We're seated at table 53. It isn't the last table in the football field sized room, but it is the one closest to the exit and a stream of people rush past me all night on a desperate search for the washroom.

I'm at our company table at the NQI Corporate Excellence award gala at the Metro Toronto Conference Centre, enjoying a delicious steak and shrimp dinner and making small talk with corporate executives I've never met before and will likely never see again. The bottles of wine on the table help the process along.

The featured speakers are Senator Romeo Dollaire (author of Shake Hands With The Devil, his terrifying story of the Rwanda genocide) and Sir Richard Branson (who needs no introduction).

However, it turns out Dollaire had spoke at the luncheon and, although he was seated in the room (somewhere), he would not be speaking tonight.

Branson was receiving an award, but he too was to speak at greater length the next day.

When he rose to accept his award, he was, of course, two inches tall, from the vantage point of my table. Even so, he dominated the room. Perhaps his image on two massive TV screens helped.

He was the only man in the room without a tie. And, I believe, the only one not wearing a white shirt and black suit. We had all gone rummaging through our closets for ties and suits that are no longer worn by men as everyday office attire. Business casual has won the day, except in this room, in this ocean of black.

Of all the men who carry the title "Sir", Branson is the only one who fits my image of a knight. Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney I'm sorry. If Branson was transported back in time and made the Sheriff of Nottingham, he would perfectly fit the part.

Branson spoke briefly and brightly, in praise of Excellence and the need for all of us of commit to Healthier and more Sustainable workplaces. He thanked NQI and mentioned the word "Virgin" at least six times.

And then we had a parade of 37 corporate executives and corporate teams rising to accept their own bronze, silver and gold levels in their quest for Excellence and Healthy Workplaces.

At the Silver and Gold Levels each company got to play a 30 second video of the changes they had made to qualify for the award, they each got their picture taken with an Executive from NQI and their President got another 30 seconds to express his/her pride in their workplace.

Although it was the point of the whole evening, it took forever.

Arriving back home on the GO train at 10:45 I detrained to a cold drenching rain. With neither umbrella nor raincoat for protection as I trudged back to my car, I got soaked. My black suit, worn this once in the last six months, would have to go back to the cleaners.

Somehow it seemed a fitting end to the day.