It is 2pm on Wednesday and the only thing stuffier than the hot Central streets is the atmosphere at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, complete with jaded hacks and puffy colonial leftovers lazily stuffing down Caesar salads.
Among those hacks are Englishmen Gary Jones and Richard Cook, extolling the virtues of wordasia.com, their off-and-running content provider - or 'online editorial intelligence', as it says on the glossy pamphlet they pass over.
The moment feels slightly surreal: a business journalist writing a story on journalists going into business in a room packed with . . . correspondents.
Occasionally, I have been at the same parties as these guys, so naturally I am sceptical, but then Amanda Yau - the vital third point of the firm's triangle with a wealth of publishing experience behind her - chimes in.
'When I was publishing I began doing some freelance work with more multimedia projects, so when the idea came up it kind of made sense because these two guys knew the freelance industry inside out and already had the contacts,' she said.
'The idea' is basically creating a kind of 'super-freelancer', one that supplies new copy and photographs in the exact size and style the client requires - usually to a tight deadline.