At our last event, we had our second guest host Rovina Broomield. We’ve done this twice now (first was organizer Nicole Steinbok), and it’s been so much fun and they’ve done so well, we’re having one more.
This time, we’re very excited to announce it’s Ignite Seattle alum Sumit Basu. He’ll be the host (formerly called MC) for the evening, introducing the audience to the Ignite format and inviting our speakers to the stage.
We often get asked why do speakers only get 5 minutes? The answer is obvious to us: most presentations, most of the time, aren’t very good. One reason why is that with 20, 30 or 60 minutes, there’s no natural way for speakers to make sure they get to the heart of their story or lesson and stay there. We take seriously the idea that if you can’t use 5 minutes on stage well, why would we give you more? We’re convinced a shorter format helps speakers do a good job, even inexperienced ones. It forces them to prepare, practice and refine. It also creates energy, drama and allows more people to share the stage at our events.
Although Ignite began in Seattle in 2006, there is a long history of short-form speaking events. In 1917, The Four Minute Men worked for the U.S. government to convey information to citizens. More recently, in 2000, software developer Mark Jason Dominus realized most speakers were far from concise. They go on too long and rarely make their points clearly no matter how much time they have. His solution? Instead of giving them 60, 30 or even 20 minutes, just give them five. The time limit was the only rule, and he called this format the lightning talk. Today events do 99 second or 60 second talks, and in some cases allow anyone brave enough to walk up to the microphone to take a turn.
In a similar spirit of brevity, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham from the architecture firm Klein-Dytham wanted to inspire creative people to express themselves more clearly. In 2003 they started a new format for presentations called Pecha Kucha (pronounced pe-chak-cha), with the goal of making presentations fun and interesting, and increasing the number of speakers that can present in a few hours. Their format is 20 slides and 20 seconds for each slide (20×20), for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
In 2006 Brady Forest and Bre Petis, who worked for O’Reilly Media at the time, created the first Ignite event, an evening of short talks and socializing here in Seattle. It was an experiment to see if the Seattle community wanted a more dynamic and social speaking event. They simplified the format to 20 slides, with 15 seconds per slide, to make a nice round number of five minutes. It went well. They promoted the idea of the event and there are now dozens of them around the world.
Here at Ignite Seattle, two of our major goals are sharing diverse stories and teaching the craft of storytelling. To achieve this we provide free coaching to all of our speakers to help them master the five-minute Ignite format as well as gain confidence in all of the core skills of public speaking.
UPDATE: Submissions are now closed. Thank you to all who submitted.
Submissions are currently open for our next main stage event, Ignite Seattle #40, on Thursday, Oct. 3rd at Town Hall Seattle (Tix $10). If you’ve thought about proposing a talk in the past, now is a great time. Here are 5 reasons why you should do it:
It’s Seattle’s best live audience. We fill the great hall at Town Hall Seattle with almost 1000 of the most curious and supportive people you will ever speak in front of. They’ll cheer you on, laugh at your jokes and appreciate the effort you put in.
You get to think about what you really care about. Submitting a talk is a forcing function: it gets you to think about your life experiences and knowledge and what you most wish to share, or want people to understand. Even if you don’t get in, you’ll better understand yourself (or realize you might need some more adventure in your life to make for new stories!)
Receive free expert speaker coaching. We do everything we can to help our speakers, including two practice sessions with expert speaker coach Scott Berkun.
You’ll become part of the Ignite Seattle family. For more than ten years we’ve put some of the most interesting people in our city on our stage, and you’ll be invited to our alum events to meet and get to know many of them.
We give you great advice on what we’re looking for. Read our handy little guide that explains the common mistakes people make, how submissions get chosen, and what kinds of topics and ideas are most likely to get accepted.
Want to improve your ability to tell your story? Learn how to organize and structure a truly compelling presentation? Or finally get past your fears of speaking in public? At Ignite Seattle we’ve been coaching and training speakers for years and we want to teach you what we know.
Join us on Monday, August 19th for a fun and fast paced evening where you will learn everything you need to know about storytelling and public speaking. We’ll give actionable and proven advice on:
How to tell better stories at work or in life (and do it fast!)
The 6 common mistakes speakers make and how to avoid them
The science behind speaking fears and how to manage them
Q&A where you biggest and toughest questions will be answered
Advice for getting talk proposals accepted at events like Ignite Seattle, TEDx, etc.
Plus a few volunteers who come prepared with 60 seconds of a talk will get an expert critique
This event is not focused on the Ignite format, although it is referenced, and you do not need to have a talk prepared to attend!
Your coach will be professional speaker and Ignite Seattle emcee Scott Berkun. In addition to giving 20 to 30 lectures and keynotes each year, he wrote the bestselling guide to public speaking, Confessions of a Public Speaker.
Other events like this charge as much as $250. For the Ignite audience, this workshop on August 19th is only $10. How can you pass up that deal? (We also provide free tickets to those with need. Just email us.)
Over the years, Ignite Seattle has grown to be a wildly popular, well curated and high-quality storytelling event. But way back at the beginning there was a chaotic fun in our first events in 2006, surprises and unexpected moments, that don’t happen often anymore. But now that’s back, with our first ever Open Mic evening.
When: Monday, July 8th, 7pm Where: Market Theater (Pike Place Market) Tickets:$5 on sale now
Here are 5 great reasons you and your friends should come.
We don’t know what’s going to happen! We’ve never seen these talks before. Some will be amazing! Some will be… less than amazing! Ignite talks are high risk, with automated slides, so you may see some amazing things and some spectacular failures. Or some talks that are some of both. We’re excited to see what happens and you should be too.
We’re in a smaller and cozier venue. We’ll be at the Market Theater, home of the improv group, and our friends, Unexpected Productions, and it has a lovely college vibe and a cozy bar just a few steps away from where you’ll sit. We love Town Hall Seattle, but Market theater is great for the vibe this event is going to have. The Ignite Seattle team will be there, so you can easily chat with us, give feedback and suggest other things we should be doing.
Talks are only 3 minutes long. To quicken the pace and give room for more folks to take the stage, talks are only 3 minutes, 2 minutes shorter than the standard Ignite format. Don’t forget that you can say a lot in 3 minutes – the Gettysburg address can be read in under 2 minutes.
Tickets are only $5. That’s less than half the price of a movie ticket, and you’ll get live action, high drama, high stakes edutainment and storytelling, performed live on stage (and no sequels or prequels or Nyquils). It’s a bargain in every way.
There’s a great talk lineup. Maybe curation is overrated? The list of talks are challenging, interesting, funny and inspired. All things we know Ignite Seattle fans love to hear.
Talk / Speaker List (order TBD)
My Personal Experience with ID Theft – Christopher Wilson
An Unexpected Call for Courage – Kiesha Garrison
What My Kids Teach Me About Networking – Lynette Garcia
Data Bases and 3D Paintings – Bronson Shonk
Good News & Bad News A New Way To Deal With Things You Don’t Want to Hear – Matt Jensen
My Crimes and My Punishments – Daniel Baird
Out of the Box Belonging – Rebecca Kathleen Andersen
How to Be Old, Pissed off, and Wildly Hilarious* in Five Easy Steps – Ro
Toss the Design Porn and Find Your Happy Place – Rebecca West
Blockchain for Direct Democracy – Ana Jamborcic
The Lonely ‘Lancer – Melissa Strawn
Escaping Ordinary Consciousness Through Sex– Jen Martin
Happy Birthday Women’s Suffrage! – Tonya Peck
C Level Under 30 – Altagracia Daly
3 Lessons From the Commune – Uri israel
Why are Disability Products so #$@&%*! ugly? – Sarah Dillingham
One – Lennee Reid
Planning a Themed Wedding (if your theme is disaster) – Laura Williams Argilla
Quitter to Queen: How Getting Fired at Forty Changed My Life for the Better – Riah Gonzalez
The Life Changing Magic of Firing Marice – Marice Sy
You really don’t want to miss this. It’s going to be a special and memorable night in the 13 year history of Ignite Seattle. It may never happen again!
If you read last week’s announcement, you’ll know that we’re putting on a new Open Mic event on July 8th at the Market Theater in Seattle (7pm-9pm).
The first 20 talk submissions we receive for the open mic will automatically be accepted to go up on stage on the night.
Submissions are open – currently 0 slots available (last updated 6/26). If you act soon you can be on our stage. Scroll down for details.
If you’re more partial to being an audience member, you can buy a $5 ticket for the event right now by clicking here.
How do I submit my talk?
For the Ignite Open Mic, we want to see 20 speakers giving 3 minute talks. Each talk will follow a Ignite format. Slides will still change automatically every 15 seconds, meaning you need to include a 12 slide PowerPoint presentation with your submission.
To become one of our 20 speakers, send us an email at openmic@igniteseattle.com with the following included:
Your full name. (E.g. Major Tom)
The title of your talk. (E.g. Being a Space Oddity)
A short description of what your talk is about. (E.g. I’ll tell a story about the time I went into space in a rocket and then did a space walk.)
If you make it into the first 20 submissions, we’ll send you a reply within a few days to confirm that you’re going up on stage. Please assume when you submit that you’ll be doing a talk. (So make sure you’re free on the evening of July 8th.)
Being a speaker will get you free access to the open mic. It will also be a great opportunity to wow a supportive audience and the Ignite organizers. Most important of all, you’ll have a whole lot of fun.
We’re looking forward to seeing your submissions! – The Ignite Seattle Team
We’ve been getting over 80 talk submissions for Ignite lately. But only 12 of those speakers make it up on stage.
We want everybody to have the chance to do an Ignite talk, so we’re starting a new event: Ignite Open Mic.
How does it work?
From June 13th, we’ll start accepting submissions for our open mic night which will take place on July 8th. The first (reasonable) 20 submissions we receive will automatically go up on stage. We’ll be playing with our format a little: this time speakers will only have 3 minutes to give their talk.
Anybody can submit to the first Ignite Open Mic, but we’ll also be reaching out to people who previously submitted Ignite talks to give them a chance to shine.
There’s more info below if you’d like to speak or buy a ticket!
When is it happening?
Want to see 20 speakers take to the stage to give a 3 minute Ignite talk? Here are all the details you need:
Date: July 8th Time: 7pm-9pm Location: Market Theater, Post Alley, Seattle Cost: $5 (cheaper than a fancy IPA!)
The first 20 submissions we receive will go up on stage. Let’s say the first “reasonable” submissions, just to cover us if somebody submits something really mean spirited.
With your submission, you will need to submit your PowerPoint presentation, along with some other essential details, like your name, talk title and a short description.
For our open mic, we want to see 3 minute talks, with 12 slides which will change automatically every 15 seconds.
Why take part?
For being our open mic guinea pig, you’ll get a free ticket to the event and a chance to earn the respect and admiration of your audience.
But you also get a chance to impress us too. We’re always looking for different ways to get quality speakers on stage at our main Ignite events. We make no promises, but this could be the first step in your path to becoming one of those lucky 12 speakers at Ignite 40.
Hi Ignite fans! This week we had our first coaching session with our Ignite #39 speakers. Our favorite part of the session was when the speakers – with little prep work – stood up and gave a rough practice run of their talk. They did an incredible job. There was a lot of smiling, laughing, clapping and just a couple of tears this time. You will not want to miss the June 6th show.
Here is our excellent lineup (order is to be determined):
Cats, Rats, A.I., Oh My! – Ben Hamm
I’m the Weirdo Who Left the Elevator Note – Sixta Morel
Design for Conflict – Bonnie Toland
Oh, You’re a Mommy Who Wants to Work. How Sweet. – Nancy Jensen
Fix Evy-thing – Evy Haroldson
An Immigrant’s Battle – Salome Munyaka
You Can’t Ask a Choking Man for Instructions – Christin Boyd
A Transgender Band Walks Into a Rural Olympic Peninsula bar… – Ginger Chien
Growing Up Un-Special – Leah Scherschel
Forgive and Remember: How Forgiveness Really Works – Susan Fee
Retiring My “Best Idea” – Emoji Pillows – Roberto Hoyos
Multisensory Music and Autism – Kent Godfrey
New Guest MC: Nicole Steinbok
Nicole Steinbok, Ignite Seattle organizer and multi-time alumni, will be MC’ing Ignite Seattle #39. She will be fabulous and like our speakers, she is very excited and a bit nervous. Come be a part of one of the best audiences in Seattle and cheer on Nicole and our speakers as they entertain, enlighten and channel their excitement into a great show.
New Sponsor: Mindhatch
The talks at Ignite Seattle are often about creativity and exploring ideas, which explains why we are excited to announce that Mindhatch, with their masterful blend of Design Thinking, Organizational Improv, and Innovation Facilitation, is now on board as one of our sponsors.
If you had five minutes to talk to your city, what story would you tell? What lesson would you teach?
Ignite Seattle is our city’s “town square as an event” and gives ordinary folks the opportunity to share what they know, a story or an opinion, to a large audience of their fellow citizens (and the world, through our free internet livestream).
We believe everybody has a great story to share, and with good coaching (which we provide) and a great stage (Town Hall Seattle) they can make a difference in how people think and feel about almost anything. Ignite talks are 5 minutes long, with 20 slides that automate every 15 seconds, to create a vibrant and lively evening event.
To submit, all that’s required is a thoughtful talk title and description (read our advice), plus a commitment to attend the rehearsal and of course the event itself. For most events, we get about 80 submissions to fill 12 slots. We recommend you watch a few Ignite Seattle talks to get a sense for what they are like.
UPDATE: All winners have been notified. But all is not lost! Any unclaimed tickets as of tomorrow morning will be reassigned.
Ignite Seattle is this Thursday. As we mentioned before, if you don’t have a ticket, the best way to watch Ignite Seattle is by registering for our free live-stream.
Good news: We recently found a couple of extra tickets under our virtual couch cushions, and we’ve decided to give them out to you, our dedicated fans!
On Wednesday, we will be giving out several sets of free, in-person Ignite Seattle tickets, to people who have registered for the livestream.All you need to do to win is sign-up for the livestream. (If you signed up before, you’re all set.)
We will email winners around noon on Wednesday, and you have until midnight to accept, before we select a new winner.
Hope to see you at Ignite this Thursday, whether virtually or in-person 🙂
Ignite Seattle 