We’re relocating our offices in San Francisco to bigger, custom-built premises in January. We’ll still be downtown in the thick of the action, but need larger offices to provide room for future expansion, and to step the agency’s presentation up a notch.

Relocating is always a pivotal moment in an agency’s growth. The final months in the old location when you are crammed in are some of the best times, and the most frustrating. The culture is white hot since you are all forced to get along, work well together and just make it work. The future is bright with the new place around the corner and the entire team is outward looking. At the same time, the fabric of the building starts to work against you. It doesn’t reflect the true scale of the business and just booking a meeting room becomes harder with the sheer level of traffic. On balance, personally I like the buzz despite the operational ticks.

Getting into the new space is a watershed. At first you all feel you are rattling around; that there’s too few of you. How will you fill the space? It’s too quiet – you almost miss your crammed offices where everyone knew everything you were up to. And then the newbies join, and the new location is what they’ve always known. They join in part because of the new location – it seems more solid and credible. The agency attracts a wider pool of talent, not just the pioneering-types.

Soon those who were at your old space are outnumbered. The lags who tell tales of how you all used to work in a shoe box, without the slick surroundings of today. The newbies don’t know how lucky they are – and they quite rightly roll their eyes at you. They get it okay.

It’s fun. It’s a milestone. A watershed. A landmark.

Actually, at the moment, it’s more like a building site [photos] than a landmark, but you get the point.

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