The Agency Goes to The Big Apple.

Craig and Joel traveled across the country to attend Toy Fair 09 in New York City. We were there to network but mainly in support of one of our clients: Digitells. It was the first time the Digitells Read-Along With Me software was presented to the public. Through working with them we came to know the product very well. So well in fact, that Digitells asked the Agency to join them in New York, at Toy Fair 09 to help present Read-Along With Me to the world.

We’ve always said we want to be partners with our clients. This was one of those rare opportunities where you can actually back up those words with action. On this trip our two companies were one team working together for the same goal.

That’s not to say we didn’t have a lot of while we were there.

In Las Vegas for another meeting, we caught the red eye to NYC. After minimal sleep we debarked, caught a cab to the hotel, suited up and went straight to the convention for 8 hours of shaking hands, schmoozing and selling in front of one great looking trade show booth. That was basically how our days went with the occasional Mole sighting and signing.

Our nights, however, varied drastically.

Our first night we did a big fancy dinner at a place called STK. It’s the only place I’ve ever been where I got steak covered with crab. It was amazing and the quality of wine we had recalibrated what my idea of good wine was (it was that good). After dinner I ran into some friends from San Diego. They asked us to join them at a club down the street since their friend knew the owner. The club turned out to be 10Jun, one of the best clubs in the city. There was a high cover and a huge line but we walked in with barely a pause. It turned out to be fashion week as well so the place was packed with wannabe models trying to get discovered. We got the paparazzi treatment on the way out.

The 2nd night we experienced the “struggling to make it in the big city” night. Our friend Chip moved to New York from San Diego four months ago. He’s living the cliché of grinding out the job, living in a tiny apartment, and trying to make big. He took us around the more everyman side of town. We had some classic New York pizza, found a place that had 5 shots for $10 and went to see Chip’s roommate perform at an open mike night.

For the 3rd night we met up with some huge Mole fans/friends for dinner and surprised them with Bobby driving in from Philly to join us. After dinner we hung out with some other fan/friends and called up Dorothy Hui (winner of the 2nd Mole) who happened to be just minutes away. She joined us and we had a mini Mole reunion.

4th night was our last night there and we went out in style. After a delicious Italian dinner we took in a Broadway show. Jersey Boys was amazing; I think it was the highlight of Joel’s trip. A warning to our more conservative readers: Jersey Boys contains authentic Jersey vocabulary (swearing) and lots of it. Afterwards we took in Times Square, met up with some friends and hit up an authentic Russian bar with a huge variety of homemade infused vodka. Pomegranate was by far the best.

Our New York experience was fantastic. We made some good contacts and had a great time. We can’t wait to go back. In fact- if you know anyone who needs Graphic Design or Advertising in NYC, let us know, we want a reason to return.

Craig in Times Square

Joel in Times Square

Craig made the paper.