Bridge Agency is located in the Made in New York Media Center in DUMBO. The Media Center consists of 20,000 square feet of space and houses many small startup companies. The incubator space is a very large open work area consisting of many long tables with surge protectors in the center and small signs on stands that state the company name.
It also has conference rooms and offices around its perimeter, a small 72-seat theater for screenings, and a café (with a ping pong table) that is open to the public. Multiple companies share the tables; I think there is about ten of these long worktables, I haven’t done an actual count. In addition to this workspace, there are a few tables by the front windows, which are called the community co-working space. Throughout both the incubator space and the community co-working space are small couches and tables that I’ve seen used by members as impromptu meeting spaces. Within the incubator space there is a mix of computers and/or just monitors at the workstations of the individual companies, for the most part people bring their laptops. Within the incubator space there are also what I call “the modern day phone booth” these are small rooms with a stool and a shelf and a plug. Anyone needing to have a private phone conversation, can bring their cell phone in, the shelf is available if you wish to bring your laptop.
The table workspace that Bridge Agency rents is right by these “phone booths” there are three other companies that share the worktable that Bridge Agency occupies. In my first week, only one of the partners has been in the Media Center, this is Anthony who is my direct supervisor. I expect to meet Jason next week, he was in Germany on business this week. I do not know when I will meet the other partners of Bridge Agency but I am looking forward to meeting all of them.
Anthony has a monitor at his station, which he attaches to his laptop. I sit next to Anthony and bring my laptop to work with me daily.
culture at Bridge Agency is very casual, Anthony has worn shorts and a t-shirt to work each day. I have worn business casual to work, black pants and a nice blouse or tank top, I have a light sweater cover-up that I keep with me and have worn when it the air conditioning is hitting me in an unfavorable way. I am allowed to take my lunch hour whenever I wish, since I work 10-6, I usually take it around 2:00 or 3:00 pm, whenever I get hungry.
One day when Anthony had not yet come into the office and I was having difficulty with the Wi-Fi Internet connection, I emailed him to inquire if he was coming into the office and explained that I would like to move over to his workstation to connect to the hardwire Ethernet connection if he were not coming in. He said that he had emailed me earlier to let me know that he wouldn’t be in but I never received that email.
He gave me permission to move over to his workstation. I took advantage of his monitor and displayed After Effects on his monitor and the tutorial on my laptop’s monitor. This made working in the tutorial easier since they were on two different screens. I like having Anthony in the office to learn from, but it is also nice to be able to use his monitor. Hopefully I will have more opportunities to use his monitor during the internship.
