“Inspire us.” said the client, gently laying down the challenge. “No pressure.”

“What do you think?” asked Nic after the meeting.

“I think they want us to push the boat out mate … and quite a long way.”

Which is how we happened to be in Times Square at Magic Hour on a Thursday, helping Chorus turn the plaza into a digital art gallery, and co-ordinating the giant billboards to display the work of 13 New Zealand design students at the same time. It was all to pitch the shiny new Ultra Fast Broadband network to New Zealand’s growing creative economy, showing what you could do with fibre if you really opened up the pipe.

We’d live stream the event, and film it doco style for a media campaign back home. Back then, the 34 screen gallery was the largest display of synchronised content in Times Square history.

Stepping into the Square the day after, most of the skyscrapers were hidden in low cloud. Then the rain arrived. Worse was coming. A few days later we raced towards Kennedy just before Hurricane Sandy rolled in, swaggering like a drunk uncle at Christmas with a belly full of piss and bad manners. Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record and was heading our way. Bullet dodged. But not by much.

No pressure at all.