The Arrival
A calling line, a Presence Check™, and the unmistakable feeling that the ordinary evening has ended.
The Pinnacle Dinner™ presents
Charlotte,
prom is back.
The one you wish existed the first time.
A modern society prom for 99 people. Dinner, cocktails, portraits, ceremony, and a dance floor, gathered inside one delicious collision of business, culture, style, and influence.
01 The premise
A modern salon.A grown-up prom.A cultural collision.
Come dressed for the room you want Charlotte to become.
Business, art, style, and civic influence move through Charlotte in their own circles. On November 12, those circles meet.
For one evening, The Hamilton becomes a world inside the Charlotte you think you know. Dinner gives way to ceremony, portraits, dancing, and just enough beautiful trouble. Phones go down. People stay awhile. Conversation gets the chance to become something.
The Prom borrows the old salon instinct and gives it a Charlotte pulse: accomplished people, unexpected company, a little ceremony, and enough time for a real conversation to take hold.
Come solo, bring a date, gather your favorite people, or arrive ready to meet someone entirely new. The evening begins the moment you decide to enter it.
Culture×Commerce×Connection×Ceremony
The Portrait
Come ready to be seen. Prom portraits return as something grown, editorial, and worth keeping.
The Table
Intentional seats, a beautiful dinner, and enough structure to make the conversations matter.
The Crown
Marie Kelly, our inaugural Queen of Connection™, returns to pass the crown to the woman chosen for 2026.
The Dance Floor
The formal program ends. The room loosens its tie. The after-party takes it from there.
After the speeches
The lights move.
The room changes.
The room changes.
Beautiful dinner first. Dancing lights and after-prom smoke-show energy next. The cigarettes are props. The chemistry is real.
For first-timers New to the room?
There’s a place
for you here.
Come as you are, dressed as you mean to be seen. The room will meet you there.
The Pinnacle Dinner™ is a Rare Room™ created by executive strategist Kristi Straw. Every seat is intentional. Phones go down, the conversation deepens, and people leave with relationships and opportunities they can trace back to the room.
The Prom is that idea at its most expansive and playful. Founders, executives, artists, operators, advisors, and community builders will share the same evening. Somewhere between the portrait and the dance floor, unfamiliar faces become part of the story.
- A beautiful dinner
- Intentional connection
- Prom portraits
- The Queen of Connection™ ceremony
- A real dance floor
“Belonging begins when a room gives people
a real reason to know one another.”
Kristi Straw, Creator of The Pinnacle Dinner™02 The collaborators
The room is getting interesting.
The Pinnacle Prom™ is being built by people who understand that the details matter, the guest list matters, and the story should travel farther than one night.
Anchor Presenting Sponsor
Sally Awad
Crown & Prom Portraits Partner
Sally represents exceptional homes, and she’s built them, too. She understands structure, finish, and the way a single thoughtful detail can change how an entire place feels. As our Anchor Presenting Sponsor, Sally is making two of the Prom’s defining rituals possible: the portrait every guest takes home and the crown passed from one Queen of Connection™ to the next.
Meet Sally
Community Partner
Faith Hill
The Intuitive Architect · Speakeasy Global Mastermind
Faith is the founder of Bohēma Holistic Beauty and Charlotte chapter captain of Speakeasy Global Mastermind. She and Kristi recently co-created The Founders Soirée, a sold-out Pinnacle Powered™ experience for Faith’s community at a private Charlotte estate. The house filled with ambitious founders, the phones came down, and the evening became intimate, electric, and deeply useful. Faith returns as the Prom’s Community Partner with the same instinct for who belongs together, what a room needs, and how possibility moves when trust has somewhere beautiful to land.
Social Media Partner
Stetson Patton
Socially Stetson
Kristi met Stetson at The Founders Soirée and knew within one conversation that they’d find a way to work together. Three weeks later, Stetson and her boutique agency, Socially Stetson, became the Prom’s Social Media Partner. That movement is part of the room’s larger story: remarkable people are noticed, valuable work is named, and a new connection becomes a real opportunity. Now Stetson’s team is shaping how the Prom’s build, reveals, personality, and best moments travel.
Meet Socially Stetson
03 The original Queen
Inaugural Queen of Connection™ · 2025
Marie Kelly
She saw the room before it existed.
Marie is a 16-year experiential marketer whose career has moved through five years of programming for Oprah, producing at the Oscars with Janelle Monáe, and Cannes. She’s vibrant, exacting, mysterious when she wants to be, and a very big deal.
She was also the first person to call Kristi a creative. The first to say, “You can do this.” When Kristi began imagining a different kind of gathering, Marie put The Art of Gathering in her hands. A beautiful room mattered most when people left it changed.
Marie fundamentally shaped how The Pinnacle Dinner™ builds community. She notices who should know each other, makes the introduction, and keeps the door open behind her. It’s why she became the inaugural Queen of Connection™.
On November 12, she returns to pass the crown.
Four clues The 2026 Queen
The crown already knows where it’s going.
Who follows
Marie?
She’s already part of the Pinnacle story. The name stays under wraps a little longer, but we can tell you this much.
04 How we got here
A note from Kristi Straw
I built the room I knew could exist.
I’d spent years watching accomplished people pass within inches of one another, trading cards and credentials while the more interesting conversation waited underneath.
I began with one intentional table. Every seat had a reason. Phones went down. People spoke honestly, made real asks, and stayed long enough to help one another follow through.
Then the room began to move things: clients, jobs, capital, partnerships, sponsorships, speaking invitations, and the kind of trust no algorithm can manufacture. More than $5 million in documented business movement has been connected to the broader Lighthouse ecosystem in 16 months.
The Pinnacle Prom™ grew from that work. It’s our largest, most playful cultural expression yet: a modern high-society salon with a crown, a portrait, a dinner, a dance floor, and a guest list curated to let Charlotte’s worlds collide.
“I’m a market maker for expertise. I make valuable people easier to understand, place, trust, and buy, and I build the rooms where that recognition can happen.”
Kristi Straw, MBAFounder, Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™ · Creator, The Pinnacle Dinner™ and Rare Room™
05 Why this room
A celebration built on documented movement.
The Pinnacle Prom™ is the largest expression yet of a room already proven to create business, trust, partnerships, visibility, and real follow-through.
The Pinnacle Dinner™ earned a 9.8/10 average overall experience rating. Across ArtPop and Founder Soirée, a Pinnacle Powered™ room, 100% of participants opted into the private relationship directory after the room.
Created and hosted by
Kristi Straw, MBA
Founder of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™, creator of The Pinnacle Dinner™, and the market maker behind the Rare Room™ methodology.
Scenes from rooms we’ve already made
This world has a history.
Artists, makers, musicians, founders, and Charlotte originals have helped turn Pinnacle rooms into something guests can feel and remember.
The archive also holds Tatiana Berdo’s photography, live music, Lacy Johnson and LM Creative, ArtPop Street Gallery, Charlotte Is Creative, and the people who keep making the room more interesting.
06 The details
Thursday evening
November 12, 2026
The Hamilton
Charlotte, North Carolina
- Guest list
- 99 seats
- Attire
- Black tie optional
- Energy
- Modern maximalism
- Tickets
- $200 · Now available
Dinner included✦Cocktails included✦Portrait included✦The whole night included
Oxblood. Cream. Midnight blue. Gold. Mirrors. Great glassware. Dress like you already have plans after midnight.
Ninety-nine seats. One room.
Your invitation has arrived.
Your dinner is included. Your cocktails are included. Your prom portrait is included. The crown, the conversation, the ceremony, the dancing, and the whole improbable night are included. All you have to decide is whether you want to be able to say you were there.
The first 50
Claim my seat · $200
Once all 99 seats are claimed, the guest list closes.
The first 50 ticket holders will receive a signature Presence Check™ item, along with other surprises still under wraps for our early guests.
Want to follow the story?
Stay close to the story.
Get the partner reveals, the next Queen of Connection™ announcement, and the details worth knowing before November.
07 Need to know
Before you ask your prom committee.
Can I come if I’ve never attended a Pinnacle Dinner?
Absolutely. The Prom welcomes people who are new to Kristi, new to The Pinnacle Dinner™, or newly ready for a room like this. You’ll be part of the evening from the moment you arrive.
Do I need a date?
Come solo, with a friend, with a partner, or with the person you want to introduce to Charlotte. Your seat is part of the room either way.
Is this a networking event?
Think dinner party, modern salon, and prom after-party in one beautifully considered evening. The room makes space for conversation, ceremony, dinner, dancing, and the relationships that grow between them.
What does black tie optional mean here?
Tuxedo, gown, cocktail dress, velvet suit, dramatic jacket, excellent shoes. Formal is welcome. Personality is expected.
Will this be phone-free?
The Presence Check™ returns so the most important parts of the night can be fully lived. We’ll also make room for the moments and objects you’ll absolutely want photographed.
When do tickets go on sale?
They’re available now. Once all 99 seats are claimed, the guest list closes.