CSNYC Build Day
2026 · Vol 01
Issue One · Miami

The day Consulting 2.0
stops being a deck
and starts being
a practice.


When
April 17, 2026
9:30 AM — 5:30 PM
Where
Miami
Who
20participants · 3 teams

Time Until Build Day
§ 01
The Premise

We are in the middle of a fundamental shift — from selling hours to building and selling assets. Consulting 2.0 is not a methodology update. It is a new operating model, and Miami is where we make it real together.


Build Day is a structured, competitive, hands-on sprint where every person — regardless of technical background — plays a meaningful, decision-making role. By end of day, each of three teams will have produced a working prototype of a productized consulting capability, pitched it to the room, and committed publicly to either ship it within 60 days or kill it within 14 days with a one-page postmortem. Both are wins. Silently shelving is the only failure mode.

§ 02
The Day

Six and a half working hours.
Three sprints. One commitment.

TimeBlockMode
09:30BriefWhole room
09:45Kickoff RitualWhole room
10:15DiscoveryPer team
11:15Build Sprint 1Per team
12:30Proof-of-Life Walk-AroundWhole room
12:45LunchWhole room
13:30Build Sprint 2Per team
15:15Polish & Pitch PrepPer team
15:45Live DemosWhole room
16:30Wrap · Awards · Retro · CommitmentsWhole room
§ 03
The Rituals

Four ceremonies the day is built around.

Everything else — the build sprints, the polish, the demos — is standard hackathon mechanics. The four rituals below are what makes this day Consulting 2.0 instead of any other hackathon.

01
09:45 — 10:15

The Kickoff Ritual

Three Builders project their screens at the front of the room and walk through the cold-start setup of their projects in parallel — narrating the choices, not the keystrokes. The black box of AI engineering opens in 30 minutes.

02
10:15 — 11:15

Discovery as Kickoff Meeting

The team's first hour together. Every role contributes from their own seat — exactly as they would on day one of a real consulting engagement. The working agreement is locked here.

03
12:30 — 12:45

Proof-of-Life Walk-Around

Sixty seconds per team. Demo rough work. No prep allowed. Honesty over polish. The ritual that teaches consultants the skill they're worst at: showing unfinished work in front of peers.

04
16:30 — 17:30

The Wrap & Commitments

Awards, retro, and the commitment ritual: every team stands up and publicly commits to either ship within 60 days or kill within 14 days with a 1-pager. Both are wins.

A Reading
“A team that ships and a team that kills are both honoring the day. The only failure mode at Miami is the third option — silently shelving the work.”
A Question

If the firm built three things on April 17, what would you put in front of a customer on April 24?