I sit here writing this article at my desk in the new home of alaTest UK in the shadow of that well know city landmark – the BT Tower.

So where did it all start?

The alaTest UK office search started out in the fall of 2010 and took me on a journey through multiple London postcodes, from leafy Hammersmith to some of the best known tourist haunts, taking in Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden along the way.

If anyone reading this article thinks searching for an office in a major city, with a strict budget to stick to, whilst keeping potential colleagues happy is a piece of cake – then they are definitely mistaken!

The search was by no means a ‘stroll in the park’ and proved a challenging encounter at times, having to deal with several “used-car salesman” types keen to force me into a quick and easy tenancy deal. However, after keeping a cool head and sorting the ‘wheat from the chaff’,  I found the perfect office location in The Media Village building in the trendy district north of Oxford Street fondly known to locals as “Noho”.

alaTest UK occupy a light and airy three man office on the 4^th floor of this old silk mill and have created  an environment (space permitting!) that the team feel happy to come to work to. We have pop art on the walls, music streaming quietly in the background to create an ambience beneath the barrage of business development calls we make (take note Arie!) and a compact fridge in the corner which is stocked up with cold beers for that Friday post work sharpener!

We are very lucky in that we are surrounded by a raft of great bars and restaurants in the Fitzrovia area with both Oxford Street for the keen shopper and Soho for the night owl, literally on our doorstep.

This fascinating building with its quirky architecture also houses a host of technology and e-Commerce companies in various stages of their lifecycles. We sit on the same floor as a popular  broadband comparison website and a business that sells innovative online research products for businesses.

What bodes well for the future is that several start-ups who first set up offices within the Media Village have gone on to greater things.

From Admob who were bought by Google earlier this year to Criteo the global behavioural targeting business and of course the global giant Amazon had their advertising team located out of this building not that very long ago!

So as we head into the Christmas season with the nights drawing in and a chill in the air, I can happily say that our three man team is seated comfortably in this northern pocket of central London, with telephone close by, confidently spreading the alaTest word to retailers and manufacturers alike with the positive vibe that it is all about Reviews for 2011!