With what seems like half the team on holiday or constantly out of the office this week, it ought to have been a quiet week here at CL HQ. Funnily enough, it wasn't.
On the new biz front a lot of hard work over the last few weeks by Sophie and Jess saw us win an exciting new project with a popular retail brand. Anna continues in her new role at lightning speed as she explores lots of interesting new business leads as well as meeting existing clients.
Ben & Ben (Ben Squared?) have kicked off the next phase of work for one side of our large publishing client, while Andy P and myself have started the other. Rich has been getting well-acquainted with a charity recruitment site, and Andy T has been getting so stuck in with Phase 2 of our Nordic bank project that he's come down with the lurgy. Poor guy.
As Tess - when she's not choking on Ryvita dust - manages the office with aplomb, Mark's been working on the unenviable task of managing our servers. Oddly enough he loves it. Our intern James has been working on all sorts of stuff including the new 2015.ampersandconf.com which is looking mighty lovely.
Although Hack Farm might seem like a distant memory, there are already a few posts on this blog that discuss the nuances of some of the projects we did. But be sure to keep an eye on hackfarm.org for more info on the projects, plus a peach of a video directed by Kate and edited by Graham... starring every member of the Clearleft team.
On Wednesday some of us attended Andy and Jeremy's first public speaking workshop in the auditorium downstairs. It was really useful and hugely enlightening. Giving a 5 minute talk to your colleagues is a lot harder than it sounds, but it's even worse to watch yourself on video after. We worked through aspects of pitch & tone, clarity, eye contact and all the rest, and all in all it was a really productive 4 hours. We're already looking forward to the next one.
Finally, Ant. It's his last day today, so we're all going out for a nice dinner to send him off in style. It's been great working with him and we're all going to miss his infectious enthusiasm and his strong geekery that rivalled even that of Jeremy's. Best of luck Ant, and onwards and upwards.