Awards in the events industry are common enough that many firms collect them like furniture — placed strategically, rarely examined. But the recognition that 23 Layers, the New York-based corporate event production and design agency, has accumulated over the past decade tells a more specific story. It is not a list padded with participation-level honors. It reflects a firm that has been measured against peers, by peers, and come out ahead repeatedly.
The agency’s press page at twentythreelayers.com reads like a timeline of sustained industry credibility. BizBash, the most widely followed publication in the U.S. events space, has named 23 Layers among its Top 1,000 People in the U.S. Event Industry, placed founder and CEO Jessica Boskoff on its 40 Under 40 list, awarded the firm Best Events of the Decade in 2020, and recognized it for Best Event Decor (Budget Over $250,000) and Best Staging and Set Design. Most recently, 23 Layers took home BizBash’s Best Corporate Event Concept at the 11th Annual Event Experience Awards — among the most competitive categories in the program — for its work on the Attentive Mobile Thread 2022 conference.
That last award is worth examining in context. BizBash’s Event Experience Awards span 75 categories and draw submissions from agencies across the country. The advisory board, not an open public vote, selects winners. To win Best Corporate Event Concept in that field is to be measured against the full range of what corporate event planners in New York and nationally are producing at the highest level — and to come out on top.
The Thread conference itself demonstrated why the award was warranted. 23 Layers transformed a 30,000-square-foot building into a fully designed, high-production environment for Attentive Mobile on a compressed timeline. The agency handled concept, design, and execution — a scope that required its producers and designers to function as a single unit rather than sequential departments. Boskoff has credited the client’s trust with enabling the outcome: giving the agency the creative latitude to bring the Thread concept to life from scratch.
Beyond the BizBash recognition, the firm has earned coverage that extends well outside the events trade. USA Today ran a feature on the agency’s approach to excellence in the events industry. MSN named 23 Layers among the top 10 event planners creating moments to remember in 2024. The New York City Economic Development Corporation recognized the firm as one of its top small business success stories. This distinction situates 23 Layers within the broader context of New York’s entrepreneurial economy, not just its events sector.
What the press record does not show is equally telling. There are no entries for volume-based recognition, nor are there awards tied to rapid expansion or headcount growth. The pattern instead reflects a firm that has been singled out specifically for the quality and concept of its work — which aligns precisely with how Jessica Boskoff has described 23 Layers’ operating philosophy since the agency’s founding in 2011.
“We are in the business of doing really good work,” she has said. “And if you can do that and stay focused, you’ll stand out.” For corporate event planners in New York operating in a market where attention is fractured, and competition for major clients is constant, that kind of focus is harder to maintain than it sounds. The 23 Layers press record suggests the agency has managed it.
For companies evaluating event companies in NYC ahead of a major production, the awards trail matters — but not in isolation. What gives the 23 Layers recognition its weight is that it consistently tracks with what the agency’s clients report and what industry observers describe: a firm that treats each project as an original problem, brings its full capabilities to bear, and produces work that holds up under scrutiny. The awards are the external record of a practice built from the inside out.
For brands that want a corporate event planner New York professionals and industry tastemakers routinely point to by name, 23 Layers has made itself impossible to overlook — not through self-promotion, but through a body of work that keeps attracting attention on its own.