Combinatorial Design question ...

[jkalpus]

Here's a classic question: I have a client who want to know how many rotations around 3 tables must there be for ~90 people to get to meet each person at a conference.
Details: There are 14 tables in the room; There are 85 attendees at the event and each table has 8 chairs.
I need to know: the Number of Rotations, amount of time for each group session (assuming each person gets 90 seconds to share). What I REALLY need to know is HOW to construct a spreadsheet to figure this out!
Any ideas, suggestion for learning resources, etc., would be most appreciated.
Many thanks, Excel Experts!
- John

 

[bsquad]

you might try a permutations calculator, and if you wanted put thoses calcs into a spreadsheet

 

[Eric W]

This is actually a pretty tough thing to do. Google "social golfer problem". However, check out this web site:

Free round robin tournament schedule / pairings generator ? GolfSoftware.com

It's designed to figure out pairings for golf, where the groups get mixed up as much as possible, which is essentially what you're asking. Play around with it, with 7-somes, 8-somes, groups of 84 or 88 people, and number of events from 6 to 20. You can see how many pairings are made, and who does or does not meet. The longer you let it run, the better possible answer.

Good luck!