BiZBash Names 15 Event Planners of the Year; 2005 List Includes Planners From Country Music Awards, ''The Gates,'' Costume Institute Gala, Clinton Global Initiative, Vogue and Moet Hennessy.

NEW YORK -- BiZBash, www.BiZBash.com, the trade magazine for corporate event professionals, released its "Event Planners of the Year" lineup for the New York City market in an article in its December 2005/January 2006 issue.

"This issue features the backstories and the best strategies from 2005's top planners," said BiZBash editor in chief Chad Kaydo. The planners in the story are a disparate mix of event marketers, producers, and strategists: Vogue's Stephanie Winston Wolkoff ran the Costume Institute gala, which aims to gather New York's top names in fashion, entertainment, and society, while Bobette Dudley ran the Country Music awards, which brought Nashville's top names in country music to New York for the ceremony's first out-of-town incarnation. Douglas Blonsky oversaw the installation of Christo and Jean-Claude's "The Gates" in Central Park, which drew four million people, while Dexter King sponsored a 40-person dinner for Kanye West to promote Moet Hennessy's cognac. And Kim Krikorian went to other people's events to put up elaborate installations featuring Swaroski crystals. With all their differences, these 15 people show the breadth of creative ideas populating the event business and the many ways events work as creative tools. (Event photos and copies of the story are available. (http://www.bizbash.com/reporter/esr4-6.asp)

The complete list of BiZBash's 2005 Event Planners of the Year is:

--Douglas Blonsky, President, Central Park Conservency

--Shauna Brook, U.S. Director of Marketing and Special Events, Giorgio Armani 

--Diane Cremin, independent event planner, World Magazine Congress

--Bobette Dudley, Vice President of Events and Program Development, Country Music Association

--Sharon Enright, General Manager, Trade Show Division, Business Journals Inc.

--Ed Filipowski and Julie Mannion, Principals, KCD 

--Fawaz Gruosi, Founder, De Grisogono 

--Dexter King, Senior Brand Ambassador, Moet Hennessy

--Kim Krikorian, Communications Manager, Swarovski North America

--Mary Morrison, Director of Operations, Clinton Global Initiative

--Leane Romeo, President, Overland Entertainment

--Jennifer Stark, Director or Special Events, Brooklyn Academy of Music 

--Anastasia Striegel, President, One Kick LLC 

--Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Director of Special Events, Vogue

BiZBash Media is the New York authority for anyone who plans, designs, or influences corporate and nonprofit events in New York City. The BiZBash Web site (http://www.bizbash.com), newspaper, and trade show serve the business-to-business marketplace for planners who research, produce, and advise on more than 100,000 events held each year in New York.