Kathleen Moore is a senior event marketer for JPMorgan Treasury Services, where she manages a budget of $1.1 million for events around the world, including proprietary events for clients and participation in industry trade shows and conferences.
What is your goal for 2007?
To continue to focus on meeting the business’s goals and objectives, and not just doing what we have always done just because we have always done it.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Refarkling my own internal planning model. I do my largest project with a committee, and I want to streamline the way we communicate to ensure that everyone is in the loop who needs to be, and I am not overloading the group with information that is not necessarily helpful.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Continuing to meet the needs and expectations of our constituents with diminished resources.
Sean Driscoll is an owner of Glorious Food, the uptown catering firm that in 2006 catered such events as the Robin Hood Foundation benefit and the Costume Institute gala—and warranted a name-check from Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
What are your New Year’s resolutions?
One resolution is always to get new business and come up with new creative ideas, and to keep our existing client list happy.
What do you expect in 2007?
We have things on the calendar for the spring, but the actual nuts-and-bolts planning doesn’t begin to take shape until we get closer. We’re a live business, so we don’t have time to plan that far in advance. When January comes, that’s when we have time. I don’t think most offpremise caterers know what’s happening next year until it happens. The hotels are the ones that get booked two years out. We’re not in that kind of category. We meet in January and February amongst ourselves and start talking about what’s going to happen in the spring.
Laurence Croneen is executive vice president and managing director of the New York office of event marketing giant Jack Morton Worldwide. He arrived at that post from the London office in September 2006.
What is your goal for 2007?
There’s a huge demand in the marketplace for innovative live and online experiences that engage hard-to-reach consumers and actually connect with them on an emotional, even a visceral level. My goal is for Jack Morton to truly move forward as an integrated champion of breakthrough connections—to match the stature we have already earned for providing fantastic creative solutions for meetings and events in experiential marketing.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
There’s so much momentum within the Jack Morton community. There’s total belief, total confidence that we can do anything. That’s a very good feeling. I recently heard the C.E.O. of Google say something to the effect that he’s bullish on the imagination economy. If I’m understanding him correctly, that a sense of innovation and excitement can take you wherever you or your customers want to go, I couldn’t agree more.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
I think one of our biggest challenges will be prioritizing our focus and our talent on the best of the many project opportunities we have available. Evaluating the opportunities is key to ensuring that we are maximizing our talent and resources. For example, we’re not just playing a New York-based game anymore; more often we’re integrating our global population. So we need to be sure of the potential of an opportunity before unleashing our talent and experience.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
It is becoming increasingly important for the industry to develop more concise metrics around the experiences that are being created. It’s true of marketing in general, but an especially critical part of the next phase of development in experiential and event marketing. At Jack Morton we’re enhancing our existing processes and tools to better educate our clients on how live experiences engage audiences and lead to greater advocacy.
David Bowen is president of Bowen & Company, an event marketing, production, and brand development firm that will produce the James Beard Foundation awards for the first time this May.
What is your goal for 2007?
We have several large-scale projects and then some smaller projects secured for ’07, and each is as important as the next. So the challenge, especially as a small-business owner, is how to assign and staff the workload so that every client gets the full attention they deserve and the staff remains excited and motivated.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Finally launching our company Web site! Luckily, we’ve been extremely busy since opening our doors a year and a half ago, but it’s long overdue. What working on the site has done is help us define our brand and fully understand our point of difference within the industry. It’s been empowering.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Certainly, producing the James Beard Foundation awards will be the company’s biggest challenge in 2007. The event is steeped in history—both good and not so good—and so the balance between honoring the past while striving to bring a fresh and relevant approach to all the elements is taking creativity, sensitivity, and strength of conviction.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Celebs. “What if they split?” strategy meetings became an epidemic in ’06. We see no apparent end to this sorry state of “affairs.” But seriously, helping clients to understand that unless a celebrity has an authentic connection to the brand, their association may not ring true in the media. This is always a real challenge.
Edward J. McKeaney is the special events manager at Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he has been running the event department since event director Jennifer Stark left in October.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
To find more time for yoga.
What is your goal for 2007?
To target, solicit, and receive more reception support dollars.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
To work on our engagement of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s King Lear and The Seagull with Ian McKellen.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
To meet and exceed my fund-raising goals.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
To keep up with the expectation of making each event the “best event of the year,” even if you do 35 a year.
Antony Todd leads an eponymous event and interior design firm, whose notable projects in 2006 included the Whitney Museum of American Art’s fall gala. He opened a retail store on 11th Street this past November.
What are your goals for 2007?
In 2007, I am focusing on some really big events, both charitable and commercial. In addition, now that my new showroom/store has opened in New York, I want to expand my interior design division and do some beautiful residential and commercial projects.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
I’m looking forward to ongoing collaborations with our wonderful local clients as well as our new international clients. That means more exciting work-related travel and a bigger and better 2007.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Giving my clients the attention they deserve whilst traveling extensively and having the right people around me so that my business can keep growing.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Giving New Yorkers new and exciting spaces.
Linda Abbey is vice president of Great Performances, where in 2006 she oversaw the off-premise catering for 283 events of varying sizes for clients including Hackensack Medical Center, the University of Chicago, and KPMG.
What is your goal for 2007?
2006 was such a healthy year in the hospitality business. The trick for ’07 will be to meet and exceed the amount of business we handled this year. And of course any salesperson worth his salt plans to exceed goals from the year previous.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
I am looking forward to working with clients that continue to be highly versed and sophisticated in their knowledge of food. This pushes me personally to the next level and of course raises the bar for us all in this business. With Great Performances’ recent purchase of Katchkie Farm [in upstate New York], we are looking to educate our clientele and create an awareness of planning menus that reflect the best produce the season has to offer, as well as the best local produce.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
My ’07 season is already anchored with several large gigs. I look forward to booking more large events further out on the calendar, and being more active than reactive, which is frequently the case in this fastpaced industry.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
The challenges for ’07 arise in identifying venues for larger events. Often, he who has the space gets the party. Even now, in December, I am finding many of the premier venues already booked well into the spring.
Maureen Farley Schilling is director of special events for chef Gray Kunz at Café Gray and the new event space he is developing.
What is your goal for 2007?
2006 was a great year for Café Gray, but of course records are made to be broken. Now that we have a large, regular customer base, I want to focus on making the event experience here as personal and special as possible. Upgrading the product, refurbishing the space and retraining the staff. So much for my downtime.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Opening Grayz, our new bar/lounge/private party space on 54th Street. This exciting new concept by Chef Kunz should be open in late summer. The space is spectacular: a historic landmark town house on two levels. Design plans call for period pieces, intimate spaces, and the best of modern technology. Grayz will serve glamorous cocktails and finger foods in the bar and lounge, and event menus will be custom Gray Kunz, of course.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
See above! Managing two venues and two children. Luckily, we have a great team of people working together on this.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
The biggest challenge is personnel. It is time-consuming and often challenging to find people who share the same commitment level and experience that we require at every level. People are more transient, and opportunities exist globally, which works sometimes to our benefit, and sometimes not.
Tony Berger runs the special event firm Relevent, which produces events for clients including Victoria’s Secret, Elle, and Hennessey.
What is your goal for 2007?
Relevent has already expanded its business by 60 percent in the past year and we hope to continuously increase our business in expansion of staff as well as with our client base.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
There are so many things that I am looking forward to, but in particular, building our national business that is based on multidimensional programs, with events being just one element used to drive brand awareness and excitement—from working with Victoria’s Secret Pink on their spring break initiative, featuring a 24-hour Miami-based event with an online campaign and street team, to Converse’s NBA All-Star event in Las Vegas, to Casa XLI—an exclusively owned and operated Super Bowl hospitality and event project at Casa Casuarina in Miami with 790 the Ticket radio. There are also many exciting new business opportunities with new brands that up until now were not willing to commit to large-scale events and marketing initiatives but now recognize the importance of them in today’s marketplace.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Any event producer or marketer’s biggest challenge is to choose the business we take on wisely. Relevent is lucky to be approached to do as many incredible projects as we are, and we all truly enjoy what we do, but we believe that every client deserves our 100 percent, and that is what we make sure we give them at all times.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Competition amongst companies to outdo one another is getting fiercer. Every Fortune 500 company—jewelry, fashion, phone company, or alcohol brand—wants a starstudded event. Therefore everyone is trying to outdo the next, from celebrities to decor to concepts. We are constantly coming up with the “what’s next” concept that will stomp out the competition.
Mark Musters left his post as creative director of XA, the Experiential Agency in July. (XA had acquired his original firm, Musters & Company, in January 2005.) He is currently developing a new company.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
It’s about self love, baby. In order for me to be on top of my game, I need to recharge myself with positive energy.
What is your goal for 2007?
I am in the process of putting together Mamu Studio, a think tank for design.
My passions have always been creating, collaborating, and building experiences.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Reestablishing old relationships and making new ones.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Efficient use of my time to accomplish my goals.
Jim Kirsch is the president and C.E.O. of catering company Abigail Kirsch, which opened Stage 6, a large new event venue in Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, this past November.
What are your hopes and predictions for the New Year?
New York will discover Brooklyn for events at Stage 6 at Steiner Studios, an extraordinary event space. Food presentation for catering will continue to elevate to be on par with world-class restaurants. The booming hotel business, which has sold out ballrooms, will continue to drive more and more local and destination business to alternative venues. The continued trend of more menus of multicourse, smaller-portion tasting menus with unique presentations.
Kate Edmonds leads an eponymous firm that plans about 38 events each year for corporate, nonprofit, and social clients.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
Continue to get healthier and happier every day. Become more organized—always a big priority for a Virgo. To free up more time to spend with my son and my boyfriend.
What are your top 2007 goals?
Capitalize on the positive upswing in party planning in the city. Revisit my mission statement for our growing business. Revise my current business plan. Continue to have regular corporate meetings and take good minutes.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Finding the perfect new apartment and possibly planning a special event for myself this year.
What will be your biggest job challenge of 2007?
Potentially moving my office uptown, whilst keeping that downtown feeling.
Posted 01.02.07
What is your goal for 2007?
To continue to focus on meeting the business’s goals and objectives, and not just doing what we have always done just because we have always done it.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Refarkling my own internal planning model. I do my largest project with a committee, and I want to streamline the way we communicate to ensure that everyone is in the loop who needs to be, and I am not overloading the group with information that is not necessarily helpful.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Continuing to meet the needs and expectations of our constituents with diminished resources.
Sean Driscoll is an owner of Glorious Food, the uptown catering firm that in 2006 catered such events as the Robin Hood Foundation benefit and the Costume Institute gala—and warranted a name-check from Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.
What are your New Year’s resolutions?
One resolution is always to get new business and come up with new creative ideas, and to keep our existing client list happy.
What do you expect in 2007?
We have things on the calendar for the spring, but the actual nuts-and-bolts planning doesn’t begin to take shape until we get closer. We’re a live business, so we don’t have time to plan that far in advance. When January comes, that’s when we have time. I don’t think most offpremise caterers know what’s happening next year until it happens. The hotels are the ones that get booked two years out. We’re not in that kind of category. We meet in January and February amongst ourselves and start talking about what’s going to happen in the spring.
Laurence Croneen is executive vice president and managing director of the New York office of event marketing giant Jack Morton Worldwide. He arrived at that post from the London office in September 2006.
What is your goal for 2007?
There’s a huge demand in the marketplace for innovative live and online experiences that engage hard-to-reach consumers and actually connect with them on an emotional, even a visceral level. My goal is for Jack Morton to truly move forward as an integrated champion of breakthrough connections—to match the stature we have already earned for providing fantastic creative solutions for meetings and events in experiential marketing.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
There’s so much momentum within the Jack Morton community. There’s total belief, total confidence that we can do anything. That’s a very good feeling. I recently heard the C.E.O. of Google say something to the effect that he’s bullish on the imagination economy. If I’m understanding him correctly, that a sense of innovation and excitement can take you wherever you or your customers want to go, I couldn’t agree more.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
I think one of our biggest challenges will be prioritizing our focus and our talent on the best of the many project opportunities we have available. Evaluating the opportunities is key to ensuring that we are maximizing our talent and resources. For example, we’re not just playing a New York-based game anymore; more often we’re integrating our global population. So we need to be sure of the potential of an opportunity before unleashing our talent and experience.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
It is becoming increasingly important for the industry to develop more concise metrics around the experiences that are being created. It’s true of marketing in general, but an especially critical part of the next phase of development in experiential and event marketing. At Jack Morton we’re enhancing our existing processes and tools to better educate our clients on how live experiences engage audiences and lead to greater advocacy.
David Bowen is president of Bowen & Company, an event marketing, production, and brand development firm that will produce the James Beard Foundation awards for the first time this May.
What is your goal for 2007?
We have several large-scale projects and then some smaller projects secured for ’07, and each is as important as the next. So the challenge, especially as a small-business owner, is how to assign and staff the workload so that every client gets the full attention they deserve and the staff remains excited and motivated.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Finally launching our company Web site! Luckily, we’ve been extremely busy since opening our doors a year and a half ago, but it’s long overdue. What working on the site has done is help us define our brand and fully understand our point of difference within the industry. It’s been empowering.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Certainly, producing the James Beard Foundation awards will be the company’s biggest challenge in 2007. The event is steeped in history—both good and not so good—and so the balance between honoring the past while striving to bring a fresh and relevant approach to all the elements is taking creativity, sensitivity, and strength of conviction.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Celebs. “What if they split?” strategy meetings became an epidemic in ’06. We see no apparent end to this sorry state of “affairs.” But seriously, helping clients to understand that unless a celebrity has an authentic connection to the brand, their association may not ring true in the media. This is always a real challenge.
Edward J. McKeaney is the special events manager at Brooklyn Academy of Music, where he has been running the event department since event director Jennifer Stark left in October.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
To find more time for yoga.
What is your goal for 2007?
To target, solicit, and receive more reception support dollars.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
To work on our engagement of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s King Lear and The Seagull with Ian McKellen.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
To meet and exceed my fund-raising goals.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
To keep up with the expectation of making each event the “best event of the year,” even if you do 35 a year.
Antony Todd leads an eponymous event and interior design firm, whose notable projects in 2006 included the Whitney Museum of American Art’s fall gala. He opened a retail store on 11th Street this past November.
What are your goals for 2007?
In 2007, I am focusing on some really big events, both charitable and commercial. In addition, now that my new showroom/store has opened in New York, I want to expand my interior design division and do some beautiful residential and commercial projects.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
I’m looking forward to ongoing collaborations with our wonderful local clients as well as our new international clients. That means more exciting work-related travel and a bigger and better 2007.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Giving my clients the attention they deserve whilst traveling extensively and having the right people around me so that my business can keep growing.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Giving New Yorkers new and exciting spaces.
Linda Abbey is vice president of Great Performances, where in 2006 she oversaw the off-premise catering for 283 events of varying sizes for clients including Hackensack Medical Center, the University of Chicago, and KPMG.
What is your goal for 2007?
2006 was such a healthy year in the hospitality business. The trick for ’07 will be to meet and exceed the amount of business we handled this year. And of course any salesperson worth his salt plans to exceed goals from the year previous.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
I am looking forward to working with clients that continue to be highly versed and sophisticated in their knowledge of food. This pushes me personally to the next level and of course raises the bar for us all in this business. With Great Performances’ recent purchase of Katchkie Farm [in upstate New York], we are looking to educate our clientele and create an awareness of planning menus that reflect the best produce the season has to offer, as well as the best local produce.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
My ’07 season is already anchored with several large gigs. I look forward to booking more large events further out on the calendar, and being more active than reactive, which is frequently the case in this fastpaced industry.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
The challenges for ’07 arise in identifying venues for larger events. Often, he who has the space gets the party. Even now, in December, I am finding many of the premier venues already booked well into the spring.
Maureen Farley Schilling is director of special events for chef Gray Kunz at Café Gray and the new event space he is developing.
What is your goal for 2007?
2006 was a great year for Café Gray, but of course records are made to be broken. Now that we have a large, regular customer base, I want to focus on making the event experience here as personal and special as possible. Upgrading the product, refurbishing the space and retraining the staff. So much for my downtime.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Opening Grayz, our new bar/lounge/private party space on 54th Street. This exciting new concept by Chef Kunz should be open in late summer. The space is spectacular: a historic landmark town house on two levels. Design plans call for period pieces, intimate spaces, and the best of modern technology. Grayz will serve glamorous cocktails and finger foods in the bar and lounge, and event menus will be custom Gray Kunz, of course.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
See above! Managing two venues and two children. Luckily, we have a great team of people working together on this.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
The biggest challenge is personnel. It is time-consuming and often challenging to find people who share the same commitment level and experience that we require at every level. People are more transient, and opportunities exist globally, which works sometimes to our benefit, and sometimes not.
Tony Berger runs the special event firm Relevent, which produces events for clients including Victoria’s Secret, Elle, and Hennessey.
What is your goal for 2007?
Relevent has already expanded its business by 60 percent in the past year and we hope to continuously increase our business in expansion of staff as well as with our client base.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
There are so many things that I am looking forward to, but in particular, building our national business that is based on multidimensional programs, with events being just one element used to drive brand awareness and excitement—from working with Victoria’s Secret Pink on their spring break initiative, featuring a 24-hour Miami-based event with an online campaign and street team, to Converse’s NBA All-Star event in Las Vegas, to Casa XLI—an exclusively owned and operated Super Bowl hospitality and event project at Casa Casuarina in Miami with 790 the Ticket radio. There are also many exciting new business opportunities with new brands that up until now were not willing to commit to large-scale events and marketing initiatives but now recognize the importance of them in today’s marketplace.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Any event producer or marketer’s biggest challenge is to choose the business we take on wisely. Relevent is lucky to be approached to do as many incredible projects as we are, and we all truly enjoy what we do, but we believe that every client deserves our 100 percent, and that is what we make sure we give them at all times.
What do you think the event industry’s biggest challenge will be in 2007?
Competition amongst companies to outdo one another is getting fiercer. Every Fortune 500 company—jewelry, fashion, phone company, or alcohol brand—wants a starstudded event. Therefore everyone is trying to outdo the next, from celebrities to decor to concepts. We are constantly coming up with the “what’s next” concept that will stomp out the competition.
Mark Musters left his post as creative director of XA, the Experiential Agency in July. (XA had acquired his original firm, Musters & Company, in January 2005.) He is currently developing a new company.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
It’s about self love, baby. In order for me to be on top of my game, I need to recharge myself with positive energy.
What is your goal for 2007?
I am in the process of putting together Mamu Studio, a think tank for design.
My passions have always been creating, collaborating, and building experiences.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Reestablishing old relationships and making new ones.
What do you expect your biggest challenge to be in 2007?
Efficient use of my time to accomplish my goals.
Jim Kirsch is the president and C.E.O. of catering company Abigail Kirsch, which opened Stage 6, a large new event venue in Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, this past November.
What are your hopes and predictions for the New Year?
New York will discover Brooklyn for events at Stage 6 at Steiner Studios, an extraordinary event space. Food presentation for catering will continue to elevate to be on par with world-class restaurants. The booming hotel business, which has sold out ballrooms, will continue to drive more and more local and destination business to alternative venues. The continued trend of more menus of multicourse, smaller-portion tasting menus with unique presentations.
Kate Edmonds leads an eponymous firm that plans about 38 events each year for corporate, nonprofit, and social clients.
What are your resolutions for the New Year?
Continue to get healthier and happier every day. Become more organized—always a big priority for a Virgo. To free up more time to spend with my son and my boyfriend.
What are your top 2007 goals?
Capitalize on the positive upswing in party planning in the city. Revisit my mission statement for our growing business. Revise my current business plan. Continue to have regular corporate meetings and take good minutes.
What are you looking forward to in 2007?
Finding the perfect new apartment and possibly planning a special event for myself this year.
What will be your biggest job challenge of 2007?
Potentially moving my office uptown, whilst keeping that downtown feeling.
Posted 01.02.07
(Clockwise from upper left) Kathleen Moore, Laurence Croneen, Maureen Farley Schilling, and Jim Kirsch.
