It’s been just over a year since Eastwick shacked up with our client, Coghead. As a predominantly female agency, the move was similar to a sorority sharing a house with a fraternity. We weren’t quite sure what to expect from the mysterious Cogheaders, and I know they were not quite sure about a bunch of witches moving in. Luckily, we all got along. And, I don’t think there was any funny business in the co-ed shower…

Although we’re excited to be moving into our new digs in Mountain View (in Googleland), we’re going to miss our roommates. It was interesting to see some of the inner workings of a hot start-up. Of course, it was fun to hang with the execs afterhours too.

My partner in crime snatched the “Top 10 Things We’ll Miss About Coghead.” The past year has been great, so here are the top 5 things we won’t miss about shacking up with Coghead:

#5: Reminding visitors which watercooler is Eastwick’s
#4: Missing out on the leftover pizza from Coghead’s Friday meetings
#3: Dealing with the “effects” of Quentin’s miscellaneous “snacks” throughout the day
#2: Having to come in 20 minutes early so I can get a parking spot

And the number one thing I won’t miss about shacking up with Coghead is…
hearing Greg’s story about bleu cheese dressing. It was so gross; I will never eat bleu cheese dressing again.

If you are in the Mountain View area, stop by our new digs and check it out!

Coghead, Eastwick Communications, Off Topic, Offline, PR, Quentin

The media and blogosphere have been going off about it, and just about everyone in Silicon Valley has been talking about the RIM BlackBerry outage across the ENTIRE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. Maggie Reardon of CNET reports that the outage was caused by RIM’s testing of a “system routine” that produced unintended consequences - database failure, back-up system failure, mandatory detox, etc.

Granted this wasn’t a small, regional outage, like limited to the outskirts of Modesto, but the email service was down for a matter of hours, not days. I don’t think a few hours without mobile email connection is such a bad thing. Is it really so terrible to eat an ENTIRE meal without checking your latest Google alert? Or getting the status on the tomorrow’s TPS reports? But, I’ve known several people who CANNOT live without their CrackBerry. And, I’m sure they sleep with it under their pillows at night; you know who you are…

My point is that we, especially here in the Valley, spend our days and nights being overly connected. Landline, cell phone, email, Skype, IM, etc. At almost any given time in the day or night, you can reach someone through one of these methods. If you know me, you’ve heard me say that a balance is definitely needed between being connected and living offline.

Despite the fact that some people went a little crazy without their service, maybe incorporating one day a week without the CrackBerry each month (or year, depending on your level of addiction) would be a good thing.

What do you think? Is this possible in today’s connected world, or do I need to lay off the crack(berry)?

Networking, Offline, Wireless