History in the making?

What will historians say about September 10 2008? Assuming there are any historians left around to say anything post CERN LHC-activation - not that much, I suspect. I have to say, I do relish a big old apocalypse story.

About LBi - as this blog continues uncertainly to stutter and stop, and then start agin - nervously pending a shot in the arm/kick up the arse in the form of its its wicked younger sibling LBiQ - there will be little to record. Or a lot, depending on how you focus.

It’s part of the ‘back-to-school’ feel of September that the focus in the workplace tends to turn inwards, generating a slightly insular, soap-opera-ish feel to proceedings. The week’s industry stories - Chrome, the 9 month reduction in Google data storage commitment, IE 8 porn filter - the  latest episode in that long-running saga the browser wars - are out there, but not particularly happening in here, at The Atlantis Building. We’re talking about them, but it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

There’s been a rash of industry events - notably the amusing IAB Summer Debate last week, where the  motion ‘Online advertising doesn’t need to be creative’ got the mauling and subsequent defeat it deserved, albeit with some stout, mainly search/data-based resistance from the Proposers - but these have been as social as they have been about business.

So, as the boffins press the  button and recreate the Big Bang - and personally I can’t help thinking it’s all got a vaguely Dr Strangelove feel to it - what can we say about LBi at this point?

• An unseasonably strong new business pipeline is stretching the agency pleasantly - akin to the first proper workout in the gym after a possibly slightly-too-comfortable summer.
• A couple of important new client wins demonstrate that the gain is worth the pain - see this week’s Campaign for details.
• Some high profile work for British Gas (Generation Green, a youth eco-programme) and HMV (getcloser.com, the music/film social discovery network) is launching.
• Our new CCO Chris Clarke is in, with a flourish, and making all necessary waves - surf’s up on the Creative front for sure.
• Preparations for PICNIC, the leading European creative business networking event, are hotting up.
• Nearly two months after we formally arrived in the new building, I’d say we’re still in the Forming and Storming stages of team building (according to Dr Tuckman - if that is his real name). I think we’re all still doing the ‘Do I know you?’/'I already know you’ thing on a regular basis; but I’m also seeing some new friendships and alliances emerging. This is cool. This is an organisation coming together. This is a great place to work.
• Finally, likesay, the blog’s still very sporadic. Struggling to find a rhythm. I blame the wicked younger sibling - but not for much longer…