I’ve read with great fascination about yesterday’s State Dinner honoring the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Aside from the paegentry and gallantry of an official state visit, the State Dinner strikes me as less of a recreational punctuation point on an otherwise business visit, but rather, it appears to be moreso a working dinner. It is, perhaps, the greatest networking event in the world.
The guest list, a closely guarded White House secret until the last minute, is a veritable Who’s Who of the Indian business, arts and intellectual community not only in the United States, but also in India. And while many may complain about the overwhelming “Hollywood” influence on the event, I would like to point out that aside from the performers, those associated with the entertainment industry weren’t at the dinner as pals of President Obama.
Take guests Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Sure, they both donated to the Obama campaign, but importantly for them, their company, Dreamworks, received nearly $500 million in equity funding from the Indian conglomerate Reliance. The venture between the two companies is estimated to be worth over $1 billion. Reliance’s chief, Mukesh Ambani, was also a guest of the State Dinner. Something tells me that they were probably seated at the same table.
Deepak Chopra? Yes, admittedly he is a celebrity. Perhaps more important for the purposes of a State Dinner honoring the Prime Minister of India, Deepak Chopra is Indian. The same applies to many others who are Indian, or of Indian descent, namely Kalpen Modi (a.k.a. Kal Penn, who also is also Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement) and Jhumpa Lahiri (writer of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies).
This event was a spectacular way to put business leaders and luminaries of both countries in the same room together. Given the hectic schedules of these people, I would venture that a State Dinner may be the only way to pull off such a coordinated event. How often are Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo), Ratan Tata (Chairman of the Tata Group), Mayor Mike Bloomberg, columnist Thomas Friedman, Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director for McKinsey) and Jeff Immelt (CEO of General Electric) going to be having dinner together? I think my tax dollars were put to good use last night. Now if only I can snag an invite for the next one…
For the full guest list, click here.