Chairs, Carpet Cleaning, Sprinklers, Coke Machine and Free Food

Today was a busy day, lots happening. Our new chairs for the Story Lab and the stools for the kitchen arrived. The Story Lab chairs are really comfortable and the stools are really nice. Any time you make a decision about something that is going to stick with you for a while you're nervous about how it's going to turn out. We were very relieved to see what we chose because they are comfortable and good looking.

We also got our Coke machine today. There was some debate over Coke versus Pepsi but Coke won out.

You can see pictures of the new chairs, stools and Coke machine tomorrow on the new home website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome

The first week we were in the new building our custodial people dripped a trail of liquid about 25 feet through the hallway. Needless to say that was quite disappointing. Today we had that trail along with some other drips cleaned and it looked great after. Of course we'll drip something tomorrow but for today, we're back to clean carpet.

We finally got our landlord to turn on the sprinklers in our front lawn so now they will come on twice a week. Between the heat and the sprinklers not going on in months our front lawn was pretty crunchy and the landscaping was looking pretty homely so hopefully a little water will do everything some good.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, our real estate agent from Golfpark Properties bought us lunch today in celebration of our new home. It was really nice, it was our first food gathering in the new building.

Our First Edit Session

Yesterday we did our first edit session. It was a small one but you have to start somewhere. It was actually kind of fitting that the session was for a client we have been working with since 2001. It's an ongoing monthly project that we do a update each month. It made me think how for most of our clients our move downtown will be seamless. We work with a lot of clients who we don't see much face to face. As far as they are concerned we could be in Kansas. As long as we can fulfill the request it doesn't matter where we are and this proved that.

Now that we have one edit suite up it's on to the next one for Dennis and team. By the time I left today the Final Cut was up and functional. A lot of work still to get machine control and some other little things but you have to start somewhere and it is nice to see monitors and computers on in two rooms. It's just in the nick of time as we have clients lining up for edit time. Keep it coming, that's why we have 3 edit suites.

Mary Anne and I went out today in quest of some things that may be part of our way finding in the building. We have two things that we're concentrating on that are related. First is the baby pictures with name plates outside everyone's office and the second is the way finding throughout the building. Mary Anne came up with an idea for way finding that would be a little different but cool. Today we were looking for possible lettering for the signage. For the pictures and name plates we're going to try to consolidate them into one thing. David & Mary Anne came up with an idea that would put the picture in a frame with our name on the picture. We'll see how it turns out. Our goal is to make both things informative but different.

New Webisodes?

I have received a couple e-mails asking when new webisodes will be on the website, iTunes and youtube. It looks like it will be a couple weeks still. We need to shoot more interviews and everyone has been so busy betting the new building up and running we haven't had the chance to do them. In addition, the edit suites are coming back up slowly but surely so until we're fully functional we couldn't get in there to edit anyway. Our plan is to shoot interviews next week or the week after so as soon as they are shot we should be able to get going again. Our plan is to have at least four more webisodes: The Building is Ready, Moving Day, Life in the New Building and Audio. I'll keep posting as things progress.

Lots to Report

I haven't posted since Wednesday but that's not because of a lack of things to talk about, just busy actually doing my job. Thursday I had a final walk through with people from Disney at the old building to answer questions and point out things. It was pretty painless. I mentioned all the things our staff and clients know all too well- the air conditioning is inconsistent, usually too cold, the flooring (carpeting and tile) is worn out and dated, the fluorescent lights and gray wall paper can drive you crazy after a while, etc. We'll officially turn over the building early next week.

At the new place, every day something new is up and running on the technical side. The design and programming department is fully functional with internet and high speed access to all of our servers. All the cables are run for the networks and edit suites, all the edit suites are set up, the machine room has some access and a couple other things. This week will see a lot of things totally up and running.

Mary Anne, David & I went to IKEA for another round of things for the building. Client desk for the Final Cut Pro suite (the Media Composer and Symphony already had their new client desks), stools for the cybercafe outside Christine's office, file cabinet for the Symphony suite, end tables for the lounge and a couple other little things. Speaking of the lounge, the remaining chairs came in on Thursday, very nice. There will be some pictures posted Monday or Tuesday.

Also on Friday I gave my first client tour. It was interesting to walk the building and getting a sense of tour flow, what to talk about, what not to, what things were important in the build out to us and what things don't matter as you're walking a client through. I've walked the building so many times in the last 6 months it's always interesting to see the reaction of someone doing it for the first time.

And finally, Friday afternoon we held our first of what will be many Friday afternoon Margarita parties. I bought a Jimmy Buffett Margarita machine as a house warming gift to the company and Friday afternoon, our 3 week anniversary of officially being in the new building, we broke it out with chips, salsa and guacamole. I think people enjoyed it.

Last Moving Day

Today was the last day of moving things from the old building to the new building. The only things left there are items we're not taking and things that are being recycled (to be picked up in the next couple days). Today was the Foley prop room, the final stuff from audio, miscellaneous equipment and all of our wall art. We'll finish with the recyclers in the next couple days and that will be it. The building will be turned over early next week.

At the new place today, Sam, Carlo and Michael got the edit suites situated and all the furniture where it's going. We'll be able to hook the edit systems up in a day or two and soon everything will be hooked in to the machine room and servers.

We're locked in with our date for the grand opening event with the Mayor and we're very close to locking in the date for our annual open house for clients and guests. This year will be interesting being the first year in the new building.

Making Progress

A lot was accomplished today. Dennis & Dexter made a lot of progress getting the design & programming area fully connected to the Internet and within 24 hours they should be able to access our servers so that area will be fully functional. Sam & Rob continue to help out where they can testing connectors and running cable. The console in Audio B was put in and turned on and Rob's already getting it set up.

We had our walk through with Beth & Megen from Spectra Contract Flooring this morning to go through the punch list of things that need tweaking. And we started talking flooring for the audio rooms. Speaking of the audio rooms, the design of the mix room has been locked and now the acoustical designer is doing sound testing to ensure everything is designed properly. We expect to be handing off to the architect within a couple weeks then quickly on to construction.

Our First Downtown Event

In addition to the usual continuing to get unpacked, settled and get the technical side of things up and running, a lot of us participated in our first event while being downtown yesterday. 13 people from our team, and a couple more of us for moral support, did the Corporate 5K. It was a run or walk that included over 11,000 people from companies in Central Florida. We came to work in the morning, did our thing all day, walked over to Lake Eola around 5:30pm, the race started around 6:45pm, we walked to a restaurant/bar after then walked back to the building to get our stuff and drive home at the end of the night. The convenience of having our building in downtown.

Pictures will be on the website later today www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome