I had a similar job recently. A panel of 12 service providers to a government department speaking informally. Identities confidential and the client only wanted the audio for transcription purposes so quality wasn't important, just intelligibility. Also they requested that I be as unintrusive as possible.... It was a long boardroom type table and I just left 6 mic packs with cos11s along the length of it in the centre. The Dugan automix really helped, but it was not production audio by any stretch. Client was happy and they got what they needed.
If it had to be decent quality audio I would have hired in goosenecks for sure.