadella and chief legal officer Brad Smith were there on behalf of Microsoft. In both cases, however, Trump's team separated the colleagues — Smith and Nadella, notably, are seated at opposite corners of the table. Galinsky said there were a few reasons to seat people across the table from each other like this. 'Seating arrangements can also be strategic in helping create connections or reduce communication,' he said. 'Think wedding seating arrangements!' There's another possibility, too, Galinsky said: 'Here it could be entirely symbolic as a way for Trump to assert his authority.' SEE ALSO: Here's who sat where during Trump's big meeting with tech leaders NOW WATCH: Gov. Rick Perry is selected to head the Department of Energy — In 2011, he once forgot he wanted it eliminated Here's who sat where during Trump's big meeting with tech leaders Biz Carson Dec. 14, 2016, 3:22 PM 352,732 BI Graphics_Trump's Table Skye Gould/Business Insider On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump convened a meeting with the top execs from the tech world. The meeting was the first major summit between technology leaders and Trump, who has had a shaky relationship with the tech industry and publicly criticized companies such as Apple and Amazon while running for office. The CEOs of the three most valuable public American companies by market cap — Apple, Google parent Alphabet, and Microsoft — were included in the meeting with Trump, but they weren't the leaders whom he kept by his side. Instead, Trump was flanked by Vice President-elect Mike Pence on his right and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who supported him during the campaign, on his left. Here's who sat where during Trump's summit with tech leaders:
From left to right: Eric Trump Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO Larry Page, Google founder and Alphabet CEO Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO Mike Pence Donald Trump Peter Thiel, venture capitalist
Continuing from Thiel: Tim Cook, Apple CEO Safra Catz, Oracle CEO Also in attendance: Elon Musk, Tesla CEO Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs president and Trump's chief economic adviser Wilbur Ross, Trump's commerce secretary pick Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO Chuck Robbins, Cisco CEO Jared Kushner, investor and Trump's son-in-law Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee and White House chief of staff Steve Bannon, chief strategist to Trump Eric Schmidt, Alphabet president Alex Karp, Palantir CEO Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. A whole lot of smiley faces (sarcastic)
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