First Edition

Welcome to the first ad:tech / iMedia HQ newsletter. We thought you might like to know a bit more about what we’re doing here in the office, work and not work related…

New team members
City2Surf
Anniversary of ad:tech
Sarah’s social life
What’s happening at work
current office food trends

New team members

Annick joined our team recently assisting with Marketing and Content coordination. She’s from Montreal, Canada (yes, the Canadians are taking over the office…) and has been in Australia for seven months, loving it so much she’s keen to stay :) we like that. In addition to being an awesome Marketing and Content Assistant she’s also an incredible salsa dancer, a coffee lover (soy latte if you’re asking) and a tiny bit of a hippy (silent Blue Mountains retreat anyone..?) Welcome Annick.

Colby and Sarah are working in our office for the next couple of months. They normally reside in the Portland, Oregon office – one of dmg::events many ‘arms’ – but they’re here in glorious Sydney for a bit. Colby is a tough-as-nails sports guy who thinks the Sydney winter is child’s play. Sarah seems to be very much enjoying the adjustment to Australian work culture (:)) and is getting in to hot yoga. Result. (Pic of Colby below)

City2Surf
Almost the whole team entered (and completed) the City2Surf.

Tim was the office champion and clocked a personal pb at 1hour 7 minutes 25 seconds – congratulations. Some say it’s the new Skins, some say it’s the hours in the gym, take your pick…

This was Sarah’s first ever race and first time running this distance – so a whole bunch of pbs being smashed there – and she did it non stop, awesome work. Lucy was Sarah’s personal assistant / wing man, in charge of refreshment, entertainment / distraction, crowd management, press relations, oh, and carrying stuff.

Colby also ran – good on him for joining in the Australian ‘way’. We’re pretty sure he enjoyed it but he flew back to Oregon the next day so who knows…

Anniversary of ad:tech
It was the fourth anniversary of ad:tech arriving in Australia last week. We celebrated with sparkling mineral water and a big strategy meeting. Yeah right. The Wine Library in Woolhara hosted our celebration a lunch and we had an awesome time. I think we’d agree on recommending the haloumi, the scallop skewers and the paprika almonds.

Sarah’s social life
Sarah found more food for her twitter feed when she attended SMCSYD (#SMCSYD) at the Ivy. The discussion was on “Social Personas: How different is the social media you from the real you?” There was lots of great discussion, Sarah left feeling very inspired, wanting a Samsung Camera and to know if men really are more vain online as this article suggests.

Taking her sporting persona out again, Sarah also went to the inaugural Agency vs. Agency ping pong tournament at Dr Pong. Although she won all her matches her honorary team – Daemon Group – might not have been best choice given that they lost the ‘cup’ to Melon Media. Rematch and follow up is 7 September…check out the FB group here.

What’s happening at work
And we’re really pleased with the progress on the iMedia Brand Summit. All the speakers are confirmed and the final program is live. Plus we’ve confirmed 70+ amazing brand attendees and sold out of all sponsorship opportunities. The Summit is in just a few weeks so we’re finishing off the extra bits and pieces but it’s going to be an excellent event.

It doesn’t stop there… we’re already starting to think about ad:tech Sydney 2011. Speaker submissions will open next month – stay tuned for more on that.

And – last thing I promise – keep your eyes and ears open for more exciting ad:tech announcements in the next couple of weeks… I’m not saying anything right now but soon we’ll be shouting… :)

Cheers,
The ad:tech Team

p.s. current office food trends

• Tim’s sanger of choice at the moment: ham, cheese, tomato, carrot, pickle on grainy bread, served on a wooden board – don’t ask
• Annick is blending her own soy milk…?!?
• Lucy has added almonds and cornflakes to her usual muesli mix.
• Colby c/o Mark has a growing addiction to Boost bars.
• And we’re all loving the cookie options from Three Beans coffee shop. Awesomeness.