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Hunter Mountain: A Special Place of Collaboration

September 17, 2012

Some of the Finn Partners team at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY
 The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY is an important focus and passion of Finn Partners’ Founding Partner Peter Finn. The Foundation is focused on revitalizing the village of Hunter by bringing the arts to the picturesque community nestled in the mountains. Theatre troupes, dance companies, and musicians from all over the world come to practice their art in the amazing facilities that the Catskill Mountain Foundation provides. As collaboration is the founding pillar of Finn Partners, Peter has combined his two passions—The Catskill Mountain Foundation and Finn Partners—to develop a company retreat program. The first Finn Partners Hunter Mountain Retreat took place in August 2012.

For our first retreat, we brought together 19 nominated employees of varying levels from our network of offices. Our focus: Creative brainstorming. The retreat was led by Cliff Berman, a senior partner based in NYC, and Jessica Ross, a managing partner based in D.C. Both leaders leveraged their extensive experience into a day and a half of teaching, breakout sessions and presentations. What stood out almost immediately is how strong our enthusiasm, passion and commitment to collaboration is. We started our trip with a cook-out at the Red Barn that included great food and smores on the BBQ! After dinner, Peter explained how he started his career in PR; how his family influenced his strong interests in the arts; how this passion resulted in the formation of The Catskill Mountain Foundation, and then led to Finn Partners.

Day two began with a hike led by Peter. We then dove into icebreakers, case studies, presentations and lots of chatting. We had the opportunity to attend a workshop presented by a violinist that really resonated with our group. The presenter discussed virtuosity and how many people will have technical skills, but only the ones that can truly enhance these technical notes with creative touches are the ones that are true geniuses.

At Finn Partners we strive to not only be technically proficient, but also to demonstrate how we are more than just collaborative PR practitioners. We come from a rich heritage in the arts and will bring creative solutions to our clients that are unparalleled. Spending time at Hunter with our colleagues was a truly rich experience. Taking the time to learn more about our colleagues and their relationship with PR, their outside passions and their skills is crucial to building teams.

Due to Peter’s commitment, we are pleased to share that this wonderful retreat program will be continued twice per year and will be dedicated to supporting and expanding collaboration and partnership.