The other day as I was sitting in the office looking at all the white stuff coming down outside. Then, I got an IM from a team member on vacation.  Yes, we are such a tight knit team that even on vacation we are concerned about what’s going on in the DAA department!  As he boasted about enjoying his drink outside in the sunny 85° (Naples) Florida weather; I got an idea.  We work really hard during launch in the DAA department. So when we have a little spare time we love to have fun together.  So, we thought it would be fun to play a little prank on our beloved Dylan Wren who is fairly new to DAA.  A trip to the dollar store and 7 rolls of aluminum foil, we had what we call DAA Foil art :) So, we went a step further...since Dylan is an early bird the boss called and told him security was working on the key card system and he wouldn’t be able to get into the building until 9:30am ....that way we can all enjoy the look on his face when he sees his work area.

It cost $7 and my lunch hour, but the look on his face...priceless!

Angela

Paper Invitations?  Evite?  MySpace?  Facebook?  What is the coolest way to tell people about your event?  Seriously, it's all about MyFace.  Look into it!

When Organic’s Talent Acquisition department set out to plan a recruiting event for our New York office, it was decided that Organic’s 14th birthday be the “theme”. So, who better to use as a spokesperson than... a 14-year-old! Creatives in the NY office created the video invitation, Detroit picked up the engineering side, SF polished it off and Talent Acquisition sent the invite out to over 600 people. This is a great example of how we can share talent across our network.

Big thanks go out to everyone involved: Marc Garbarini, Amanda Van Nuys, Stacey Levine, John Schuchard, Michael White, Gautham Hegde, Sal Barone, Conor Brady, Ernesto Ornelas, Traci Armstrong, Alesha Goplin, Derek Scott, Andrew Hansinger, Nantini Rauch and Karen Dahlstrom.

Bravo!

Carrie

Recently, a new LCD screen was added in the lobby of the Detroit office to greet guests and ORG DET team members.  At first, the screen displayed a simple static image slideshow of our recent work.  That was not enough.  Members of the strategy and engineering team developed an application that displayed images of a recent team outing to a Tigers game.  In its current state, James split the screen and wrote and application to:

Populate the bottom half of the screen using images pulled from an Organic flickr account
Populate the top half of the screen to pull Twitter messages from anyone who adds “organic_inc” as a friend and sends a reply.

So give it a whirl and tell DET what you are doing.  Again, just open a Twitter account, add “organic_inc” as a friend and send a reply like this:  “@organic_inc messin’ around with the Detroit Office”.

Have fun with it.  I for one can’t walk by without reading some of the recent posts.

Thanks James!

Michael

Avast, mateys! It were that time of year again, the ridiculous International Talk Like a Pirate day....We all know that ye landlubbers who be sitting in offices all day do go a bit off in the head from time to time. Fortunately, thar be holidays that encourage and celebrate such happenings. Witness, Organic's corporate HR department showing their true colors again this year on this most festive of holidays!

In order....Maya, Kari, Karen, Valerie (hiding), Mia, Tracy, Lee, Mike

Tracy

The SF office sponsored a beer bash trivia contest recently; it was a close competition between Recursos Hurmanos and  Eye of the Liger 2. Eye of the Liger won because they knew  a whole lot more about music. The questions they prevailed with:

1.  Q:  "Who wrote and performed the theme song to Sanford and Son?" A: Quincy Jones

2.  Q:  " What song skyrocketed the band M.A.R.R.S. to stardom? A: Pump up the Volume.

The HR team / Recursos Hurmanos (pictured above) came in a resounding second in terms of trivia although they probably should have won for creativity in costume!

A good time was had by all and we are really looking forward to the next contest.

The photo from left to right:  Ross, Molly, Mike, Dina, Ben and Jon

Dina Folkman and Mike Maiorana

The Organic recruiting engine took another trip to windy city.  The objective was to assess talent.  Ten of us spent morning until night in interview mode.  It was as if Organic was being interview as well as the candidates.  The gift we all had was that the event was an affirmation of sorts, we all sat after the long day discussing the candidates and Mark Bennet said:

“While I was talking to the candidates there were definitely topics that kept on coming up, people wanted to know why I joined Organic. At first it was a really odd question, and then I really got into it...It affirmed my four year old decision to come here!”

After we all hugged and wept together we marched off to a local place called Quartino so we could eat and chat.  All ten of us sat around a table about 3 feet in diameter; elbow to elbow and knee to knee.  At first we felt that it was a little crowded then when the food came we realized that it was perfect.  We could easily converse and grab food from each other.  The parade of food lasted a few hours and we were all stuffed.  I felt the night needed a night cap, so I ordered grappa for whoever would drink it.  It was a bad decision, it has been a long time since I have enjoyed Grappa (enjoyed, right) and it will be an even longer time before I forget again.  The best was Alan’s face; he looked as if he were drinking gasoline……

Chris D’Alessandro

We have a great group of interns in the Detroit office, and they are already hard at work! We conducted the first of 5 lunches and learn presentations on Friday, June 1, where they learned about some of our work on new clients. They were taken through our launch process and given a comprehensive overview of the steps handled by each department.

We love having the interns on board; it’s a great experience for everyone involved.

Carrie Herron

Real Organic kicked off their inaugral season in the NY corporate Soccer League. With Conor in goal, Adam and Emin switching out in back, Max, Tony T, and Seb flying up the wings and Bryan, our goal-machine upfront.

We were unlucky enough to face the reigning Champions Presbyterian II.  We got off to a tentative start and were 5-0 down before Bryan pulled one back. We were down 9-2 at the half.

The second half was another story. We piled on the pressure and scored 2 before they could get a goal, including some sweetly placed goals from Bryan, a muscled-through goal from yours truly, a tap-in from Emin, a blaster from Seb and an amazing run from deep from our goalie, Conor.

The final score was 13-6, which meant that we tied the second half.

Although we lost, it was a great first outing. You can read more about the match, Conor’s appalling injury, see photos of the team in action and video of Conor’s brilliant goal.

http://messingaboutinboats.typepad.com/real_organics/

Adam Turinas

This year we had a great group of kids in the Toronto office.

My son decided that he didn't just want to play or hang out with the other kids - he wanted to exhibit his talents and skills at film-making. 

Here you go - a short animated film of his experiences in the office. It's kind of fun!

Dave Sylvestre

As Organics, we are all recipients of the classic notebook, the Moleskine, in which we pour our creativity – our scribbles and doodles and notes and reminders. As a writer with little to no artistic skill, my Moleskine isn’t filled with cool illustrations and colourful designs. It’s messy, monochromatically blue and full of words and scribbles. It’s a wonderful little book to hold and it’s a durable retainer of all ideas good and bad. This post on turning a moleskine into a hard drive http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/25/80gb_moleskine_hard_.html is an interesting example of how someone took their beloved notebook and transformed it to house and retain ideas in a completely different manner.

Siobhán Kelly

Our own internal Social Wiki, Organism, recently launched! Organism is a place that lets Organics create digital personal spaces that allow us to:

*  Share our work
*  Express ideas and interests
*  Share our experiences at Organic
*  Extend our network at Organic (creating communities)
*  Explore and grow across disciplines

This in turn helps us across the network to better connect, collaborate and communicate.  Individuals who create personal spaces:

*  Increase their visibility across the Organic network
*  Grow new relationships with their colleagues
*  Express their unique talents, experiences and potential
*  Have a new forum to express their ideas, share them and receive
   feedback from colleagues

By interacting with and contributing to their space, individual Organics are rewarded through greater recognition and collaboration with an extended network of colleagues.

David Feldt

On Thursday April 26th Organic participated in the 15th annual, nationally recognized Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. 

At the San Francisco office the day was strictly about having fun, and I can vouch that we were successful in doing that!

The children that participated ranged in age from 8 weeks old, to middle school students; some with a sibling in tow, and others braving the day on their own.  We started the day with some breakfast snacks and a little informal meet and greet, then watched a presentation by Bill Camp.  After the presentation was over we started our office tour which began fairly controlled, but slowly turned to kids scattered all over the office having a great time!

Kelley and Dan were definitely the glue that pulled us all back together at the end with their Happy Feet creative presentation- the kids were focused for almost 15 minutes, which after the morning seemed like a small miracle!

Lastly we split into groups for our Mini Camp Organic scavenger hunt which ended in the pizza party which the entire office was invited to.  Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, and left with lots of goodies and full bellies to say the very least.

As someone who doesn’t have children of my own, this was an extremely cool opportunity for me to see a different side of people that I work with.  It’s easy to forget that the person you see in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee every morning has a life other than what you see of them at Organic.  They have families and fabulous, smart, creative children [you should have seen the white board after they were through with it!] that they go home to every day.  I’m grateful that I could participate in this day, and am already looking forward to what may unfold next year.

Thanks again to Lara, Molly, and Kesha who put this all together!

Kathryn Huggins

Each client that we work with has, in essence, its own language--acronyms, words, or phrases--that we must learn in order to converse in “their” world.  The automotive category is no exception, but we take it a step further by using it in our everyday vernacular. Perhaps it's because the automotive industry is such a huge business, employing hundreds of thousands of people around the world directly and indirectly, or perhaps because the car is such a vital part of so many people’s lives.  Or, maybe it has something to do with our client roster.

Regardless, here are just a few of the words we utter:

• Gearing up
• Revved up
• Switching gears
• Out of gas
• Spare tire
• Pedal to the metal
• Stoked
• Running on empty
• Get traction
• Spinning out of control
• Stuck in reverse
• And, my personal favourite, getting up in someone's grill

Which do you use?

Feel free to add your personal favs to the list!

Vito Greco

Yesterday, the Detroit office gave Bill Camp a “Farewell” party as he makes his move to the San Francisco office in the next few days.  We sent Bill Camp off in style!  We decorated the room with streamers, “Farewell” signs, banners and posters.  The event was catered by Pastries by Ellen.  We had everything from chicken and beef satays to stuffed mushrooms and cake!  As a going away gift, we matted and framed a Detroit skyline picture that everyone signed.  We all had a great time!

Thanks, Bill, for your dedication to our office over the years! 

Detroit will miss you!

Kim Wetter