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Tips & Strategies Q&AS WITH SMART EVENT STRATEGISTS Robin Kay Is Already Eyeing Another New Home for Toronto Fashion Week MTV's Kelley Electa on Launching a North American Tour to Promote Rock Band Giffin Koerth Chooses Constant Contact ABC's Darren Schillace on Using Events to Launch the Post-Strike TV Season Emmy Producer Ron Basile on the Show's Move to the Nokia Mark Singh Gets Ready for the 28th Annual Toronto Pride Week City of Toronto's Jane French Gears Up for Doors Open   USEFUL KNOWLEDGE Green Leaders: Setting an Example Green Leaders: Getting Vendors Involved Green Leaders: Shrinking Waste With Style Green Leaders: Getting the Whole Team on Board 10 More Green Events     TED KRUCKEL    11.06.09 4:33 PM Gossip Girls in Chanel at Four Seasons and David Rockwell's High-Tech Taste on Paper Plates Chanel's Fete d'Hiver at the Four Seasons Restaurant to benefit The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Photo: Bill Farrell-Patrick McMullan FROM NEW YORK There are so many reasons why I’ve never seen an episode of Gossip Girl. For starters, I’m not really sure what channel is the CW, and besides, doesn’t CW make you think of country music? By the time New York magazine was calling Gossip Girl “Best. Show. Ever.” I decided I was too late to the party. Couldn’t I just hold my breath for a few years till it faded away? How stupid. Because as with the last cult hit show in the New York area, The Sopranos, Gossip Girl’s far-flung cast is relentless in pursuit of publicity and as a result, I see one or two of them at every single party I go to, and it is always a big deal, despite the fact that they all seem so tiny in person. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Chanel, David Rockwell, New York Magazine TED KRUCKEL    10.14.09 12:33 PM Food Network's Festival Stretches Its Scope (and My Belt) Guy Fieri, up to his usual theatrical antics, at the New York City Wine & Food Festival Photo: Courtesy of the New York City Wine & Food Festival FROM NEW YORK If there is one thing that really struck me about the second annual Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival, sponsored by Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure, it was the sheer size and diversity of it all. Last week, I wrote about the plethora of food festivals happening this month in New York, most of which have no problem filling kitchens, dining rooms, stores, and other venues with paying, eager eaters. Yet at the same time, the industry’s oldest and most prestigious magazine, Gourmet, up and folded, and downtown, perennially top-rated Chanterelle closed its doors. But at the New York City Wine & Food Festival this past weekend, it was as if those closings happened on an altogether different planet. The four-day affair kicked off with “Celebration,” a V.I.P. event on Thursday at the Food Network studio. There were so many celebrity chefs that festival founder Lee Schrager found himself in trouble when, during his speech, he began thanking present network personalities Alton Brown, Guy Fieri, and Sandra Lee, and suddenly a bunch of others started shouting out their own names. Lee wisely widened his thanks to “everyone at the Food Network, including the security guard, who five years later still doesn’t recognize me.” MORE >> RELATED TOPICS New York City Wine & Food Festival TED KRUCKEL    10.06.09 4:59 PM As Gourmet Bites the Dust, October Is Food Month in New York Jacques Pépin at New York magazine's Culinary Experience Photo: Larry Busacca FROM NEW YORK It’s getting hot in here and the pressure is mounting. I’m in the kitchen with Jacques Pépin and about 20 students who are racing against the clock to complete their stuffed ballotines of chicken. Pépin is perspiring and working furiously as he goes from one student to the next, showing each the main steps that he demonstrated twice onscreen already. It is 4:15 on a Saturday afternoon at the French Culinary Institute, and I’m sitting in on a New York magazine-sponsored deluxe weekend of instructional cooking, the New York Culinary Experience, with some of the world’s leading chefs. In addition to Monsieur Pépin, fellow F.C.I. deans André Soltner (formerly of Lutèce) and Alain Sailhac (formerly of the 21 Club) are sauntering around the room, assisted by six sous chefs, by my count. In two days, the announcement that Gourmet is closing will shock this community, but today we are all blissfully enjoying Food Month. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS New York Magazine, Gourmet magazine, Bon Appétit, French Culinary Institute TED KRUCKEL    09.30.09 9:00 AM Rules for the Recovery I enjoyed Tina Brown’s Daily Beast post about the death of Robert Isabell, “Farewell to the King of Parties” (July 12), up until the end, when she did the obligatory linking of his passing to the end of the proverbial big party. “Our revels now are ended!” her piece ends (without Shakespeare’s attribution, by the way). Maybe it’s a result of having sat in that Vanity Fair top seat; from there everything else is downhill. Remember Graydon Carter after 9/11,  eclaring “the end of the age of irony”? Now he can be found most nights monkeying around the Monkey Bar, his second high-priced and low-access bôite, and, well, isn’t that just a little bit ironic? MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Tina Brown, Robert Isabell Q & A    09.22.09 12:47 PM How the F.B.I.'s Anne Beagan Works to Keep Large Public Events Safe Anne C. Beagan Photo: Courtesy of the F.B.I. FROM NEW YORK From securing intimate events with the president aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid to maintaining order and security for millions during the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop, Anne C. Beagan has seen—and done—a lot in her 13 years as special events coordinator and special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Beagan coordinates the bureau's presence at large public functions while serving as a liaison to local law enforcement, event planners, and vendors. She spoke with us about how she ensures these high-profile events run smoothly and safely. Of all the annual events you oversee, which one is the most difficult? I would have to say the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration. The sheer number of people and mass media coverage create a much more challenging job for me—I wouldn’t say it’s more challenging, it just requires much more planning and overall coordination. It takes a good six to nine months of preparation, but [the event itself] is seamless. All the parties know our roles, and we all know each other. We do it so much we’re always ready to transition into the next event because of the simple fact that we’re always doing large events here. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS F.B.I., New Year's Eve, Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention EVENT INTELLIGENCE    09.15.09 1:21 PM Event Security: The Twitter Effect The Black Eyed Peas at a tweeted party Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Texting, blogging, and online social networking have already made it a breeze for guests to send out tips to their friends and readers on scoring access to private parties. Now, with the increasing popularity of Twitter, the volume of recipients is growing exponentially and the details are leaking in real time. Crashers, gawkers, and paparazzi have instant access to more information than they’ve ever had before—on an easy-to-search platform—and security professionals and planners agree that 140 characters are more than enough to cause some trouble. Barry Meyerson, president of Manhattan-based security firm Meyerson Associates Inc., first noticed Twitter’s impact during New York Fashion Week in September 2008. As celebrities and partygoers shared details online, queues outside venues got longer, and throngs of paparazzi seemed thicker. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Twitter, Security, Secuity Leaks, Black Eyed Peas, Fashion Week TED KRUCKEL    09.11.09 7:57 PM I'm Flabbergasted By Fashion's Fabulous Night Out, Despite My Torn Plastic Bag Anna Wintour and Michael Kors bravely faced the masses at the Macy's Queens Center. Photo: Julienne Schaer FROM NEW YORK My editors, and no doubt you readers, will be glad to know that I am going to skip the obligatory themed intro and get right into the meat of Fashion’s Night Out, the shopping bonanza organized for the night of September 10 by Vogue, NYC & Company, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America to get people out in stores and buying again. MORE >> TED KRUCKEL    09.02.09 4:17 PM Where the Wild Things Are, Part II: At the "Too Popular" Surf Lodge, in the Axe Lounge, and on Booze Buses Lilybugs to the rescue! Photo: Eli Gormezano FROM NEW YORK It’s a long drive to Montauk from the “regular” Hamptons, but the Clam Bar in Napeague makes the perfect pit stop for tuna “bits” and BlackBerrying. I was on my way to see the hotspot Surf Lodge and wanted to check in with the general manager, who had nicely emailed and called me confirming my property tour, when I hit a publicity roadblock by the name of Shelby Meade of Fresh and Clean Media. It had taken us a week to get anyone from the place to even return a message, so I wasn’t surprised by the reverse logic of getting the PR people active after the appointment was booked. See, they are very busy at the Surf Lodge. Opened last year by the same team behind Cain Luxe nightclub in the city, the place was filled to the rafters every weekend with Montauk hipsters and press-hungry celebrities like Molly Sims and Michelle Trachtenberg. This year, I thought the heat had cooled enough to risk a visit, but I was wrong. MORE >> TED KRUCKEL    08.27.09 8:00 AM Where the Wild Things Are: In the Hamptons, Spending $600 on Rosé Networking at Day & Night, Southampton's new all-day drink 'n' dance party Photo: Steven B. Ekerovich/Courtesy of Day & Night FROM NEW YORK Just as we civilians were getting comfortable with the knowledge that our planet, our solar system, our galaxy was just a speck of dust on an elephant’s ear in a giant jungle, word came that there were (possibly) other vast hidden dimensions, whole universes slicing through ours; imperceivable but nonetheless real and equally incalculable in size and complexity. Well, I for one was not surprised, because I have always sensed that there were whole other strange new worlds among us, invisible but to the trained eye. In fact, I kept hearing about one right under my nose, here in the Hamptons; a world where the recession didn’t exist, where excess was still en vogue (if no longer in the pages of Vogue) and where $595 rehoboams of Bertaud Belieu Côtes de Provence rosé can’t be iced fast enough. MORE >> Q & A    08.06.09 10:00 AM Pedro Pablo Peña Brings Dancers From Around the World to Miami for 17-Day Ballet Festival Pedro Pablo Peña FROM MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA Each September more than 11,000 dancers, critics, and fans, gather for 17 days of events in the International Ballet Festival of Miami. In the past 13 years, founder and artistic director Pedro Pablo Peña has created what is billed as “the most successful ballet event in the United States” in a city not known for its artistic endeavors. He spoke with us about his vision for the festival, its future, and importance to Miami and the ballet community. What is your primary goal for the festival? This year it's the same as every year, which is to continue with this festival so that people know the importance of dance in the world. The principal function is for people to know what the new dances are, who are the new stars, and what the new style for the different ballets is going to be for the upcoming season. This is the only dance festival in the classical style in the city. It’s the only opportunity during the year for the audience to see the dancers, choreography, companies, styles, and the techniques. 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