Category: Event

Our next Ignite Seattle event is on Thursday, February 23, 2017. Do you have a great idea or fascinating story you want to share with your city? This is a unique chance to share something important, funny, or geeky with Seattle…and the world.

Submit your own talk idea by Friday, January 13th!

To inspire you, here’s a talk from 2013: James Davenport,  sharing his side project in a talk called, “Mapping the United States of Starbucks.”

Our next Ignite Seattle event is on Thursday, February 23, 2017. Do you have a great idea or fascinating story you want to share with your city? This is a unique chance to share something important, funny, or geeky with Seattle…and the world.

Submit your own talk idea by Friday, January 13th!

To inspire you, here’s a talk from 2009: Mehal Shah on “Fighting Dirty in Scrabble.”

Here at Ignite Seattle we’ve built a finely tuned machine. Each event delivers on great talks, fascinating stories and a fun and welcoming community atmosphere. But one problem with finely tuned machines is this: they become predictable.

Over the years we’ve had some folks bring us bold ideas that challenge us. They push the limits of the 5 minute format or what can be done with an audience of 800 people. We’re always looking for more talks like this. Do you have something in mind? We want to hear from you. Submissions for the next Ignite are open.

Challenge us with:

• New ways to use the 5 minute / 20 slide format
• Topics or perspectives we’ve never had on stage before
• Interesting ways to use the stage or the audience
• Something we’ve never even considered

To seed your thoughts, here are some challenging examples from Ignite Seattle history:

Tag-Team: How To Have An Argument

Live music performance: How to Solve a Song

Getting the crowd to dance on stage: Where the hell is Matt?

A Wedding In 5 minutes: Wedding Planning for Geeks

An improv talk within a talk: Improv, Public Speaking and You

Slides that only keep time: Attention and Sex

One armed Juggling: The Juggling Act of Life

Live Burlesque: To Be A Great Leader

 

 

 

 

[updated March 4th 2023]

Our current home for Ignite Seattle is the lovely Town Hall Seattle, located on First Hill, just across from I-5. It’s a curious little neighborhood that many Seattleites don’t know very well (it has so many hospitals nearby, it’s often jokingly called “pill hill”).

To help you get the most out of your Ignite experience, here’s a short guide for where to eat and drink before (or after) Ignite. Of course at the event there are always two cash only bars open, selling drinks and light snacks, but they can get crowded at times.

Upscale Dinner

• Outlier– Just a 6 minute walk away at 4th avenue, near the library, this southern-style restaurant and bar has a great happy hour 4-8pm.
• Cortina – An Ethan Stowe (famous local chef) Italian restaurant.  5 minute walk from Town Hall, and you can walk through the iconic Freeway park.
• Capital Grille – Fancy steakhouse in a historic building, a good choice if you’re celebrating tonight.
• Purple cafe and wine bar – good choice all around, with a spectacular 30-foot tower of wine behind the bar makes for a  memorable and dramatic experience.

Something simple or fast

• A Pizza Mart – directly across the street from Town Hall, this reliable, straightforward pizza place with a full bar is the most convenient meal you’ll find. It does get busy and service can be slow so get there early if it’s your plan.
• Pho  Saigon – Decent pho and Vietnamese fare.  3 blocks away.
• Han’s deli – If you hope to just grab a candy bar or a bag of chips, this is just a block away.
• 206 Burger Company – Good burgers a 4 minute walk from our venue.
• Town Hall does sell some light snacks at the bar.

Bars and drinks

• The Hideout – just three blocks away from Town Hall, this speakeasy style art bar has fine cocktails, simple snacks, and fantastic art (including an art vending machine). Open late, but it’s a small place and can get crowded at peak hours.
• The Diller Room – a ten-minute walk from Town Hall, this historic,  colorful, divey pub has lots of character and charm. Their small food menu includes fresh pizzas from next door.
• A short walk across I-5 lets you pick from various hotel bars (which tend to be expensive). Check out the Olympic bar at the Fairmont.
• Sadly our favorite spot Quarter Lounge has closed. and Vitos is currently recovering from a catastrophic fire, but hopes to reopen soon.
• Town Hall does sell beer, drinks and light snacks at the bar. Lines can get long so preshow if you want your fix early.

See you soon!

[updated March 4th 2023]

Our 31st Ignite event, and our OFFICIAL 10th ANNIVERSARY,  is Thursday, November 17th, 7pm/8pm at Town Hall Seattle. Tickets $5 at the door or in advance (we frequently sell out – buy tickets early. Or NOW. Really).

This will be a very special night (10 years is a long time – 496 Ignite talks, or 2400 minutes of people on stage speaking, to be exact). If you haven’t been to ignite in awhile, don’t miss this one.

Doors open at 7pm, with a cash bar and a fun (optional) social interactive game (you don’t have to play, and since there is a bar you can stand and drink and make fun of the people who do, but we suspect you’re more likely to play than you think).

Talks start at 8pm, with an nicely sized intermission halfway through for you to do various acts of biology and sociology, including getting more drinks.

We received more than 80 talk submissions – more than ever before. Many were excellent. But since we are restricted by the laws of physics we had to pick just 16 speakers for this event.

Here is the glorious list of amazing speakers:

• Happiness through Calculus, Jordan Couch
• Building Solid Teams with Silly Games, Shannon Mead
• Nope! Really! Africa is Not A Country. Kevin Obbayi (alumni)
• Hello, My Friend. Madi Williamson
• After the Psych Ward, Jeffrey Hicks (alumni)
• The Streets Where You Live, Amy Cash
• So You Think You Can’t Dance, Sandi Olson
• Great Things Never Came From Comfort Zones, Andrew McGee
• Breaking Bread, Breaking Boundaries. Phillip Deng
• The Irish Goodbye, Kelly Kanary
• Our Brain’s Next Firmware Update, Laura Lantz
• Not Everything Is A Collaboration, Eric Holdeman (alumni)
• Eat Your Ice Cream: How To Live Like You’re Dying, Robin Tarter
• Appy Bride: How I Infuriated the Wedding Industry & Got My Dream Wedding, Sarah Schacht (alumni)
• Guaranteed Successful Design, Noah Iliinsky (alumni)
• Definitely Not Nordstrom, Kristin Leong (alumni)
• (Speaking order TBD so don’t presume this is it)

Looks like a great night, yes? Get your tickets here.