(On Own)

Celebrating this growing community: special thanks to our members, the Summit Committee, and a moment to recognize our new C3Ds. We'll also introduce the 2026 Growth-Drive Member of the Year, and get this event kicked off right. 

Your panel of experts shares how great client engagement and discovery lays the foundation for successful execution. Bring your toughest questions. Each table will identify the challenges advisors face in moving from discovery to engagement, and our panel of experienced practitioners will tackle them in real time. You'll leave with practical insights, proven approaches, and the confidence to turn discovery conversations into long-term client relationships.

Playbook Resources: Growth Conversations 1 & 2; CLARITY Level 1 Discovery Conversation Script

Building on the Panel, step into the advisor's chair before the first conversation begins. Working as an advisory team, prepare for your discovery meeting with Diane Ridge. Think through your strategy, anticipate the conversation, and decide how you'll earn trust, uncover meaningful opportunities, and position yourself for a successful engagement. Half the room begins with a trusted referral; the other half starts with a networking introduction. 

Playbook Resource: Framing of a Diagnostic Conversation

Capturing our key insights, connect the day's learning, and prepare to dive deeper into Design & Execution collaboration on Day Two. 30 mins. 

Continue the conversation over dinner with fellow attendees at one of Charleston's favorite restaurants. We make the reservations, you pick a spot, meet new colleagues, and build relationships that extend well beyond the Summit. Meals are self-pay.

Expert Panel on Co-Creating an Executable Plan: The advisor's role is not simply to present the Deep Analysis. It is to translate insight into a strategic growth plan the client can realistically execute.

It's your turn to build a plan. Working in teams with the Ridge Specialty Tooling CLARITY Level 2 report, design the first year of a three-year Growth Plan. 

Playbook Resource: Designing the Foundation for Long-Term Client Success

By the end of this discussion you will have gained clarity for your client and for your advisory business. 

Reflections: Conversations Over Lunch (Provided). Share what resonated. Challenge assumptions. Discover how advisors from different disciplines approach the same client opportunities.

A great strategic plan is only the beginning. The best advisors design engagements that make successful execution far more likely. Working together, build an advisory process that keeps both the client and the advisory team aligned, accountable, and creating measurable value.

Track 1: Advisor Success Perspective  |  Track 2: Client Success Perspective

Playbook Resource: Engineering Plans That Get Implemented

By the end of this discussion, you'll have created a framework for engineering execution success for your client, and for your advisory business.

You have participated in designing a plan... Now it's time to think about how we keep the client on track when execution stalls. How will  we impact execution? What must be true for the client to close their execution gaps? Record your team's best thinking on a flip chart, then challenge and refine your ideas by learning from every other table. Together, we'll identify the common themes that distinguish successful execution from well-intentioned planning.

Playbook Resource: Building Execution into Every Client Engagement

Catered Dinner at the South Carolina Aquarium. An evening to reconnect, welcome new members, celebrate friendships, and enjoy the company of fellow Growth-Drivers. Plus: Keynote Thought Leader

Celebrating New Connections: Conversations Among Friends. (Breakfast Provided)

Reflecting on our Summit journey. Preparing for the day ahead.

Every strategic growth initiative eventually becomes a change leadership challenge. This panel explores how experienced advisors lead their client through change once execution begins. The goal is not simply to manage change, but to lead it with confidence.

Playbook Resource: Leading People Through Strategic Change

An open conversation to learn from each other, share insights, ask questions, and explore whatever is on your mind. This is a riff on our weekly community open mic - fun and valuable. 

What Does the Future Promise For Us?

Playbook Resource: using our daily Reflections, participant notes, survey answers, your flipcharts and the Plaud recordings (every panel, workshop table, and more), Growth-Drive will create a bonus resource each participant can download and apply immediately -putting the sum of our learnings into each of your hands. Add the Framework and Guiding Principles you created during the summit and turbo-charge your advisory business. 

Safe travels—and we'll see you in the Growth-Drive Community.