PETER KUCHNICKI

Peter is President of the Spark Design Awards, a new approach to encourage fresh thinking and innovation across all disciplines and levels of expertise. Spark is now conducting their fourth major competition, which emphasizes “Design by and for Everyone” and emphatically believes “…that higher goals and aspirations are a necessary element of design planning and process, for the benefit of all.”

Peter has created and produced over 75 major events, exhibitions, seminars, conferences and competitions in the areas of design, communications and creativity. He produced the GOING Conference on alternative transportation, the WonderBrands, Wires & Tires, Business UnUsual, Net@Work and Metropolis West conferences, LatinExpo—the First Hispanic Marketing Exposition, the extensive Adweek Creative Seminars and Creative Shootout Competitions, Creativity (Canada), the Home Office Magazine Conferences, Creative Media Awards, Malta Creative Marketing conferences, Creativa Awards (collaboration in Mexico) and over 1,200 workshops in the Adweek Seminar Series. In 2008 he launched the Spark Creative Seminar, a uniquely collaborative workshop composed of students, creative professionals and business executives. The 2008 Spark Awards competition doubled in size over the first events, with significant numbers of entries and winners from Asia, Europe and South America. Peter initiated a cooperative project with the CitiExpo organization to represent the Spark Awards in China. It was a solid success in 2009, with great prospects in China's future. New partnerships in Britain, India and Latin America are in planning stages

Peter began his career in 1977 with the launch and publication of Cinegram Magazine, concerning film and pioneering coverage of the New Media, and the Slicker Metrotab, an entertainment and events newspaper covering the Detroit-Ann Arbor scenes. Both publications won positive critical reviews and national exposure. He moved to NYC into positions at Electronic News and MISWeek and participated in the launch year of USA Today. At the invitation of legendary editor Clay Felker, he moved into new business development at ASM Communications, home of Adweek, MarketingWeek and MediaWeek magazines. As Special Projects Executive Director for 8 years, he immersed himself in the rapid changes taking place in the wide world of communications.

On the design front, Peter has collaborated with many hundreds of renowned talents including Kit Hinrichs, Paula Scher, Richard Wilde, Walter Bernard and Milton Glaser, to help create beautiful and award-winning productions and publications. He founded Designing Worlds, a sustainable design and architectural competition and the 9.11 Tribute Archive. Peter served on the 2006 Hewlett-Packard One Voice Awards Jury, and on the 2009 Kapok Design Award Jury in Guangzhou, China.