It’s always good to take a peak inside agencies to get a feel for the place, especially if you might work there one day.
One way to scout out potential future employers is today’s WalkaboutNYC’s agency tour event. Walkabout NYC is an event put on every year for the past three years by Harvest, a time-tracking and invoicing app startup. WalkaboutNYC is meant to be a behind-the-scenes look at the people and places fueling creative, technological and entrepreneurial culture in New York City. It is a day when companies open up their offices to the public so that people can come and visit and see where and how the work is done. In the past, the focus has been on the tech community, but this year the organizers decided to add a second event that highlights the creative agencies. Today starting at noon, creative agencies like Huge, Big Spaceship, Campfire and others will be open for you to go in and take a peak at their workspaces. Naama Bloom, marketing lead at Harvest, took time to talk about Harvest’s WalkaboutNYC agency edition event.
See the event schedule here.
How did you guys get the idea for it?
Danny Wen and Shawn Liu, Harvest’s co-founders have always been interested in design, the spaces where people work, and how work gets done. They have visited many work spaces around the city and thought that other people might also like this opportunity. So we built this event as a way to give back to the community.
Why start an agency edition? Why is it important for agencies to open themselves up to the public?
Harvest, the time-tracking software that we make, is used primarily by agencies and consultancies. Because they are our customers, we often get to visit them. Each time we do customer visits, we leave excited and inspired by what we’ve found. We realized that many of the best creative agencies in New York are our customers, and so we were in a position where we could enable this type of event. These agencies are really at the cutting edge of the creative and digital world, and they have so much to offer. There is a really vibrant creative community in New York City. We hope that they will be inspired when they get behind the scenes. As well, we’d think the agencies will benefit from all of the great energy of the day.
Who do you expect to attend and want to see inside agencies?
It will be a mix. A lot of freelancers, students and other agency folks. We have also seen that these events have a lot of crossover appeal. I expect that many of the technologists who went on our tech WalkaboutNYC will be visiting the agencies.
Agencies are all about their cool office culture. What is it about agency culture that is so attractive?
Well, these agencies in particular are doing incredible work and redefining how work gets done. Yes, the offices are beautiful, but these agencies are reinventing how people actually create. They use all the newest tools, they often have flat structures, and they are very transparent with their employees.
Outside of the office, what is the role of the agency in the community, if any?
New York is known as a creative and design center in large part because agencies like this exist. Our city is more diverse and interesting because they are all here.
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