Episode 2:

The One With All the Lights.

One of the most important characters in any good sitcom is the very city in which the show is set. So this week I stepped out into the streets Sydney to get to know the character I’d be starring alongside for the rest of this season on Havas Lofts: Sydney.

I just went with the first 3 results. Sydnians is gonna have to step its SEO game up.

Since I’ve arrived, the weather in Sydney has been almost unfailingly mild (65F/20C most days) despite it being, what the locals refer to as, “winter.” The only reason I’m willing to forgive… Sydnians. Sydneyers. Sydnicks? (Google is saying “Sydneysiders,” so we’ll go with that.) The only reason I’m willing to forgive Sydneysiders for their comments about how it’s “so cold outside” is because it seems their city disagrees with them. For the past 3 weeks Sydney has been putting on an awesome, and predominantly outdoor, festival.

The crowds were thick at Vivid displays all along the waterfront, especially at this the giant tunnel of lights.

Vivid is Sydney’s annual festival of “light, music, and ideas” whose most prominent feature is some of the most impressive projection artwork I’ve ever seen. Beyond the lights there are things like a silent rave in the park, tons of concerts, foodie events, and other assorted cultural goodery. It’s been really interesting to be out in a new city and see just how many people will show up to look at cool stuff.

This whole paragraph was just an excuse to show you this picture that I didn’t realize was completely out of focus until I uploaded it here.

Back indoors, I spent this week at Havas WW working on two projects that are almost complete opposites in terms of familiarity.

The first has working upstairs with members of the social team from Havas Media (hooray Village system!). I had the opportunity to join the team on a brainstorm for a wide-open brief for one of their clients. It was a great experience to be a part of the project — leveraging a sports partnership — that fell so far outside my usual creative work.

What I noticed right away was the speed at which the social team generates ideas and delivers on them. The pace is distinctly different than what I’m more familiar with in TV/Video production, in which we have weeks of development before our first client meeting. Because of the speed at which they work, the entire team has a seat at the table when it comes to ideation, with feedback, edits, and approvals to go to the client all happening within our circle of chairs in the conference room.

This is not indoors or particularly near the office, but it is proof I can take a picture of the Opera House that is in focus.

My second project has me much closer to my comfort zone, helping edit scripts and craft short form video content for one of the agencies largest clients. It’s been interesting to see how another agency handles the production process and to see the similarities and differences to what I’m used to back home. Being dropped into a project like this has been a really awesome way to get to work with some Havas WW team members outside the Creative group as well.

It’s been particularly great working with the Account and Production teams whose members have been patient with me while I adapt to their process and repeatedly ask them to download things off the server because I can’t figure out how get access (hi Charlotte!).

There are definitely already learnings from both of these projects that I’m planning on taking back home with me. Not to mention a few things that I will hopefully be helpful to pass along to my colleagues here.

It’s almost like I’m on some kind of… learning exchange.

We’ve been warned.