It’s the thick of the holiday season in New York City.  And while much fanfare is bestowed upon the Rockefeller Center tree each year, to me, what truly makes the city an enchanting place at the holidays is the myriad of corner tree vendors that spring up across the city.

I can still remember the first time I returned to the city from Thanksgiving break, filled with that bittersweet feeling of leaving family and friends and the excitement and anticipation of holiday festivities to come.  As I made the trip uptown from Grand Central, I saw them.  Everywhere.  On nearly every street corner.  Each had its own flair.  Some had lights, some music, some had inflatables, but each brought an undeniable helping of good cheer.  They come each year, often entire families, from upstate, New England and Canada and set up shop for the month.

Since that first sighting, I eagerly await the return of the tree vendors each year.  It is, for me, the true start of the season.  Here are some of my other favorite NYC scenes:

• The Holiday Fair at Grand Central Terminal – home to nearly 100 artisans and merchants, it’s a great place to find unique, one-of-a-kind jewelry, toys, and more.  Its location makes it ideal for lunchtime or after-work browsing.
• The Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden – imagine replicas of some of New York’s iconic landmarks, constructed completely from tree bark, twigs, nuts and leaves – great for kids or to bring out the kid in you.  Wear comfortable shoes and dress in layers – the wait time can be long and the conservatory gets warm.
• Wollman Rink – home to a few past Hunter PR holiday parties, a skate at this open-air rink is the stuff holiday memories are made of. 

- Amanda

Not only did 11-11-11 mark an auspicious day on our calendar, it also celebrated a time-honored fall wardrobe staple, corduroy! You may ask, why 11-11, but if you take closer note you will notice the vertical numbers are nearly identical to the beloved corduroy pattern. For me, a true corduroy fan, there’s nothing like crisp fall weather and reaching into my drawer to pull out my softest corduroy pants. For those that have similar feeling and love for all things corduroy, you may consider joining the over 5,000 fans of the Corduroy Appreciation Club.

The Corduroy Appreciation Club, with chapters in cities across the world, brings together people who not only love corduroy but have an interest in meeting others who share a similar love for the fabric. They gather twice a year, eat linear themed foods such as ruffled potato chips, and cite oaths to wear corduroy as much as possible. Beware, if you attend the bi-annual meetings wearing less than three items of corduroy you will sadly be dismissed. If corduroy is your thing, take careful notice of those on the street since they might pass an invite to join this elite club. I’m hoping that one day I will be bestowed this special honor.

So while some may have spent the day celebrating 11-11-11 with “press-worthy” stunts I hope that you enjoyed your day with a nice plush corduroy pant or blazer. Until next year fine corduroy fans…

-Dominic

Autumn is my favorite season for three reasons: the amazing weather and foliage that hits the Northeast region, the start of professional football season, and, most importantly, the onslaught of great pumpkin beer. Every year, around this time, stores and bars begin celebrating the colder weather with grand displays featuring brews embracing the season’s favorite flavor. And since my personal attempt to create my very own pumpkin beer was thwarted by a siphoning incident, I’d like to take the blog post to share my favorite options for you to indulge in the awesomeness that is Autumn beer:

1. Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat, the category’s newest addition, is one of the best pumpkin beers of the season. The unfiltered wheat ale features crisp flavor of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove that could only be delivered from a Shock Top cask. It has easily become my personal “must-have” beer of the season.

2. Smutty Nose Pumpkin Ale is more relaxed in flavor but not in quality. The smooth taste and thick texture makes this ale the perfect compliment to your annual Thanksgiving dinner. Start planning your sides around it.

3. Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale is a spicy and sweet autumn beer inspired by one of the top Belgian Whites beers. It is the great addition to the traditional citrus flavor of the Blue Moon family but brewed with the bounty of fall spices making it a necessary addition to your weekly Sunday tailgate.

- Dan

No electricity, no water, no plumbing and minimal cell phone reception. For some people, this sounds like a horrific nightmare. For me, this was my summer vacation. Luckily, there were thirteen of country music’s biggest names to distract me from the lack of every day luxuries.

Two weeks ago, I left the Big Apple and traveled to the “booming” metropolis of Fort Loramie, Ohio to attend Country Concert 2011. Country Concert is an annual three-day country music festival. This year’s lineup included: Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Montgomery Gentry, Josh Thompson, Justin Moore, the list goes on and on. For country music fans, I’m sure you can imagine that my heart almost flew out of my chest when I caught wind of this year’s lineup. This marked my first Country Concert experience. I had heard nothing but great reviews about this annual extravaganza. My expectations were high; my expectations were met.

Aside from the phenomenal music, Country Concert 2011 had the social atmosphere that a public relations personality craves: thousands of people with giant smiles on their faces, enjoying great music with their friends and families. I shared a campsite next to the concert arena with seven of my closest friends. I can confidently say that Country Concert 2011 was one of the greatest experiences of my college career. Camping was interesting, the music was amazing and spending time with my best friends made the entire trip worthwhile.

Country Concert 2012 anyone?

-Joe

When I graduated from college two months ago and started my career as a young public relations professional at Hunter Public Relations, I had no idea how much fun my new job was really going to be. Between impromptu after work outings to planning high profile events all across the country, my first two months in the “real world” have been more than exciting.

Last night’s PRSA-NY Bowling Social was an event that will definitely go down in Hunter PR history. More than 30 Hunter PR staff members, all dressed in matching branded t-shirts, rolled into Bowlmor Lanes on 44^th Street and lived up to our team name Thunder from Down Hunter.  Taking up over half of the alley for the PRSA event, we arrived with fire in our eyes and ready to win the coveted Bowling Pin Trophy.

From what I heard, Hunter PR has a history of taking down the competition in sporting events, but when the bowling alley erupted with enthusiastic and positive Hunter PR staff bellowing chants and cheers to our squad of determined “athletes,” I couldn’t help but feel proud and grateful that I had the opportunity to join such a dynamic agency.

Though we did not take home the trophy last night, our team did have the highest score with a monstrous 179 from our fearless Co-Captain Trisha.  Fellow Hunter PR bowlers Sakura and Michael also won digital cameras, and the night came to a close with a fitting Hunter PR rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” PRSA-NY put on a great event that brought the Hunter PR staff together not only as co-workers, but also as a team!

- Lisa

Upon recently moving into New York City, the only thing I could focus on was, “OMG! I’m moving into New York City!” Never did I take the time to focus on the logistics or cost, let alone the actual move itself.  After experiencing the up’s and down’s, the laughter and the tears, I have compiled a Do’s and Don’ts list for moving within the Big Apple:

DO: Rent a UHaul in advance. The hardworking people at your near-by UHaul can either be your best friend, or your worst enemy depending on timing.

DO: Recruit friends and loved ones for your special move- because why wouldn’t they want to share this totally awesome day of sweat and heavy lifting with you?

DO: Have patience. It will make your move ten times easier. Try not to stress about things you cannot control, i.e., worrying about the old lady moving at a snail’s pace in front of you while you try to walk your kitchen table down the sidewalk. She is moving as fast as she can.

DO NOT: Wait until the day-of to pack. This can/will result in a disgruntled father/parent as throwing your clothes into garbage bags takes a lot longer than one would think.  You can only yell, “Just one more bag!” so many times before they catch on.

An extension of the above: DO NOT throw random things into random boxes. You will be much happier actually knowing where everything is while unpacking. Mixing your computer charger in with your shoe bin will only give you a headache. (I am still looking for said computer charger.)

DO NOT: Leave during rush-hour traffic. While the island of Manhattan is only 23 square miles small, it will take you over an hour to travel half that during rush hour.

- Cara

The 38^th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards was broadcast live from The Las Vegas Hilton last night on CBS.  For me, this year’s telecast had a special place in my heart because I was not only a viewer, but I was a judge!

As a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for more than five years, I had the privilege to judge an assigned category for this year’s Emmys.  As a first-time judge, I found the most fascinating aspect of the process was watching the provided programming back to back and really seeing the difference in content and production quality.

Another great moment was watching friends and colleagues accept their hard-earned statues on stage.  A big shout out to Alissa Cote from Ellen and Terence Noonan from Dr. Oz – you both looked stunning! I’m not sure if you saw me waving and jumping up and down with you … but I was!

All and all, the evening was a success with Dr. Oz and Live With Regis and Kelly ruling the talk show categories.  The cancellation of two ABC soaps, All My Children and One Life To Live, remained an ongoing theme and Gladys Knight performed and paid tribute to the Queen of Daytime, Oprah Winfrey. For a full list of nominees and winners, visit http://www.emmyonline.org/.

- Samantha

Mother’s Day is upon us and here at Hunter PR, it’s a baby boom. In the last two months, we celebrated the birth of three baby boys and in the process three professional women have taken on the new role of “working mothers.”

And while we welcomed three women to ranks of working moms, the public relations industry recently lost one of its first working moms, Jean Schoonover, the former CEO of D-A-Y Public Relations, and beloved sister to the founder of Hunter Public Relations, Barbara Hunter. 

Jean passed away in early April at the age of 90.  A remarkable woman, Jean, in partnership with Barbara, became the first woman and mother to own and operate a public relations firm in the United States. This “sister act” (as they were called when they were named to BusinessWeek’s list of 100 most powerful women in business) achieved success in the early days of the public relations industry which in the 1950’s and 1960’s was an era dominated by men with wives who did not work outside the home.

At Jean’s memorial service, there were many remarks made by her business associates about her acumen, smarts and determination as a CEO of a major public relations firm. All of these comments were very accurate as I was fortunate enough to work with Jean first at D-A-Y, and again when she served as a consultant to Hunter PR in the 1990s.

But what touched me the most were the remarks given by Jean’s children and grandchildren. They spoke of Jean’s important role –that of their mother and family patriarch.  Even though Jean worked day and night in service to her clients, supervised several offices and dozens of employees and traveled the world for business, Jean was first and foremost a loving and attentive mother.  At home she was mom – a woman who displayed intelligence, contentment, confidence, resourcefulness, caring and concern.

Jean Way Schoonover with children, Katherine, Daniel and James.

As a public relations agency owner myself and mother of three children, I often experience the guilt that comes from having a career rather than being a career mom. And, around Mother’s Day, I wonder if I am really worthy of receiving the same accolades as mothers who make a career of being home to nurture and care for her children every day.

However, after being reminded of Jean’s success as a mother of three, I learned that the example you set for your children with your professional life can be as powerful as the time you spend with them.  Jean’s life and legacy shows that success for working mothers in PR can come as a result of how you lead and grow in your professional life, not in spite of it.

To all the working moms in the public relations field (and especially the three new moms here at Hunter Public Relations): Happy Mother’s Day.  Let us hope that we all achieve the same professional and personal success as one of the greatest mothers in and of the agency business, Jean Way Schoonover. 

I appreciate a good prank every now and then… as long as the appreciation is done from a spectator seat faaaaaar away from the action [read: no one come near me with whoopee cushions, silly string, or whatever newfangled items kids these days are using].

In celebration of the time-honored holiday known as April Fools’ Day, let’s revisit some of my favorite hoaxes perpetuated by now-legendary prankster, Google (which I may or may not fell for):

1.  Gmail Paper: Who says you have to sacrifice physical copies in this digital revolution? Request a hard copy of any email and have it delivered to your door. Of course, this isn’t cheap, so the costs are offset by advertisements displayed on the back of your prints… just like your supermarket receipts.

2. Google Romance: It only makes sense that the world’s most-renowned search engine would help you find your one-and-only with its Soulmate Search service. Then Contextual Date pays for date night, as long as you and your honey don’t mind sponsored ads. It’s like Match.com partnered with… well, Google.

3. Gmail Custom Time: Calling all liars, this is the solution for you! By utilizing an e-flux capacitor, Gmail lets you send email to the past, showing up in your recipient’s inbox in the proper chronological order. Caveat: you can send only 10 pre-dated emails per year before messing with the fabric of time.

After years in the hoax biz, it’s expected that Google will announce something on April 1 and we probably won’t even fall for it anymore. Despite being jaded, here’s hoping they come up another doozy to make us forget the date (and recover from last year’s Topeka non-funny joke). 

In the meantime, please watch out for saran wrap, tripwire, and coworkers who have read this article!

- Kelly

The Interactive portion of SXSW (or as I like to call it, college all over again) brings together the world’s brightest minds in tech all onto one “campus” in downtown Austin. Its focus on emerging technologies has earned SXSW Interactive a reputation as one of the best predictors of where the industry is going, and many of today's biggest web and mobile apps were launched during SXSWi, including Twitter and Foursquare.

So what were some of the breakout stars of SXSW this year?

Group texting: Without a doubt, the talk of the town was apps like GroupMe and Beluga that allow you to have create group chats on any phone. These apps were especially useful to connect with fellow students, aka festival attendees.

Networking made easier: Another app that was a huge hit was Hashable, which allows you to ditch the business cards and exchange contact info with the new friends you make at that party. All you have to do is enter their email or Twitter handle into the app and it downloads their contact info. Also, it allows you to see who all your friends are connecting with.

Social TV: One of the most interesting ideas talked about was social TV, and how viewers are posting on social media sites while watching their favorite shows. This was especially interesting to hear about in a panel about the marketing of True Blood, a show that had really embraced the concept of social TV by reaching out to fan communities and providing them with exclusive content.

Being at SXSW completely felt like I was back in college for a week, with early morning classes (panels), meals with friends between class and parties at night. I learned so much and had a great time meeting some of the most interesting people from all over the world.

Olivia