2010: A Personal and Professional Wrap Up

I find these end of year wrap ups very therapeutic. These are more for me than anyone else so if you're expecting something insightful below don't read on. It's more of a diary entry with the facts laid out. No real reflections or insight.

Looking back on a year (like 2003) is strange and fun at the same time. Here's the previous years for those interested.

2003 2005 2009

2010 was probably the weirdest year I've had professionally. While 2009 was the biggest personally, as I got married, this year was definitely a year of professional.... upheaval. I spent a long time in meetings with lawyers and signing documents and generally frustrated at how the "system" works. My own laziness and gullibility cost me a lot of money because the "system" doesn't run on common sense but balogna.

But lets concentrate on the good stuff...

Personal Life

I Entered the Red Bull Flugtag
This is one of those "Oh wouldn't that be cool to do but I never will" things. Luckily this year I was the pilot of team Fail Whale in this year's Red Bull Flugtag, Sydney. A big thanks to Robbie, Mark and Aaron for building the craft. And Brad for being the Jelly fish on the day. We were the only entry without wings and we still came 15th! The only other agency that entered Visual Jazz Sydney came 38th!

That's my feet in the photo below. I highly recommend entering the comp if it's on in your area.

I didn't have a costume as I was in the whale.

A New Car

After surviving quite well without a car for 12 years in Sydney we now have a new car. A brand new VW Golf. It's officially my wife's car as I was content to just use the fantastic GoGet service but as Ervi only just got her licence they won't let P's use the cars.

This new car resulted in the need to clean out our garage. Which was filled with empty computer boxes, filing cabinets, tyres, and junk from years of hoarding and collecting for Soap. Lots of visits to the bins, a truck pick up for Soap junk and a shit load of sweeping resulted in a usable lock up garage.

Having driven just 5 times in the last 12 years I feel like a learner again. When we filled out the insurance policy it asked "how many accidents have you had in the last 5 years" I put 0. It never asked a more appropriate question of "How many times have you driven in the last 5 years" which I also would have answered 0. Even Youii who's whole campaign is about asking the right questions didn't ask this. Fools!

The VW Golf is great but I still secretly long for the GTI or R. But I've always been one to live under my means and the nice little Golf suited Ervi's budget.

This was the odometer after the Soap Boot Camp trip to hunter valley. It ended on this as I parked to drop people off at the office.

My Best Presentation Experience: Ignite Sydney

After posting a joke about Google Trends in 2007 I was able to convert this into a presentation for Ignite Sydney. Again I pandered to what I thought the audience would want to hear about with a crowd pleaser topic. This is as close as I'll get to doing stand up, which is another life dream.

The talk is now on Youtube. I bluffed a few screens by going off script but I did well with the audience laughing. If only my voice didn't sound so weird. Ignite is one of the best nights for me, and it's pretty much free (I donated $5 at the entrance).

Here are my slides for those interested.

Below was my fav talk from the night. Again movies and psychology. You can't go wrong.



I probably wont be able to do another Ignite talk as they are trying to mix up the speakers and this was my 2nd talk. But I'll try to convince someone from the Soap team to talk in Feb 2011. The 15 seconds per slide and 20 slide limit is liberating.

Travel: USA Trip #7 was awesome
This time with Ervi. Most of my other trips have been partner free. Which is great for work but boring otherwise. The trip was for the Ad Age Digital conference talk and I added a personal holiday to the end of it.

This trip we visited Las Vegas. I had no idea it was so close to the Grand Canyon as I would have ventured there also had I of known.

Saw the LOVE show by Circ De Soleil

and the Blue Man Group.

Braved the crowds to see the Tim Burton show in MOMA NYC,

ate at Shake Shack,

stumbled into two art shows Mr Brainwash in NYC (we saw Exit Through the Gift Store that same night and the penny dropped who this artist was)

David Choe in LA

did the Top of the Rock

ventured to Brooklyn for the first time.

visited the Getty Center

and the Disney Concert Hall in dirty downtown LA.

Travel: Visited New Orleans!
I was voted onto the ANDY jury for 2010 (an awesome achievement unto itself) and like always met some amazing people and saw some great work. And as always was annoyed at how easily great work can miss out in awards due to political agendas or ignorance.

I even got to say hi to Shepard Fairey who was on the jury. His manager sent us all a hand pulled print. This hangs in the LA office now.

And got to go to a Jay Z concert and sit in a VIP area (fuck yeah!) and got very close to Beyonce
Yes, I seem much cooler than I really am.

Travel: Went to Brisvegas

I judged the Brisbane Art Directions club digital work. Didn't get to see much of Brisbane but did get to go to the video game Mana Bar. And saw Zero Punctuation guy at the door.

Travel: Went to Melbourne for an indie Games Conference

Also realized that indie devs need to suck it up and sell out more sometimes.

Made a good friend with a card carrying Mormon

Josh came over for a 3 month internship from the USA and we had a great time. He'll be joining the Soap LA crew in 2011 which is great. I say card carrying Mormon as I thought that was a figure of speech but it's true, all Mormons are required to carry a card.

Met Nathan from Deeplocal
Probably one of the nicest and most interesting people I have met

 

Bought an Investment Property

I became a landlord after buying a property in the same block as I live. So far it's been very easy as the real estate agent does everything and I can't be assed joining the body corporate. Oh and my first job as landlord.... was to up the rent $20 a week [evil laugh]

Did Movember properly
The previous years I have kept a beard and shaved at the end. This year I spent November with a full moe. It was itchy but we raised $1500 for charity

New Glasses
I didn't realize my old glasses were three years old until the paint started to peel off them. My new specs (see above) go for the big nerd look. They are also 5x heavier than my previous titanium glasses. My nose is slowly getting used to this.

Old glasses below:

Got a Valid Medicare Card
The new glasses prompted me to get a valid Medicare card (needed to bulk bill that eye test). The previous one expired in 2007. This also reminds me that I haven't been to the doctor in three years?!

Got a Smart Phone & used it like a dumbass
We got a free Nexus One in the office (thanks to a Unity licence) and I snapped it up. This was after having a Nokia 6280 for 4 years. It still works but I got sick of not having a properly synced calendar and remote email access.

I then proceeded to be an idiot and rack up $700 in data charges in 2 months! My tears to the 3 operator got me a 50% discount.... luckily. I'm now still waiting for my iPhone 4 because as much as I like the Android platform I want access to all the apps and games the App store offers.

Discovered new music I liked
I didn't post that much to Sleevage this year but I was able to discover some new music (well new to me) over the last 12 months.

Moderat
I put these guys on high rotation late in 2010.

Nina Simone
I'm probably the last person on earth to discover the name of the singer of so many classic songs.

The Temper Trap
Ok this is borderline but the wife likes them so I'll play along. They are Aussie so that helps.

Wax Tailor
This has been played a lot in the office and I finally asked "who is this playing?"

Santogold
This would be my karaoke song if it wasn't so embarrassing.

Broken Bells
This really grew on me. Thanks to Rob for the tip.

Saw a Double Rainbow
Didn't think to make a video of the experience. I saw this while at the Cockatoo Island for the Biennale.

 

 

Professional Life
As someone who is obsessed with work I find it hard to separate professional and personal life. I also find it hard to relax and not think about work. It's a hobby and a career. Here's some of the big events of the year outside of actual projects.

Won Digital Agency of the Year

After many years of being runners up or finalists in these agency awards we finally won Adnews Digital Agency of the Year. A huge win for the team who worked their asses off.
We were runners up for B&T Awards also. I'm still confused how they judge these things and believe you really can't win by being honest. It's more about the grand story than reality. One agency will win B&T Awards but then not even be short listed for the Adnews awards. How that happens shows you the impact the jury has.

We followed that up with not even being short listed for the 2010 B&T Awards this year :( I nice dose of reality.

Speaking of award blue balls we were shortlisted for 10 AIMIA awards this year and walked away with none. Luckily we called their bluff and didn't send anyone to the actual event. We spent that money towards dinners for the team.

Won the Sydney Global Game Jam
Hendrik and I spent 48 hrs locked in the Powerhouse Museum for the Global Game Jam. Our team (Hendrik & myself and a UNSW student Sash) actually made our game in 38 hrs for the Global Game Jam as we went home for a good sleep on the last night. The game was featured on Good Game and some other shows but I don't have video of that :(

Here's a video of the game play and you can play Tentacle Assassin yourself here. I did the majority of the code (AS2!) and audio and Hendrik did the art while Sash did support code.

And yes we chose a theme that would play to the audience as who doesn't love lots of blood.

Funny story: it was 1 hr before the final presentation when we were told out game could not be shown due to the small kids in the audience. After lots of protest (read: whining) we were allowed to display it with a warning to the kiddies.

It was a great event and I met Dan Graf from Dr D studios and Sash from Bit Battalion who I still talk to regularly. It got a little tense around 20 hrs in but we made it through.

Working 38hrs straight, after already doing a full day of work at Soap takes the wind out of you. Especially when Glenn is yelling at his computer every 5 minutes for his game Gnilley.

Ate a Shit Sandwich (but I ordered it)
When I launched the Hot & Cold list early in the year I did not expect the large amount of poo thrown my way. Some of it my own fault for trying to make everyone happy but I don't think I deserved it all. I was also personally hurt by the lack of support from a few people. But lessons learned are valuable;

• You will never make everyone happy, so don't try.
• Be 100% clear about what is going to happen. Leave nothing for assumptions
• Explain the decision process behind what's happening
• Organizing anything by committee is a waste of time. Nothing will ever get done otherwise
• Hypocrites don't like being told they are one, so don't bother alerting them to the fact

Read about the Hot + Cold list here

Had two business partners leave in < 3 months
Good things always come to an end but you are never prepared for it. Having two of my three business partners leave around the same time hurts a lot. Business is well but like in all breakups the financial and emotional burden of the departures will be felt for a few years to come.

I've delayed my platinum grillz for few more years. I also felt embarrassed that this happened. It feels like a failure to have this happen when in reality it's just part of business.

Spoke at Ad Age Digital 2010
I was one of the last speakers of the Ad Age Digital event so the crowd thinned out a little. I was happy with my performance and it was one of the first times I have rehearsed with a complete script (which is the only way to do this). I was happier when the presentation got picked up and viewed more than 40,000 times on Slideshare and Soap's #1 presentation (so far)

Soap White Papers: 10 Facebook Myths Busted
We made a big effort at Soap to knowledge share and raise our profile within the industry. The 10 Facebook Myths Busted was the first effort and it was received well. Other planned papers have been delayed until 2011 but they are shaping up nicely. Putting the time into these presentations, without the burden of a deadline, is tough. As there are multiple people who work on it without a proper owner it will never get done.

Soap Creative - 10 Facebook Myths Busted

Soap R&D
After so many years of being busy to the point of it being silly we had a couple of months where the work calmed down enough for us to develop some of the R&D projects we have had lying around and catch up on a elements like Iphone development which we had fallen behind on.

The Meeting Game
It felt like years because it was but The Meeting Game was completed in 2010. Born out of a few too many long meetings we decided to create a card game that you could play at any meeting. Selection, copy and illustrations all done by committee guaranteed this took much longer than it needed. Humor is a tough won to do by committee as what makes someone else laugh or a pop culture reference doesn't always translate. However it turned out better than I had hoped for and if you want a set send me an email, we still have a few hundred packs left.

Spin Da Wheel: Iphone
We actually had this as part of a pitch back in 2008, we wont the pitch and then the client disappeared. It was a nice simple app to test out our iPhone skills on. It's Spin Da Wheel and not Spin The Wheel as the latter gets cropped on the iPhone to Spin The Whe..

Lava Ball: Iphone
Our first game for the iPhone and Mark's idea which I remembered from a random conversation the year before. The game has had over 220,000 downloads due to it being featured by Apple. We also had a lot of hate on it with people calling it "racist", only in the US app store. I will admit when Joms did the first version of the character with bright red lips I made him change it. But no offence was meant.

Mower Race: Iphone
This is the nicest looking iPhone game we have made. Only problem is the game was way too hard. The game was a re-skin of The Chicken Race which we made for Ubisoft previously. I love the art style for this and hope we can do more like this in the future.

The iPhone app store is a funny beast and we learned a lot in 2010.

Projects lined up for R&D in 2011 are much stronger and a few have some real revenue potential. We have 3 iPhone games mid way through production, each of them completely different, and each I think could be winners. It will be interesting when one game/app does hit gold and we generate a wad of cash. Client work might not get the priority it does now.

We opened and closed an office
We counted those chickens before they hatched. But that's because we had a contract from the chicken's procurement department.... Soap briefly opened a Melbourne office and then then shut it. We're lucky the impact was minimal but it was one of those times when being a business owner sucked. A few lessons learned there also.

I Now Know Why Most Media People Are Lazy
Having now dabbled in media on a small level I understand now why media people are lazy. It's hard work optimizing a media plan mid campaign and clients care more about getting regular, easy to read reports than the actual results.

I'm sorry I didn't get that report done I spent all my time optimizing the media for better results. Oh you don't care...

It's must easier to give the standard template buy, so the results can be input into the standard template for standard results. Sad really.

Moved Desks into the "Management Area"

After sitting and working right next to everyone in the office for 8 years I finally moved to a new area of the office. I even made us of the whiteboard which sat outside to give myself a pseudo office wall. This protects me from the incoming ping pong balls (the ping pong room is also my new office area) and also I don't get distracted as much. I'm attracted to shiny things.

Previously I sat right in the middle of the office and I'd always try to answer other people's questions (even when not asked to me directly), check out other people's screens and basically keep distracted. This always reduced the actual amount of "work" I did during business hours.

What stopped me from moving earlier was I was afraid it would create an "us and them" mentality. This feeling subsided when I met Michael at the Firstborn NYC office. He has his own secret office on another level to get his shit done! The account management and other management staff have their own private office too.

Another reason was to make room for the new staff as we're running out of seats.

However the biggest reason was because I saw this 37 Signals talk on TED, saw Jason talk in NYC & read the book "REWORK".

He reminds me of Justin Timerlake meets Screech from Saved by the Bell. This really made me rethink how I work and I immediately sent this to all staff at Soap.

Unfortunately not everyone shares this simple idea. But for me it's worked. I regularly relapse and will walk around annoying people for no other reason than I want to say hi but I'm getting better.



Sharing my role

I promoted Mark Fennel to share my role with me and moved him away from the general production work. This has had the biggest impact on my daily work life. Mark has taken a lot of daily management of the dev team off my hands, he's taken charge on a lot of internal initiatives that I had let stagnate and also freed me up to think on projects in a deeper way, rather than skim across them.

I've known Mark since 1999 when he was running Flashkit. He was the guy who invited me for my first ever speaking event at Flashkit 2001. Mark not only has the skills to manage people and do the work himself he shares my attitude when it comes to getting things done.

Make it work,

then make it sexy,

then make it better.

It was hard to take him off production as he just gets shit done, fast. But it was the right move

The idea to share my role didn't come to me (arrogance I think) until I I initially interviewed someone for a general developer role. The way he described his experience at UK agencies had me excited that he could handle all the things that I was not good at and we could share the burden of overseeing the technical side so many projects. I then described to him my perfect role and how we'd share it. It would be awesome.

He took another job at a rival agency sighting "I want to have 100% of the responsibility and 100% of the success or failure". I then realized I had sold to him my perfect role, not his. Mark then approached me about the role and we went from there. Perfect timing.

Soap Got Broken Into

There seems to be a serial agency theft gang as Droga 5 and Design Royale also got hit less than 1 month apart. They took three crappy Dell laptops which we only got replaced this week. They wont be back again as we don't leave the good stuff in the office. If only they stole my old Mac laptop!

This was the one time I had my phone off for the weekend. And as I'm first on the security call list by the time the call got to me and I ran over to the office it was too late. I live 5 min (or 3 min when I run like a mofo) so if my phone was on I might have been there in time to see something.

Hey ladies... get funky [cow bell SFX]
We're not sure how it happened but Soap now has seven women working in the Sydney office. From the low of 2009 with two we have defiently ramped up the dosage of estrogen. The LA office has the token female Bianca who only joined last month so they still have a long way to go.

This male dominance is not by choice it's just how we have evolved.

New Soap Site!

Hahaha kidding, it's still not ready yet! After starting in May 2009 and then me finally saying "Fuck it there's an LOL cat on the site now lets get the new site up by March 21, 2010 fast to get rid of that dumb cat". Now after having that stupid cat sit there for 9 months Soap now has a new "holding site" which took exactly 10 hrs to put together by the LA office.

The actual site will launch Jan 7 after we took a knife and removed half the unfinished sections. I'm not sure whether I'm angry or disappointed it didn't get done earlier but I am still confused why the project was avoided. But that is the nature of internal projects, they seem insignificant and there are better things to do... like ping pong.

So that's basically 2010 for me.

A big year as always with highs and lows. I'm looking forward to 2011 as the major distractions for 2010 are all dealt with. There are still more challenges ahead but all seem small compared to 2010's.