Randy Stewart

Ignite Seattle 14 is TONIGHT!

Here’s our schedule:

7:00pm: Doors Open.
7:30pm: Icebreaker game. As always, this is optional, but definitely a lot of fun! This time it should only be about 15 minutes.
8:00pm: Talks start!
8:45pm: 15 minute intermission.
9:00pm: A surprise! We’re only having 8 speakers this time because Brady has an awesome surprise for us. We’ll be ending around the normal time though, so don’t worry about being out too late!

Ignite Seattle 14 Speaker List

Teresa Valdez Klein (TeteSagehen) The art of subvertising on Facebook
All of us have been conditioned from birth by our families, our friends, and marketers to want (or not want) certain things. And while I’m a big fan of Facebook, I have this theory that it reinforces social conditioning in some pretty insidious ways.

In this talk, I’ll explain how I used Facebook’s self-serve advertising platform to combat the social pressure cooker.

Geoff Smith (lookatlao) How To Shoot Better Food Porn
Why: With the advent of food-focused social media and celebrity chef bloggers—not to mention understaffed magazines—food photography is everywhere. Everybody is taking photos of what they eat and very few are doing it right.

What: I would like to identify the four major enemies of good food porn and offer simple solutions on how to avoid them. The presentation will show real-world examples of failed attempts at shooting good food porn and the necessary steps and equipment needed—both purchased and improvised—to make your food porn better.

This presentation will be funny and informative and there will be immediate take aways as well as a few hints on how to take things to the next level for those so inclined.

Mehal Shah (mehals) Sociopathic Boardgaming: Fun for everyone.
You like board gaming, but lately the fun has gone out for you. Maybe you have a closet full of board games that never get played anymore. Maybe you have an hyper-competitive jackass attending your board game nights, who you feel ruins the fun for everyone. Maybe you just hate following a bunch of silly rules in your games and the fun goes away after half an hour. Let’s re-examine what makes board gaming great and see how we can modify existing games to make them fun again, and how turning up the hostility is often the best way to turn up the fun.

Sarah Novotny (sarahnovotny) living the OG lifestyle – Original Geek, that is
geeks have lead the most recent evolution of our society and some do it better than others. i’ve been incredibly curious about how geek praxis outside of a professional setting has contributed to geek success and would like to share a few ways i’ve found that geeks harness their obesssions and obsessive natures for fun and profit.

As a young geek i know said “feel free to make fun of me now, i’ll forgive you and maybe even hire you when we’re adults”.

Scott Ruthfield (scottru) How to Go to Kindergarten
When I was a kid, you started Kindergarten down the street, or maybe the Catholic school a few blocks away. Today, though, Seattle parents have an incredibly complex system of both public and private schools – and parents don’t know how to navigate it (or that there’s even anything to navigate).

If you might have a kid entering Kindergarten someday, and you’re the kind of person who builds a 10-column spreadsheet to pick the next flat screen TV, you might want to know how this process works – and how to optimize for your own family.

Nathalie Molina Niño (globalmisfit) Life lessons from a [recovering] Alpha Male
Since launching her first internet dot com at 21, Nathalie’s been neck deep in high-tech, masculine, start up juice. She recently left Seattle, her dream home and a $100M business she helped found in order to chill out, meditate and continue her path as a recovering Alpha Male in relaxing New York City. During her first return to her beloved Seattle as a special guest at SIFF 2011’s opening GALA, hear Nathalie as she comes out publicly about her personal experience as a global business misfit and how it took nearly killing someone for her to realize she needed to rethink how businesses work.

Dominic Holden (dominicholden) The Tunnel

Erica May (ericaannemay) How Social Games about Farms Ruin Your Life
Do you sit at work saving up your virtual currency for a Shetland Pony? Do you create Facebook profiles for your cats, dogs & infants just so that you can ensure your crops are properly hydrated? What has our world become when people actually decorate their virtual barns for Christmas? Did you pre-order Farmville for Dummies on Amazon.com? Let’s take a peak at the illusive look at how virtual farms are ruining your life and pretty much the entire planet one virtual seed packet at a time.

See you there

Looking forward to seeing everyone at 7pm at the King Cat Theater! Tickets are $5 at the door, and bring a friend!

Ignite Seattle 14 Speaker Line Up

Has it been almost 4 months already? We’ll be posting all the videos from Ignite 13 very soon, but we’re super excited to tell you who is speaking at Ignite Seattle 14, on May 18 at the King Cat Theater!

We have a little surprise for the next Ignite Seattle. Don’t worry, we’re still doing 5 minute lightning talks, but we’ve shortened our line up to feature something special. The only trick is, we can’t tell you what it is, (although we may drop a few hints between now and then).

Without further ado, we present the speakers for Ignite Seattle 14

Ignite Seattle 14 Speaker List

As a young geek i know said “feel free to make fun of me now, i’ll forgive you and maybe even hire you when we’re adults”.

This presentation will be funny and informative and there will be immediate take aways as well as a few hints on how to take things to the next level for those so inclined.

In this talk, I’ll explain how I used Facebook’s self-serve advertising platform to combat the social pressure cooker.

Dominic Holden (dominicholden) The Tunnel

See you there

Mark your calendars – May 18th, 2011, King Cat Theater. Doors open at 7pm, talks start at 8.

Ignite Seattle 14 – Call For Submissions

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED Thanks for submitting! – edited April 14, 2011

Our next Ignite Seattle will be May 18th, 2011. Submissions are now open and we’d love to have you speak at our next Ignite. Submissions are due by April 13th, although earlier submissions are encouraged!

We’ve heard some people say they always want to come to the event, but they forget as the date approaches. If this sounds like you, take a second and sign up for our Ignite Seattle Newsletter, and we’ll make sure you don’t forget. 🙂 Additionally, you can follow us on Twitter and “like” us on Facebook for updates in those places.

Stay tuned to the Ignite Seattle blog for videos from the last Ignite coming soon.

Ignite Seattle 13 – Tonight!

Whew. Ignite Seattle 13 is TONIGHT at 7pm at the King Cat Theater in downtown Seattle. Lots of good submissions, lots of deliberations and debates, but finally, read more for the speaker list for Ignite Seattle 13.

This week is also Global Ignite Week (along with 60+ other Ignites around the world). As a part of GIW, Ignite Seattle is trying to raise money for local education projects via Donor’s Choose. At Ignite we’ll be handing out donation cards that can be applied. Once you get a card you’ll be able to apply the amount to any of these projects (feel free to go there now and check them out).

It’s a bit of a competition between 9 other Ignites. You can see how we are doing compared to everyone else by clicking here.

See you tonight!

Continue reading “Ignite Seattle 13 – Tonight!”

Ignite Seattle 13 Proposals Due Tomorrow!

We forgot to send out a reminder that Ignite Seattle 13 talk proposals were due today, so we’re giving everyone an extra day to submit. Ignite Seattle 13 will take place on February 10th at 7pm once again at the King Cat Theatre. Thank you to everyone who has submitted already.

Submissions are now closed.

Karen Cheng – How to Solve a Song

Karen’s pitch:

It’s happened to all of us – you hear a song that you don’t want to like. You try to resist, but you can’t. By the end of the song, you’re tapping your foot and singing along. Why are some songs so irresistibly catchy?

I used to think it was magic. But when I looked closer, I had an epiphany – It’s actually just math. Songs are catchy because they’re scientifically engineered to be that way. I’ll show you how.

About Karen Cheng

Karen is a Program Manager for Microsoft Excel and plays in a local Seattle rock band, Electric Villain. You can find her on the web at karenx.com and on Twitter at karenxcheng.

Speaker list for Ignite Seattle 12

We’re super-excited to present our line up for our next event, held once again at the King Cat Theatre on December 7th at 7pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Here is the list of speakers for Ignite Seattle 12 (in no particular order):

Scott Berkun (berkun) How to write well, instantly, ever time
There is talk of the death of writing, but writing is everywhere: in email, Facebook, text messages, we write now more than ever. It’s true much of it is bad, but we’ve mostly sucked at writing for as long as we’ve had words. Berkun, author of a popular blog and three bestselling books, will explain all you need to know about writing essays, books, blogs and everything else, in 5 short minutes.

Emily Chen (tenshiemi) Paring Life: Have Less, Live More
Last year I did an end of the year apartment purge of everything I considered junk. When I returned home from Value Village I was shocked by how much stuff I still had. I experienced a flash of inspiration and decided to commit myself to getting rid of something every day for a year. Every item is posted on my blog and free to any requester. I’m now over two hundred days in and I would like to share what I’ve learned along the way and strategies for optimizing your possessions for happier living.

Brady Forrest (brady) What Cities Can Learn From Burning Man

Gregory Heller (gregoryheller) SCRUM Project Management For Wedding Planning
What happens when two people with project management experience decide not to hire a wedding planner and instead run their wedding planning through a modified SCRUM project management process? Certified SCRUM master, Gregory Heller will share his experience and lessons learned. Consider this a geek’s guide to planning the perfect wedding.

Mandy Sorensen (mandercrosby) Fleas, worms, and other nasty parasites: what they are, and why should you care?
Sure you’ve got a dog or cat at home. Are you sure you don’t also have a small population of nature’s most industrious little buggers hiding in your carpet or in your yard? Odds are, you do and you just don’t know about it. What you should know about the most common creepy crawlies out there.

Phil Thompson – Chemistry of the Cocktail
The chemistry and history of the cocktail, the flip.

Buster Benson (busterbenson) Virtual goods can improve the quality of your real life experiences
I’m building a social game, Health Month (healthmonth.com). As gamification has gained popularity, there has been a lot of discussion about whether or not points/badges/etc cheapen experience, lose value over time, or just simply ruin everything.

Alissa Mortenson (foolissa) Making Collaborative Art that Doesn’t Stuck

Adam Philipp (mypatents) How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Software Patents
Its seems there is nothing more reviled in geekdom than the software patent. It is lambasted from the left and the right from the ivory tower to the grass roots. It seems that it is singlehandedly to blame for the colossal failure of all progress in the field of computer science and stifles innovation and development of all the best products.

Beth Buelow (coachbethb) 5 Reasons Introverts Rock the Business World
The myth: Introverts are shy, socially backward and quite possibly all serial-killers-in-waiting.

The truth: Introverts are among the most famous, wealthy and successful people on the planet.

A five-minute look at what happens when introverts unleash their super-powers in the business world and beyond (and how to tell if YOU might be a member of Club Introvert).

Ellen Kowalczyk (elleliz) Got a minute?
Does your work / life balance look more like work / work / life balance? Feel like you’re constantly behind? Forget and lose track of the important things you meant to do? I’ll share a few ways to get back in control of your time and be more successful and more relaxed at the same time.

James Callan (scarequotes) Five big things grammar nazis get wrong about language
So sometimes you use “it’s” where you should’ve used “its.” Unfortunate? Yes. A sign that the sky is about to collapse all over our precious English language? Contrary to what a persnickety bunch of chicken littles would have you believe, no. Language is an art and a science, and grammar nazis need to be fiercely resisted as they browbeat us all with their ignorance of both.

Joel Grus (joelgrus) How to Be Funny
It’s easy to be popular if you’re rich, or good-looking, or good at sports. But the rest of us have to be funny if we want people to like us. Acclaimed writer, humorist, and data analyst Joel Grus has spent years of research and experimentation uncovering the basic principles of humor. In this 5-minute talk, he’ll teach you how to master these principles and make people laugh.

Karen Cheng (karenxcheng) How to Solve a Song
It’s happened to all of us – you hear a song that you don’t want to like. You try to resist, but you can’t. By the end of the song, you’re tapping your foot and singing along. Why are some songs so irresistibly catchy?

Melanie St. Ours (MelanieStOurs) One Forbidden Thing
There are forbidden places in every city. Certain street corners after dusk, the mortuary underneath the funeral parlor, slaughterhouses, executive board rooms — these are all places of restricted access, places that are not open to everybody. In ancient myths and traditional fairy tales, such places are often the sites of initiation; disobedience is often the first step on the hero’s journey.

What places are forbidden to you? And what would happen if you went there anyway?”

REMINDER: Ignite Seattle 12 talk proposals due tomorrow

Ignite Seattle 12 is happening on December 7th and talk submissions are open. If you have a 5 minute talk that will inspire, teach or just make people think then throw your hat in the ring. We’ll take ~16 speakers (and no repeats from last time). Get your talk in by October 22nd.

Submit your talk here.

If you need inspiration about “How and Why to Give an Ignite Talk,” Scott Berkun can help you out.

King of Geeky Pillows – Roberto Hoyos

Once upon a time, Roberto Hoyos was selling products for Apple. Today, he’s selling his own product and his own ideas. Here’s how he did it (in 5 minutes).

About Roberto Hoyos

In 2006, while working at the Apple store, Roberto Hoyos stumbled into his passion — viral marketer/entrepreneur. His business idea started out as a simple web post with pictures of his latest geeky creation — handmade fleece pillows resembling the Mac OS X icons. The post soon went viral and crashed his website in a matter of hours. Roberto spent a year perfecting the product and eventually, after some social media elbow grease, morphed this arts and crafts project into the worldwide brand now known as Throwboy.

Today Roberto, 28, runs Throwboy out of his Seattle apartment with help from a small staff of family and close friends. You can find Roberto on Twitter @robertohoyos, @throwboy and on the Throwboy blog.