To get in the spirit of our client Central Market’s Hatch Chile Festival, today we held the first annual Springbox Hatch Chile Cook-Off. By lunchtime, there was quite a diverse spread, with everything from homemade Hatch Chile tamales to savory Hatch cupcakes.   

We ate. We drank. We ate some more. Then we searched for the Tums. 

• Overall – Hatch Carne y Papas con tortillas by Carlos 
• Hotter than Hell – Hatcharitas by Burger 
• Most Original – Brownies con Hatch by Tricia 

As I sit here in Dallas waiting for our plane to SF, I can’t help but wonder if this conference is fruitless before it’s even begun. But maybe that’s the Popeye’s chicken talking. The two of us are headed to San Francisco for Flash in The Can (FiTC), a conference all about Adobe Flash. 

But I don’t think it’s the red beans and rice or the popcorn-butter biscuit that’s making me apprehensive about this trip. I felt this way for at least a couple of months now. 

While waiting for the bus in Austin, a woman sitting next to us asked what the deal was with Steve Jobs and Flash. For a second I didn’t have an answer. Then I remembered (it’s been months now) what some claim are reasons behind the refusal to support Flash on the iDevice.  Steve Jobs has his reasons. Others say that Adobe wants more control over their interface and applications. They don’t want Flash competing with their App Store and hurting revenue. Good thing Adobe was already planning to add iPhone application creation to the latest version of Flash, right? Wrong. Some claim Adobe went ahead with this plan even though Apple wasn’t on board. Adobe went public with it and thought they could win over support from Apple through the threat of public humiliation. Again, all hearsay. Next move by Apple was a big one: Steve announces, right before CS5 is released, that you could not use any third-party tools to build apps, including and most importantly, Flash. So in a swift moment Flash is, well, just a flash in the pan. 

It definitely felt like the end was near after this whole mess. But this is Adobe! Too big to fail, right? I do feel more confident about the future of Flash, especially with support on Android, but the threat is still looming. I planned this trip before any of this mess, and here I am. Heading to Adobe’s hometown, to hear Adobe evangelists preach the word on Flash. One thing is clear. They better have some strong words about the future of this product. I’m expecting the Golden Gate to sway, mountains to crumble, buildings to fall when they preach their message. Am I expecting too much?

Last year, Springbox held a swank SXSW party. This year, our best and brightest have submitted SXSW panel topics about a range of subjects. We need your help to rock the vote.  

As far as we can tell, there aren’t electronic voting machines involved — so vote often and be sure to share your comments. Voting ends on Friday, August 27.

Here’s a rundown of this year’s topics: 

Is HTML5 the Death of Flash?

Tom Hudson  

HTML 5 is challenging other plug-in-based rich internet applications (RIA) by providing much of the same functionality as Flash, and has the potential to render technologies like Flash obsolete. Or is it? Flash has capabilities that are way beyond those of HTML5. Will HTML5 catch up? We’ll explore items like this, compare current HTML5 adoption to Flash, and see where we might land in the future.

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QR Who QR: Exploring QR Codes

Grant Norwood  

QR codes are new and cool in America. Having originated in Japan mostly for business applications, their use for social and commercial purposes is growing every day in the US. Let’s explore how developers can stay ahead of the game by incorporating new technologies into the popular trend!

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When Facebook Falls: Future-Proofing Your Social Media Efforts

Justin Clemens 

Learn to future-proof your social media efforts so they don’t go the way of MySpace. The right social networking content, contests, features, news, etc., works across multiple platforms so that if you lose a follower on Twitter, you gain a fan on Facebook. This panel will give you social media secrets and tips to build an audience on every platform and create content that doesn’t rely on any of them.

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HTML5 Buzzword Bulls**t: The Truth Revealed

John French

Ever since Steve Jobs starting touting HTML5 as the new replacement for Flash, the standard has become the new buzzword from Human Resource departments to CEOs. This panel is designed to clear up the misconceptions and set the record straight with HTML5.

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Listen To Me Dammit! I'm An Expert!

Chris Mayfield

Great creative work isn’t always immediately recognizable — even by the creators themselves. We, Creatives often require time to develop ideas before we’re fully convinced of their potential for success. So how do we get beyond our own damaged egos so we can see our creative visions fully realized? Understanding how to address our clients’ expectations as well as the obstacles they face, is not only good for business — it’s good for quality. And as the experts, that’s what we should care about the most.

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Apps or Mobile Site: How to Choose

Adrian Taylor and Josh Kemmerling

To app or not to app? Consider it an apt question since web-enabled smart phones have essentially swarmed today’s market. Users have become accustomed to purpose-built apps, which leaves designers, developers and business owners with a tough choice: app or mobile site. This panel will provide participants with the information they need to make the smart choice on their next mobile project.

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Is Mobile Ticketing The New Golden Ticket? 

Randy Elliott

Mobile ticketing is projected to be a multi-billion dollar industry in 5 years. While just 2 billion tickets are forecasted by Juniper Research to be sold this year, they predict that number will rise to 15 billion by 2014. The technology is moving quickly with Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled phones already being used in the Far East.  We’ll discuss where this new integration in taking mobile technology.

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Stop the Postmortem Boredom!

Rachel Barber, Priya Kothari and Tom Hudson

The reason for a postmortem is to learn from your mistakes and successes. Most of the time this meeting never happens or doesn’t follow a clear agenda with actionable items. We will discuss what ingredients make for a useful and productive postmortem meeting after a project.

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Collaboration Nation: How Side-Projects Can Keep You Relevant

Phil Coffman

Side projects are crucial to remaining relevant in our industry. The web is constantly changing — new conventions, techniques and technologies — and one of the best ways to keep up is to do something for the love of it. Side projects facilitate a unique blend of experimentation, creativity and play that arenʼt always possible during billable hours or client projects. Weʼll be grilling our panel to bring practical advice and a candid take on their past experiences.

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How to Whup 'Em with the Leroy Stick

Hawk Thompson 

Leroy Stick — the man behind @BPGlobalPR — is just a regular guy. Yet he managed to help bring a global brand to its knees (and attract hundreds of thousands of followers in the process) with a single Twitter account and a mission that resonated with the masses. Meet the new consumer. Empowered by social media, each and every one of us is capable ofinflicting this kind of damage on a brand. In this panel, find out what professionals can do to protect their clients’ brands from being whupped with the Leroy Stick.

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Springbox takes a different approach to team building. At our most recent agency off-site meeting, Springboxers were divided into seven teams. Their task: address a local summer social issue. Topics ranged from to bike safety to keeping people safe on Austin area lakes and rivers.

With two hours on the clock, teams brainstormed creative solutions and produced 1-minute videos to pitch their ideas.

The winning team addressed water safety and won funding to produce their winning concept, instructional koozies. Want the full details? Watch their video:

Get to know the people who make Springbox an exceptional agency. What Inspires You? is a series of posts that offer insight into our talented and creative staff. 

Carlos Orozco

Account Supervisor

What did you do before joining Springbox?
Prior to joining Springbox, I worked at Apple and Dell managing various client relationships in both the education and corporate space. My clients included MTV UK, Millward Brown, CBS Interactive and Sony Pictures.

Where do you find inspiration?
The architecture of Tadao Ando and Le Corbusier, to the photography of Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, to the art of Viktor IV and Alexander Calder, to the design of El Lissitzky, E. McKnight Kauffer, Jan Tschichold and Ladislav Sutnar, to the minimalistic compositions of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley.

Which websites have inspired you recently?
The numerous videos on TED talks are always worth a visit. Interdisciplinary approaches to design are fortunately becoming more widely accepted, which is resulting in more effective and relevant experiences for the users. 

Design Observer is another great resource and includes a dedicated section about contemporary architecture, landscape and urbanism, as well as a video and audio channel called Observer Media and Change Observer, which focuses on social innovation.

Which trends in interactive are you currently paying attention to?
The emergence of the interface as the content itself and the potential future of how we interact with the world of data. In the physical realm, Pranav Mistry has already developed prototypes for “Sixth Sense” technology that bridge the gap between us and the digital world. More and more you are seeing interactive design evolve to focus more on content, doing away with the virtually unnecessary and bulky ubiquitous navigational elements.