The Arrival
A welcome, a calling line, a Presence Check™, and your first introductions. Come with someone or arrive ready to meet someone new.
The Pinnacle Prom™ · November 12 · Charlotte
Big hearts.
Big ideas.
One hell of a night.
Get dressed. Get together.
See what happens.
A night for founders, leaders, artists, and people who make things happen. Dinner, cocktails, a jazz singer, a crown, and a DJ-led After Prom. Come meet someone unexpected. Leave with a story.
November 12, 2026 · The Hamilton · Charlotte
Dinner, cocktails, professional prom photos and dancing included. Tickets $200.
In the spotlight: Darrell’s designs. Kristi’s dress. The November 12 reveal.
First time? You’re invited.
You don’t need to know everyone.
That’s part of the point.
Come solo, bring your partner, or invite the friend who’s always up for something good. You don’t need to have attended a Pinnacle Dinner or know Kristi to belong here.
If your days are full of decisions, deadlines, and the same familiar faces, let us host you for a change. We’re bringing people together across business, art, and community, with thoughtful seating and plenty of time to enjoy one another.
Picture your eveningWelcome to The Pinnacle Prom™
Culture. Community.
A little beautiful collision.
You spend enough time working, scrolling, and saying “we should get together.” Here’s the date. Artists and executives. Founders and Charlotte originals. Old friends, first-timers, and guests flying in. Big hearts, big ideas, and big follow-through, together at The Hamilton.
A jazz singer. Dinner and cocktails. Professional prom photos you’ll keep. A crown passed with meaning. A commissioned dress revealed for the first time. Then comes the After Prom: a DJ, a dance floor, and a full party.
Step inside the evening01 The premise
A modern salon.A grown-up prom.A cultural collision.
You’ve got a reason to dress up and a table to join. We’ll bring dinner, cocktails, professional prom photography, and a mix of people you might never meet in your usual week.
Meet founders, corporate leaders, artists, and community builders. Settle into a thoughtfully arranged dinner. Celebrate the people who open doors for others. Then stay for the DJ-led After Prom.
A jazz singer’s identity and Kristi’s commissioned dress are still under wraps. Some things are better experienced in person.
Culture×Commerce×Connection×Ceremony
The Photo
Two photo settings. Professional photography. A reason to wear the thing you’ve been saving for a good night out.
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 crown Dr. Jennifer Adelhardt, our 2026 Queen.
The After Prom
Dinner and the crown give way to the After Prom. Our DJ takes over, the dance floor opens, and the full party begins.
The After Prom
The lights move.
The room changes.
The room changes.
The Pinnacle Prom brings the dinner, connection, and ceremony. The After Prom brings the DJ, dancing, and full-party energy. Make plans to stay.
05 Why this room
There’s a reason
people come back.
You get time to actually talk. Introductions with a reason behind them. People who listen, contribute, and follow through. The Prom adds room to celebrate, loosen up, dance, and leave with new people to be glad you know.
The Pinnacle Dinner™ earned a 9.8/10 average overall experience rating from 22 respondents. ArtPop ratings above reflect 16 respondents. Across ArtPop and the Founders Soirée, all 71 completed participant records opted into the private relationship directory.
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.
In the spotlight · Darrell Anderson / St. Mark Vintage
You’ve seen what he can do.
Whatever will he create for ME!?
Velvet with attitude. A runway dress that moves. Darrell Anderson’s work gives you a little idea of why I’ve commissioned him to create my one-of-a-kind Prom dress.
The finished look makes its debut November 12. Until then, step into his world.
Portfolio images: St. Mark Vintage, Eastern Opulence. Collection photography credited to Aaron D. Smalls, Jamaal.Josef, KoArms, Stephon Brock, and Trysta Kerekes. Explore the collection and credits.
From a connection to a commission
Kristi’s dress.
Darrell’s imagination.
Darrell made the repurposed-billboard phone-valet totes our ArtPop dinner guests took home. Now that creative relationship has become a paid commission for an entirely new piece.
That’s part of what we’re celebrating: artists getting hired, ideas becoming real, and people opening doors for one another.
The designer is revealed. The dress stays a secret.Be there for the reveal · $200Meet St. Mark Vintage
See where our ArtPop collaboration began
For the first 50 ticket holders
A little piece of the night.
Yours to keep.
The first 50 Pinnacle Prom™ ticket holders receive a limited-edition Presence Check™ collector’s item. The Prom edition is still under wraps. Here’s where the tradition began.
Claim my ticket · $200
A special creation for November 12
Manolo’s making
something for us.
A special Pinnacle Prom edition dessert.
Manolo Betancur, a longtime Pinnacle collaborator and Charlotte favorite, is creating a dessert especially for The Pinnacle Prom™.
He’s already part of the room’s history. On November 12, he brings something new to the table.
Dinner, cocktails, your professional prom photo, and a sweet reason to celebrate.
“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 people making it happen.
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 Photography 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 professional prom photo 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 StetsonOur impact moment · Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treats
Take something
good home.
Even your dog gets a little Pinnacle love.
We’ve purchased 100 branded take-home treats from Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treats for our guests. Arin’s is a social enterprise creating meaningful work, skill-building, and greater independence for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
That choice puts our event spending behind work we believe in. Just as commissioning an artist creates paid creative work, buying from Arin’s supports a business built around opportunity and participation.
A good night out. Something good to take home. More people included in what we’re building.
Meet Arin’s & shop their treats
03 The Queen who started it
Inaugural Queen of Connection™ · 2025
Marie Kelly
She saw the room before it existed.
Marie is a brand marketing leader and fractional Chief Growth Officer with nearly 20 years of experience spanning integrated marketing, experiential design, and high-impact partnerships. Her career includes leadership roles at Grey Advertising and Jack Morton, as well as serving as Head of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships at the Sloomoo Institute.
She has led multi-million-dollar programs for Google, LVMH, NBC, and P&G and shaped experiences at the Oscars, the Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, and CES. Vibrant, exacting, and visionary, Marie sits at the intersection of culture, community, and cause.
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.
Across her work, Marie has used influence to make room for others, from #TimesUp advocacy to elevating conversations around mental health and neurodiversity. At Pinnacle, 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.
The 2026 Queen of Connection™
Dr. Jennifer
Adelhardt
Her presence creates possibility.
The Queen of Connection™ honors the woman who makes the introduction, opens the door, and brings other people with her. A woman whose influence creates belonging and whose relationships make room for someone else.
In 2026, the crown belongs to Dr. Jennifer Adelhardt.
Jennifer is already part of the Pinnacle story. She’s joined us as a VIP speaker and stepped inside BetterStory Studio™. Now she becomes the second woman to carry the Queen of Connection™ crown.
And yes, green is practically her signature. She’s a Leo, just like our inaugural Queen, Marie Kelly. Apparently, the crown has a type.
On November 12, Marie passes the crown to Jennifer at The Hamilton. Two Queens. A growing tradition. One night to be in the room.
Celebrate Jennifer · Claim my seat
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, professional photos, dinner, a DJ-led After Prom, 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™
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
- Ticket release
- 99 tickets for purchase
- Attire
- Black tie optional
- Energy
- Modern maximalism
- Tickets
- $200 · Now available
Dinner included✦Cocktails included✦Professional photo included✦The whole night included
Oxblood. Cream. Midnight blue. Gold. Mirrors. Great glassware. Dress like you already have plans after midnight.
An evening worth being part of.
Your invitation has arrived.
Your dinner is included. Your cocktails are included. Your professional prom photo 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 tickets are claimed, public ticket sales close.
The first 50 ticket holders receive a limited-edition Presence Check™ collector’s item, with the Prom edition still under wraps.
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.
Can I sit with my date or guest?
Tell us who you’re attending with in your guest information so we can plan your seats together. Each guest needs their own ticket. We use guest details to help shape the tables and introductions.
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 a DJ-led After Prom 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 tickets are claimed, public ticket sales close.