via planning meetings

As a part our open open office management philosophy, we spend a weekend each year, reviewing everything VIA, and planning for our future together.

This year's meetings were great fun, taking place in NYC and at Mohonk Mountain House. On Friday, we held meetings in three of New York's great public spaces. The first series of meetings were held at Paley Park, one of the best examples of public space in all of the city. It's a wonderful courtyard, with an entire wall of water on one end. If you've never been there, you should really check it out when you're in the 'hood. In a few minutes, you'll forget that you're in the busiest city on earth.

Our second series of meetings were held in Washington Square Park - a good place to buy methamphetamines, while you watch half naked homeless people mix with NYU students. We spent the later part of the afternoon in Central Park, and witnessed some pretty cool acrobatic kids pull off stunts on rocks (not an analogy for kids on crack or anything - there really were some kids doing sweet backflips on huge rocks).

Day two of our planning weekend was spent at Mohonk Mountain House. Dating back to the late 1800's, Mohonk is a historic castle/hotel nestled in the Shawangunk Mountains. It's a glorious exhibit of 19th Century architecture, and is also a gloriously over-priced hotel. We witnessed some of the best mountain views on the east coast. We also did our best to blend with lots of old money from NYC, crossword puzzle grannies, and outdoorsy yuppies. Not a lot of Puma or Adidas here, if you know what I mean.

We'll post a slide show of any signicant (and work safe) photos of the weekend, shortly. We'll also try and give you a snapshot of what we're planning for 2006. We managed to lay out some awesome strategies and plans for next year. Lots of rule-breaking fun for everyone ahead. We promise.