In June of 2009, Consulting magazine launched a new brand—The Top 25 Consultants Awards Dinner. We thought we had a pretty decent idea: gather the top consultants together in one room, invite family, friends, colleagues and clients to join them, hand the winners an award and allow them to say a few words in front of their peers and the profession.
Turns out we did.
That first year, the dinner began humbly enough at the Union League Club, the same venue we often use for our Fall Consulting Summits. With relatively little marketing and fanfare, the dinner drew about 125 people, but the feedback on the event itself was very promising. Each of the winners expressed gratitude for the
opportunity for the industry to come together.
We had 21 of the Top 25 winners in attendance; an astounding number, we thought, for a first time dinner aiming to bring consultants from all over the globe into the same room for a few hours. In year two, we opted to move the dinner to the St. Regis, and it's a good thing we did. The event drew nearly 150 people and 23 of the 25 winners.
This year, we enjoyed another record-setting attendance. More than 160 people gathered to congratulate the winners. An astounding 24 of the Top 25 winners were represented in the room, along with a dozen or so firm leaders. (Next year we shoot for all 25 winners.)
In their acceptance speeches, winners, of course, thanked those who made it possible, including clients, co-workers and spouses. But others used the opportunity to make a call to action. Some challenged their colleagues to lead the charge for a more diverse profession, while others asked those in the room to serve as springboards in their own firms to keep raising the bar on client service. And that's just the idea: We see this event as not just a chance to pat each other on the back but as a crucial part of our editorial mission.
To that end, we, along with our colleagues at Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory, decided this year to add a Top 25 Executive Roundtable exclusively for the Top 25 winners. It was a chance to bring together some of the best minds in consulting to talk shop—everything from market challenges and opportunities to knowledge management and intellectual property, recruiting, retention, firm management, and even ethics and codes of conduct.
We believe it's our duty to facilitate these types of gatherings where thought leaders at top firms come together and, in some small way, help set a profession-wide agenda. And we think the Top 25 Consultants Awards Dinner and Executive Roundtable is a great place to start!
Joseph Kornik
Editor-in-Chief
jkornik@consultingmag.com
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