"Simply put, technology is creative."

John Mayo-Smith from R/GA writes today in AdAge (Why Agencies, Talent Should Seize the Space Between Creativity and Technology) about the aspiration of many agencies as they approach the development of creative technologies in their organizations. A "seamless cultural continuity ... more important than wearing technical capabilities on agency shirtsleeves."

A laudable goal, and while working on the programming for CreateTech and messaging for our activities we've heard the argument for NOT pointing to any particular skill domain as needing special attention or titles, instead focusing on the client's marketing needs and the agency's overall value offering.

But we are still not completely there, on the agency or the client side of the business, as the timeliness of this article attests. And as careers and agency offerings develop, as new business pitches get written, we'll see more debate on the how we articulate what we do and who we are as agency technologists. And as business leaders we know that how we manage these changes is not self-evident.

Our view is that technologists working in creative industries of all kinds DO have particular issues and interests that overlap but are not always covered by other corporate or engineering practitioners or by conversations centered on more traditional crafts. And that there is a need for a community to surface and discuss them. And until "things just work" we'll have to study and talk about them.

And of course, we agree. "Simply put, technology is creative." ;)