After only its thrid gathering, Ignite Phoenix has officially taken the valley by storm.  As I pulled in at 5 mintues to 6, I was overwhelmed with the amount of cars in the parking lot, and even more blown away by the number of people inside at the Tempe Center for the Arts (Awesome venue btw!)  Surprisingly, I was able to snag a last minute seat amidst the sea of people, and after a few brief minutes of technical difficulties, the show began.

With about 300+ peeps in the room, it was no shock the fire marshall had to put the smack down.  I guess the room technically only held 220 (which we all know gets fudged here and there) but luckily the TCA stepped up their game and made it happen.  As I walked backed in after intermission, a mysterious TV and chairs had been setup outside the hall with a live feed to accommodate the overflow… Ahhh technology, gotta love it!

While all the preso’s rocked, these made my list for “Gnarliest of the Night”

• - Austin Baker’s “20 Answers to 20 Unanswerable Questions” – Entertaining way to end the night as well as enlighten us on the mythical question of whether a tree makes a sound in the woods if no one is there.  In the words of Austin Baker, “Why’s the damn tree falling anyway?” @austinmiles

• - Chanelle Richardson’s “The Art of Enjoying Food” also intrigued me… For being a tiny woman, she knew a lot about how to enjoy food and make the best out of every meal.  Considering I hadn’t eaten dinner, her presentation had me running for the nearest food joint as soon as Ignite ended @iamchanelle

• - Dan Messer’s “Toilet Training – A Study in Connective History” was a great way to start the night.  I mean… anytime you can talk about the history of toilets and work in bacon is just flat out rad.  I give him major props for this @SonoranDragon

• - And last but certainly not least, Derek Neighbors took over the stage with, “Nothing Defines Humans Better Than Their Willingness to do Irrational Things in the Pursuit of Phenomenally Unlikely Payoffs.”  Not only did he make us all realize we are all suckers, he had the crowd hooting and hollering like he was on stage at the improv.  His energy level really took the evening to a whole new level. @dneighbors

A huge thanks goes out to the Ignite Phoenix crew for getting a hold of Splinter to help out with the event.  We look forward to helping out however we can at the next event in June.  Can’t believe we just happened to meet the Ignite guys at Twestival Phoenix, and it turned into an awesome sponsorship opportunity.  Crazy huh?  Twitter rocks!

If you just read this and are asking yourself, “What the hell is Ignite Phoenix?” Take a peak at their website here

Last but not least, if you want to check out some pics (not from a camera phone like the one above) from all the Ignite Phoenix events to date, visit their Flickr Group page here – I saw some people with pretty hardcore cameras in there, so my guess is there are some great shots floating around.

Were you there?  Did you follow the protocol – Tweet, Meet and Give?  If you didn’t, you missed out on a great tweetup and the support of an even better cause.  Over 100 tweeps and 40 companies from across the valley joined forces with the goal of raising enough money to fund one well for Charity Water.

Now some of you may be thinking… Only one well?  That’s it?  Well little do you know, it cost a cool $4,000 to fund one of these puppies, which in our economic state, is no easy task.  Luckily, the folks of  @twestivalphx put their best foot forward, and although they’re still waiting for the final numbers, early estimates put #phx over its goal raising at least $,4600+ when tallying event ticket sales, raffle tickets, silent auction items and more!

In the words of @chrislee, “Awesome Job Phoenix!”

The folks here at Splinter Creative were happy to help, and chipped in by designing the Twestival Phoenix logo (pictured above), printing some oversize posters, and making a few contributions (both donations and purchases) to the silent auction.

All in all, it was awesome to see everyone come together to tweet, meet and give… And it was great to finally meet a lot of the cool tweeps in person that I’m following on Twitter.  Needless to say, I can’t wait for the next Tweetup… Guess Ignite Phoenix on February 25th in Tempe will have to hold me over in the meantime   Hope to see everyone there!

And if you’re not already, hit me up on Twitter @BlairHatz

Image above courtesy of @templestark

What’s that? You’ve heard rumors that Splinter Creative is launching a new website and blog?  Well… to answer your question in the words of Frank Costanza, “YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!”

This is our inaugural blog post to kick things off, so we’ll give you a quick run down of who we are, what we’ll be talking about and how you can hook up with us on the social web.

For those of you unfamiliar with what Splinter Creative is all about, let me give you a quick rundown.  In a nut shell, we’re a hybrid agency that strives to be flat out awesome at: Corporate Identity development, Brand Management, Graphic Design, Outdoor and Print Ad Campaigns, Environmental Graphics, all types of Large Format Prints, Vehicle Wraps and Trade show booths just to name a few.  Basically, if it’s a project in need of creative, you’ve come to the right place. And yes, we just used creative as a noun, not enough people do it to tell you the truth

That takes care of the who, now what are we going to talk about on this blog?  Well, we’re here to chat it up about what’s going down in the Ad industry, give our clients a few shameless plugs, rap about the design community, toss around some social media trends and discuss anything else that blows our hair back.

So keep your head on a swivel… This is one blog that WON’T be ALL WORK and NO PLAY.  Our goal is to stimulate the brain with some of the raddest things you’ve ever seen or read, and if it doesn’t fit your fancy, please feel free to leave us a comment and let us know.

Till next time… Keep livin’ the dream, and make sure to check out our links on the bottom right to party with us on our social networks.