I have been at several lunches with executives type events at different places. The groups are small so it makes more casual back and forth questions much easier, which is useful.

From my perspective, the real value of the lunches was strictly building rapport across the company. At some places high level employees (doesn't necessarily have to be management) often feel unapproachable and they feel more abstract concepts than people. Having lunch with them re-enforces they are also people, people you may even get along with.

Other companies I've been at only do Q&A sessions with large groups of employees, and this is still useful, but the format doesn't help the culture. The answers you get are often the company line, and you cannot dig deeper. The people answering the questions are still abstract identities that appear to tout that company line, with no real personality.

I know of a small-ish company where the exec was seeking to have lunch info sessions. But only with the women's group. It was shady to say the least

That does sound shady, but just to play DA here, there is a strong push in some areas for women to be “included” in leadership. It could be for that reason.

Makes me wonder, what was the age difference, ... And was it always only with the women's group? (I'd guess Not so big, and Yes?)

I habe been to several of similar lunches and every time it quickly turned into a long monologue by the executive.

What did he/she talk about? (For example, his her past life ... Sports? Politics? Work?)

The same stuff you can read in any company newsletter.