Scott Tillitt
Founder

Scott is a connector — of dots and people. At times — often at the same time — throughout his 30- year career he has been a strategist, publicist, marketer, social entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, community catalyst and writer. He has a broad perspective working in various culture-shaping (and sometimes suffocating) worlds — advertising, media, interactive design, photography, technology, television and fashion... before turning to social impact.

Years ago, catalyzed by 9/11 and an ongoing journey of spiritual and social awakening, he broke the trance of an increasingly cynical consumer culture and started applying his corporate-honed skills to positive, impactful change. He has an insatiable interest in transforming failed systems, in big ideas and the behaviors that drive people, what resonates with them, and how to engage them.

In his new incarnation, he worked with Josh Baran on the media relations for the 2003 New York visit of the Dalai Lama, handling various press events and nearly 500 foreign and domestic journalists from all forms of media. (He also handled media for subsequent visits of His Holiness.)

He founded Antidote Collective in 2004 and has since worked with a range of groups, people, films and books covering the environment, localism, social enterprise, religion and spirituality, social justice, healthcare and education. Just a few examples: publicity for Phil Donahue’s anti-war film Body of War, PR for healthcare "whistleblower" Wendell Potter and groups like Rainforest Action Network and Common Future (then Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE), branding for Rippel Foundation, strategic communications for the Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation, and creative naming development for American Express and global visual rebranding support for Coca-Cola with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide's famed design and innovation division Brand Integration Group (BIG). He's helped clients on both US coasts and places in between, in Europe, and down under in Australia. (See clients.)

In 2002 Scott spent a week in India with leading environmental and anti-globalization activist (and bona fide heroine) Vandana Shiva, fellow activist and editor Satish Kumar, Ela Gandhi (yes, that Gandhi — his granddaughter), and about a dozen others on a small research farm discussing Gandhi’s approach to nonviolence and personal and community self-sufficiency. It was a profound introduction to what we now call localism (or Local Living Economies).

In early 2009 he founded a new kind of collaborative space for work and community in Beacon, NY. Inspired by the coworking and localism movements, BEAHIVE adds a civic dimension and is a rich community of members with a range of creative and technical talents. He has opened additional locations to create a small network of community-focused, collaborative hives in the Hudson Valley.

Scott was a co-founder and the board chair of Re>Think Local, a nonprofit collaborative of locally owned independent businesses, artists, farmers, and nonprofits working to co-create a better Hudson Valley: vibrant, sustainable, locally rooted and human scale, with equal concern for people, planet, and prosperity.

He is a producer of Social Venture Institute / Hudson Valley, a retreat for world-changing social entrepreneurs and innovative nonprofit leaders, and was the driving force behind TEDxLongDock, a day-long event of stimulating and inspiring talks on the impact of arts, culture, the creative economy and entrepreneurship in the Hudson Valley. He's also on the advisory council of Sustainable Hudson Valley and the steering committee of Progressive PR Professionals - PR/PR/PR (a network of 1000-plus communicators).

He has volunteered with the Taproot Foundation (which provides pro bono services to nonprofits), has been on the steering committee of Slow Food Hudson Valley (one of 850 Slow Food chapters worldwide that promotes good, clean and fair food) and a member of the Public Relations Society of America (Association/Nonprofit section) and the Publicity Club of New York (PCNY), the oldest ongoing organization for the PR professional in the country.

For many years you could find Scott's name in the masthead of Photo District News (PDN), the award-winning international magazine for photographers and visual creatives.

In his previous life, he was in the New York office of interactive pioneer Red Sky (later folded into Agency.com), where he led the external communications efforts to build awareness of and differentiate the $50 million, eight-office agency. He has managed marketing communications and media outreach at a leading advertising/media trade association, handled client campaigns for a boutique Silicon Alley PR firm, and managed a $14 million retail account at electronic retailer QVC (during media mogul Barry Diller's time there). He sports a degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

His personal antidotes are a strong meditation practice and holistic living, which keep him centered and positive and his mind agile and creative (relatively speaking). He lives with his partner Amy Soucy and two cats in Beacon, New York, just north of NYC in the verdant Hudson Valley.