Sep 14, 2026
2026 NYS Tourism Excellence Awards Honoree: The Great Outdoors of New York State
Collaborate to Win: How 20+ DMOs Found One Voice with My New York Vibe
Susan Green, President of Paperkite, will be joined by Ryan Geraghty, from This is Cooperstown and Kristina Mukherjee from Destination Dutchess, on Thursday in Corning at the 2026 NYS Tourism Excellence Summit to share the story behind My New York Vibe. When 20+ New York State destinations set out to tell domestic travelers that New York is the country's best outdoor recreation playground, the hard part was never the message. It was math. How do you turn many distinct places into one voice without flattening what makes each one worth the drive?
My New York Vibe was the answer. Built with tourism marketing agency Paperkite, the campaign targeted outdoor-seeking travelers by mood and style rather than by map. For some, that is scaling a High Peak in the Adirondacks. For others, it is a hammock, a glass of Finger Lakes wine, and nowhere to be. Susan Green, Ryan Geraghty, and Kristina Mukherjee will walk through how the partnership came together, how the positioning held across county lines, where it got genuinely difficult, and how the group worked through it. Come for the creative. Stay for the collaboration playbook!
Why You Should Attend This Session:
- Learn how to build a single, compelling brand platform across multiple destinations without diluting any
one of them. - See a practical model for multi-destination partnership, from getting everyone to the table to keeping them
there through launch. - Get a mood-segmented-based audience approach you can apply to your own destination, whether you
have twenty partners or none.
Key Takeaways:
- A repeatable framework for aligning many stakeholders around one campaign voice and how to handle it
when partners want different things. - How targeting travelers by mindset and style, rather than by geography, opens up audiences a traditional
destination campaign misses. - Honest lessons on what was hardest about a 20+ partner collaboration and the specific decisions that kept
it moving.
About Susan:
Susan Green is the Founder and CEO of Paperkite, a full service destination marketing, creative, and digital agency in Cooperstown, New York. For more than 20 years she has been bringing travel and tourism brands to life and getting them in front of the right visitors. Under her leadership, Paperkite has become a trusted partner to Madison County, Discover Long Island, Explore Tualatin Valley, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A certified New York State Women Owned Business Enterprise, the agency specializes in the kind of complex, multi-partner work My New York Vibe demanded.
About Ryan:
Ryan Geraghty, PDM, is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Destination Marketing Corporation, home to This Is Cooperstown and Upstate Vacations, where she leads brand strategy and integrated marketing across web, social, email, and paid media for one of the most recognized destinations in youth baseball and sports tourism and one of NYS’s best hidden gem counties, Schoharie, reaching an audience of 3M+ and driving visitation from national and international markets. Ryan was the Managing Director at Paperkite, and "BP" (Before Paperkite), she managed a multi-state live-events portfolio and radio station operations for the Townsquare Media Group along the East Coast. Ryan is known for cohesive brand voices, measurable impact, and - given half a chance - writing RFPs for fun, and untangling technical website and social media hiccups for anyone who asks.
About Kristina:
Kristina Mukherjee, CTA, is Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Destination Dutchess, where she leads the marketing strategy for one of the Hudson Valley's most visited counties. Kristina Isabel P.D. Mukherjee, CTA, is the Sr. Director of Marketing & Communications for Destination Dutchess. She brings over 20 years of experience in brand strategy, storytelling, communications, and community engagement. Her career spans corporate and nonprofit sectors, from working behind the scenes on the iconic New Year’s Eve Ball Drop with the Times Square Alliance, to launching a college network for MTV, to helping organizations like Abilities First and Scenic Hudson refine their digital presence. Kristina also served on the marketing committee for the New York State Destination Marketing Organization. When she’s not promoting Dutchess County and the Hudson Valley, she’s happily playing tourist in it, dining at the newest eateries, exploring kid-friendly hikes, and attending community events.
About Paperkite:
Paperkite is a full-service destination marketing, creative, and digital agency based in Cooperstown, New York. For more than 17 years we have helped destinations, attractions, and hospitality brands turn strategy into visitation. Our work spans brand and creative, paid media, digital, and analytics, with a specialty in complex multi-partner and niche visitor campaigns. Paperkite is a certified New York State Women Owned Business Enterprise.
About Destination Marketing Corporation:
Destination Marketing Corporation for Otsego and Schoharie Counties (DMC) is the officially designated Tourism Promotion Agency for both counties under the New York State Tourism Matching Funds Program. An independent 501(c)(6) non-profit established in 2014, DMC manages the visitor economy through its consumer brands This is Cooperstown, We Go Otsego and Upstate Vacations - attracting visitors whose spending supports local businesses, sustains jobs, and makes Otsego and Schoharie Counties better places to live, work, and visit.
About Destination Dutchess:
Destination Dutchess is the officially designated destination marketing organization for Dutchess County, New York, and is accredited by the Destination Marketing Accreditation Program of Destinations International. An independent 501(c)(6) non-profit, its award-winning tourism attraction efforts bring millions of dollars in visitor spending to area businesses and major economic investment to the county, benefiting all residents.