At the sixth annual Salon Today 200 reception, hosted by Neill Corporation on the final night of Serious Business in New Orleans, Louisiana, salon owners and teams from 112 of the 2016 class of 200 honorees were on hand to collect their certificates.

At the elegant party the guests enjoyed cocktails, appetizers and networking with one another before the certificates were presented.

Neill Corporation’s Debra Neill Baker and Modern Salon Media’s Steve Reiss welcomed the honorees and congratulated them on their success. And, Salon Today’s Stacey Soble talked about how the Salon Today 200 has inspired salon owners.

The spirited team from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang salon in Fishers, Indiana, pick up their 2016 Salon Today 200 certificate for Philanthropy.

“We started the competition 19 years ago to help celebrate salon business success, create a forum for salon owners to share their best practice ideas, and to gather research to establish important benchmarks that all salons can measure themselves against,” Soble told the audience. “But you have embraced this competition wholeheartedly and it has grown beyond our original intentions. Owners have used it to celebrate the hard work of their teams and the loyalty of their clients. Owners use as a strategy tool to help lay plans for their future growth. And, salons have used it as a networking tool to form small groups of like-minded owners who support one another.”

Afterward, Soble showed a video in which more than 70 of the honored salons appeared, sharing a best practice tip or celebrating the honor with their teams.

Following the video, representatives from each salon were called on stage to accept their certificate. View an album from the evening.  If you were one of the salons in attendance please make sure to tag your picture!