Mike Manuel highlights a piece in the SF Business Times noting an uptick in tech PR in the Bay over the last 3 months. New shops with names like FlashPoint and New Venture Comms are opening up to cater to the influx of VC-backed start-ups.

The piece is probably 12 months too late by my reckoning. Things started picking up during ’05, though agencies were understandably cautious about its longevity. The last three months have been busy more because that’s when most firms review their agencies than any macro-economic change.

Competition for staff, good staff, was hard then and always will be – it hasn’t changed in the last three months. The piece flags additional perks being offered like transport contributions and more salary (revolutionary stuff). Perhaps we’ll go back to the concept of duvet days. (Ha – remember those?) More likely, agencies will continue to provide the best environment, training, clients and development for their teams. But by and large even those are hygiene factors – it’s the culture which makes coworkers friends, which makes the agency fun to work in, supportive, challenging and which makes people get out of bed in the morning. Duvet or not.

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