Subject: Technicalities Resent-From: nystaff@agency.com Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 16:35:39 -0400 From: Mitch Golden To: "Staff (New York)" Technicalities Sept 13, 1999 *) Introduction A short while ago I had a conversation with Aaron, and he lead me to believe that we in the tech department have a bit of a public relations problem. It seems that the impression still prevails within the office that we techies are a bunch of pale, smelly geeks who wear high-water pants, pocket protectors, and eyeglasses held together with bandaids. According to this legend, we relate better to computers than to people. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, let me tell you. It's a pretty rare week when most of us don't shower at least once. And can we ever relate to people! When we go out for pizza, you should hear the lively discussions: Unix vs. NT is a big subject, and so is Oracle vs. Sybase. But as absurd as it is, our image problem persists. In an attempt to invite people to get to know us better, I'll sporadically write these notes, as a sort of "Goings on about the Tech Department". (And hey, what about those strategists? Aren't _they_ the bookish nerds? I mean, have you seen that "Quiet Zone" sign they have? What's with that?) *) Missing? The most common question I get asked nowadays about the state of tech department is who's in charge. Am I the VP or is Ritesh Patel? Here's the scoop: when Ritesh took the job, he and his wife didn't factor in the exigencies of the housing market in the New York area. They were unable to find a suitable place before their son had to start school. The upshot is that Ritesh may never start as VP of Tech in NY, or he may in several months. Aaron will keep us informed as events unfold. In the meantime, I will be both billable and managerial (and in fact I was proud to note that I was on the overbooked list for the first time at this past Friday's staffing meeting). Bear in mind however, that aside from whatever other fires need to be put out, I'll also have to be working on Coke, and Gucci, and KKR/Boyds. *) New(ish) Unlike the VPs of other departments, I haven't consistently sent out notes announcing the arrival of new members. There isn't anyone who's very new, but here's a list of those people who have joined us during the spring or later, and what they're doing: Henry Sauvageot - FUBU Olivia Wu - BA Jamil Ellis - BA/Xerox (Just graduated from Columbia, Jamil is well known for his ability to get into 452 Sexual Positions in just 120 minutes. You'll have to ask him about it.) Yuju Yen - Colgate (Despite appearances, her name's pronounced E-Lu.) Debra Ronsvalle - Texaco/Unilever So, if you haven't bid these folks a welcome, get to know them now. (And did you note that the hires are 60% female?! I told you we weren't all geeks! Or at least not all _boy_ geeks.) *) Migration A not-new-to-AGENCY face is that of Eugenia Antipas, who is going to be helping me out on the KKR-Boyds site, as well as Gucci. For those of you who don't know her, Eugenia has been the Site Manager on the Compaq team. Outward bound is Tim Appnel, who is leaving the NY tech department, to work for Corporate. He will be evaluating software in order to set up partnerships. Tim is also a new dad, so being a bit further from the deadlines and other craziness of the client end of our business should help him sleep a bit better - except that he won't be sleeping for the next 6 months anyway. *) Praise Giving public praise is sometimes a dangerous thing. One runs the risk of giving offense to those who aren't being praised, since so many people at AGENCY.COM work hard and do good work. Cognizant of this risk, this time I want to call attention to the amazing feat that Henry Sauvageot (and the rest of the folks on the FUBU team) just pulled off. In June, they were given a wholely unrealistic deadline to get a site up by Labor Day weekend. Henry was quite a sight some of these past weeks. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he often looked like he was about to fall asleep into his keyboard. There was good reason for that - he'd just spent all night in the office getting that last bit working. The amazing thing, however, is not just that Henry worked as hard as he did. This site required the design of a database, and the coding of substantial numbers of pages in Chilisoft ASP. The thing is: Henry knew neither of these technologies just a few short weeks ago. When I'm interviewing for positions within our department, I tell everyone I'm looking for people who are "broad but not necessarily deep", and who are willing to learn new things. Henry sure came through on that score. I'm a big believer in the trial by fire as a way to learn. Henry did it in spades this last few weeks, and we'll award him the honorary asbestos underwear. (BTW, the upshot in the end was that the client didn't need the site by Labor Day anyway, so the team has another month to work on it. Does that make you crazy or what?!) *) Meetings A few people from outside the department have attended our tech meetings, to get to know us better. They are at (roughly) 10AM on some Wednesdays, in the 9th floor lounge. If you're interested in attending, let me know.