This way of conceiving events yields certain (possibly surprising) results.
In May the BMX rider Kye Forte conceived an event bringing together 34 of the world's best riders to perform huge jumps against the London skyline in front of 10,000 fans at Alexandra Palace.
Mr. O'Malley, a Web designer and an aspiring filmmaker, and Mr. Szczygielski, his film school colleague, conceived the event in part as a response to the ambivalence their own work faced in the festival establishment.
"It just seemed like there were all these groups of artists floating around and nobody getting them together," said Mike Fitelson, a photographer who is the editor of Manhattan Times, a local newspaper, and the person who conceived the event.
"Edison represents the old captains of industry who step all over people to get what they want and make money," said Maggie Duval, who conceived the event with Sam Tyler, an Austin purveyor of steampunk paraphernalia.
"I don't think the sense of polo being so elitist and unachievable is fair to the sport," said Ignacio Figueras, the Argentine polo star and Ralph Lauren model who said he had conceived the event, the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic.
Mr. Berman conceived the event in a way the students found too enticing to resist, as I learned from speaking briefly with the pianist Lee Dionne, who earlier in the evening had played a majestic, technically impressive account of the formidable Sonata No. 8 in B flat, the last of three works composed from 1939 to 1944 and known as the "war sonatas".
Gallerists Ally Canosa and Eva Maria Daniels conceived the event as an opportunity for collectors to preview the latest offerings of their online gallery in an immediate, palpable way.
The measured paintings were conceived as events of a certain geometric precision and classicism".
"The thing that will surprise people is how young the contestants are," said the event's organizer, John Stuart Fryer, whose father, Cliff, was one of three to conceive the event and put up the prize money the first year.
