Expansion into the Virtual—The New Adsoka Office

Back in 2003, we sat down with our client and architect Bob Shaffer of The Foundation Architects and discussed the plans for what he called the Global Headquarters of Adsoka, Inc. A few months later, we were all set in the space that many clients, employees and friends visited.

We held art openings, wine and cheese parties and made the most of having a physical space to call our own. Our first open house included a keg of beer that Adsoka purchased and that Dave Wright of Breadsmith helped walk across the street from the since departed iconic Liquor Depot to Adsoka's space.

But the majority of our clients have never visited Adsoka in person because they preferred us visiting them, or enjoying a cup of coffee or a bite to eat at a so-called third place when discussing their marketing goals.

Also, many Adsoka clients are not located nearby. So visiting our space was never in the plans. The trend continued to a point that the physical space's usefulness changed from client-centric to employee-centric.

Then Adsoka's needs changed again.

Today, employee work is less about location and more about value. Managers are not co-located with people they manage. Teams are distributed across time zones.

We're changing with the times.

Six years ago, one employee started working offsite one hundred percent of the time. Then another employee and then another. Three years ago, we moved to only holding office hours four days a week. As of the fall of 2014 we have all gone "rouge" and are working from various places. Meeting online through hangouts, face-to-face and via the constant communication of instant messaging.

If you want to reach us you'll find us coming to you, or meeting at the location we've already long been calling our spot. Interestingly enough in the past year there have been fewer than 15 face-to-face meetings between staff and clients at the Global Headquarters of Adsoka, Inc.

So this is less about change and more about adaptation.

We expect there will be some bumps to address. But we're really looking forward to what's next.