November 19, 2026

3:45 PM - 4:15 PM | Arrival and Registration

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4:15 PM - 4:25 PM | LP1: THE PROBLEM: Fewer Seats, Higher Stakes

Firms are thinning the base of the pyramid, protecting the senior advisors who own client relationships, and delivering work through smaller, AI-augmented teams. At the same time, flexibility and formal development programs are being pulled back. The result is fewer seats and higher stakes on who fills them. This talk maps the market forces reshaping who advances in consulting, why advancement decisions now carry more weight than ever, and why they are landing unevenly.

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4:25 PM - 4:35 PM | LP2: THE PROCESS: The Promotion Criteria Nobody Announced

AI fluency has become a career gate, yet women report less manager encouragement to build it and face added scrutiny when they use it. Sponsorship has become decisive just as many formal programs are winding down. This session lays out the new rules of advancement and how to work them: building visible AI fluency, securing sponsorship in a firm with fewer seats, and making the case for promotion when the criteria are rarely written down. It is the practical heart of the program for women building careers inside firms.

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4:35 PM - 4:45 PM | LP3: THE PROOF: The Exodus, and How to Avoid It

Experienced women are leaving firms for independent and fractional practice, and many now work alongside, or compete with, the firms they left. A senior leader who made that move shares why she left, the economics of her new practice, how she prices her value, and what her former firm could have done to keep her. It is a firsthand account of the departure data that ends where it matters most: what firms can change.

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4:45 PM - 5:30 PM | Deep-Dive Panel Discussion: Staying Power

To close the program, each of our presenters will return for a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Consulting Magazine Director Michael Webb. The panel takes on the question the lightning talks set up: what keeps the leaders firms can't afford to lose, and what women inside firms can do now. Is flexibility a career cost or a retention strategy? The conversation explores origination credit on shared pursuits, the undervalued work that keeps teams running, and where the time AI frees up actually goes. The session closes with a rapid-fire round and one question for the room: What should a firm start doing Monday to keep its senior women?

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5:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Program Ends / Pre-Networking

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6:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Awards Cocktail Reception

For information on attending the Awards Reception, please contact Eric Gordon at 917.685.2996 or email eric.gordon@arc-network.com.

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7:00 PM - 9:30 PM | Awards Ceremony Dinner

For information on attending the Awards Dinner, please contact Eric Gordon at 917.685.2996 or email eric.gordon@arc-network.com.

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