Frank Catalano – Science is Ruining My Childhood

Frank Catalano loves science. As a kid, he marveled at planets such as Pluto, wanted to see a real dinosaur, and enjoyed mysterious sea creatures. His love of science spawned a career including stints as a science and tech reporter, science-fiction writer and, most recently, analyst and consultant for digital education and consumer technology companies. But science is slowly erasing his childhood, and Pluto was just the start. It appears no planet – or creature – is safe.

About Frank

Frank Catalano is an author, consultant, and veteran analyst of digital education and consumer technologies. He consults via Intrinsic Strategy and tweets @FrankCatalano, and also writes the Practical Nerd column for GeekWire.com.

Leo Dirac – Advanced Co-Housing Techniques

Leo looks forward to robots taking over. He spends his days as a professional geek, contributing in his own small way to help the coming revolution.

Living with other people is super rewarding, but comes with many challenges. I’ll present lessons from the trenches of a large group house. Including…

* Practical advice on financial and legal concerns of buying a house with friends. How to get a crazy complicated loan. What to put in your owners’ contract.

* Heuristics on figuring out compatibility of potential roommates. What to look for in the layout of a group house.

* Wisdom on encouraging social behavior and maintaining good relations. Why you should gamify your chores list. Harnessing economies of scale to simplify everybody’s lives.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Erfon Elijah – My secret life as a celebrity twitter impostor

I’m the founder of the indie clothing brand Might Tees and a writer for the technology website Cultofmac.com. I’m also an aspiring speaker, which is what led me to tell my story at Ignite 13.

Two years ago, for about 5 months, I lived a secret double life. It was at that time that, though some celebrities were beginning to embrace twitter, most still didn’t know what it was and weren’t using it. There were no verified accounts, no way to know who was who.

So, as a joke, and as a homage to one of my favorite actors, I donned my internet mask and starting tweeting under the guise of Neil Patrick Harris, or as my eventual 25k followers came to know me, @therealnph.

To be honest, when I started the account, I didn’t think anyone would follow me or care. After all, I wasn’t actually impersonating Neil and his real life, I was acting more as a caricature. I had decided to take on the character he played in the Harold And Kumar movies. I tweeted about absurd drug benders, outrageous partying escapades, and sexual conquests and escapades.

Boy, was I wrong….

What occurred between the account’s inception and eventual shutdown by twitter (twice!) was a wild ride fueled by controversy, tweets from actors Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and even a direct message from Late Night’s Jimmy Fallon.

I’ve never told the story publicly, and would like to recount my adventure for all the world to judge at the feb 13 ignite.

Beth Goza – Not so down and out in the Magic Kingdom

I’m definitely not the first or the last person to spend a significant amount of time at Disney World alone. However, I’m probably one of the few people who has dissected every aspect of my trip to discover what amazing secret benefits there are to doing the Disney solo. From the “single rider line” to “crowd parkour” there are definitely some perks to being a party of one. I’ll be sharing all these benefits as well as some snapshots of this last visit (benefit #62: you can stop any time you like to take as many pictures as you want). Finally, and probably the best benefit of all, I discovered that I can pretty much do anything on my own and still have a seriously kick-ass time doing it.

About Beth

Beth is a self-described gadget loving, game playing, movie junkie who reads, skis, knits, sews, solders and spends far too much time on the internet. She lives in the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford with her dog, Willie and cat, Pixel and loves to have people over to @casagoza for a night of German Board games or yet another viewing of the *real* Star Wars trilogy (complete with rifftrax). Follower her adventures by following @bethgo!

Andrew Woods – The Gentle Art of Karaoke

I love karaoke. I do it often and with vigor. A lot of people believe they cant sing, and therefore never try to karaoke. I believe differently. Everyone has the ability, they just need a little strategy and guidance. I’ll give them some so they get started, with some infographics and humor for good measure.

Amanda Koster – I May Have Had More Impact On a Cheeseburger

Doral Chenoweth: a viral video (made by a flip camera) of a homeless guy with a great voice spread like wildfire and his life was changed forever. A very simple act of grace, a few hours on the computer and pow, massive impact. SalaamGarage: thousands of dollars spent, thousands of miles traveled, pro gear and award winning media makers with social media at their fingertips capturing stories of people in dire need. Where is the impact? What’s wrong with this company? SalaamGarage, several years later.

About Amanda

Amanda Koster is an acclaimed photojournalist, founder of SalaamGarage.com, pubic speaker and author who can’t spell worth beans. After speaking all over the country about how to combine media making and giving a darn, she still calls Seattle home and the Ignite Stage her playground. Her talk “I May Have More Impact On Cheezeburger” was a short story that made a big difference for women dealing with fistula in Ethiopia .

A note from Amanda: Thanks Ignite! You raised $2600 in 5 minuets and paid for 8. 5 fistula surgeries!

Aaron Hockley – It Seems Everyone’s a Photographer Nowadays

As a hobbyist-turned-professional photographer, I’ve heard all sorts of folks in the photo industry lament the fact that it seems everyone thinks they’re a photographer. Whether it’s an iPhone with Hipstamatic or a sub-$500 DSLR, photography has never been more accessible and shareable. Amateurs aren’t going to put the good professionals out of business, and instead of sitting around telling the damn kids to get off their lawn, the pros should recognize how great it is that so many people are participating in such an important activity that shapes how we remember our family, our friends, and our history.

Update on our friend Tom Music

If you have been around the Seattle geek community for long, it is likely that you’ve run into Tom Music. Tom is a developer, writer, speaker, musician, and one of the nicest guys you are ever gonna meet.

A couple of years ago, Tom was diagnosed with double lymphoma. He had been in remission for a while, but just took a turn for the worse over the last couple of weeks.

Tom’s wife Jana posted an update over the weekend and things are not looking good.

Tom gave one of my favorite Ignite talks of all time last year about his experience with lymphoma. He called his talk “Lymphomartini” and delivered it complete with double rainbows! I’ve embedded the video below.

So hang in there Tom. There are a lot of us who are better for having you in our lives/community. We want you to be around for a lot longer!