So, where are they hiding the ‘Secret 6′ you may ask (NB:monicker coined by a RLSq colleague).

We have now set up base in the offices of The Economist’s ad agency; AMV-BBDO at .

In this day and age, the words ‘ad agency’ tend to conjure up images of brightly coloured ‘meeting spaces’, open, airy offices, bean bags and barstools and inspiration abounding. My curiosity was certainly piqued when on the first day the receptionist directed us to the 3rd floor ‘just past the kitchen’.

In fact you do head for the kitchen, but then beside the fridge what appears to be an exit door leads to a tiny dark hall with another door to our room. The somewhat shocked/bemused look on Matthew Batstone’s face when he came to visit summed up the general reception to our new home quite nicely.

Dubbed the ‘ice box’ because it’s a little chilly, but more due to its stark, white walls housing a ‘6-pack of Red Stripes’, our office presents a stark reality to the ‘advertising dream’. As the name suggests there is nothing too inspiring about the inside of a fridge. In fact, with its over-sized table, too low chairs and curious access to a shower recess in one corner, our room is initially as soulless as a public hospital bedroom.

An ice box?

But this makes us sound ungrateful. We are not.

The resident staff are very kind and welcoming. But our office, like the endeavour itself is thoroughly grounding. We are starting completely from scratch. BYO inspiration (and decoration).

The exciting thing about the space is that the few visitors to come by so far, whilst initially a little disoriented by our ’simple and stark arrangement’; computer leads snaking across the table, coats piled in a corner, meeting room and work space all the one and same location; they quickly re-orient and seem to sense that they have entered a unique environment where a team has come together to try and truly make something unique happen and this means working with exactly what you’ve got ( or haven’t got).

Please excuse us if the invitations to visit are not immediately forthcoming. We are busy getting started.

But stay tuned to watch us and our idea develop - and for an expected ‘refurbishment’.

Rather belatedly, I’m delighted to be able to let you know that the members of the team are:

• Steven Chiu
• Stewart Robinson
• Mike Seery
• Tom Shelley
• Ludwig Siegele
• Joanna Slykerman

We start in earnest on 29th January, working from our new location at AMV

Well, maybe not, but I’ve been speaking to those nice people at AMV about some space for our little team.

It’s looking good and I’m hopeful that we’ll be installed at by the end of January.

I’m looking for somewhere for the team to be based that’s not in one of our offices.

I’m obviously holding myself up to be reminded of this, but I really don’t want to be based on a serviced office (nice as they may be). I think that we’d benefit from being in a creative environment that has a buzz about it. Being able to tap into (and maybe even pay for) outside knowledge and experience to help with the development of our idea will be especially useful if we can make it a colalboratiove experience.
I had toyed with the idea of making the finding and selection of our space as a task for the team, but though that I’d sus some options out first.

That said, any offers or ideas will be gratefully received.