Speakers – Page 18 – Ignite Seattle

Things you dont want to hear: Your Wife has Breast Cancer – Todd Sawicki

Todd’s pitch

There’s no real good way to break the news, as Katie and I have learned – we just found out Katie has breast cancer. We’ve been telling the world since well before everyone could see from Katie’s baldness what was going on. And we learned a lot about how to tell people that you or someone important in your life has cancer.

Editor’s Note: All of us at Ignite Seattle extend our thoughts and well wishes to Todd and his family as they work through this difficult time.

About Todd Sawicki

Todd Sawicki is a veteran of numerous tech startups, but lately, you can find him around Cheezburger HQ as Chief Revenue Officer. When he’s not saying “OH HAI” to advertisers, you can find him on Twitter or on his blog.

Papier Mâché 3.0 – Dan Reeder

Renowned author and creator, Dan Reeder brings us the state of the art in papier mâché and the monsters he wants you to make.

About Dan Reeder

You can find Dan on Twitter @DanMonsterMan or on his site Gourmet Paper Mache, which contains “quasi-instructional videos” coupled with detailed instructions on his blog.

How to Have An Argument – Mónica Guzmán & Jason Preston

Accomplished contrarians, Ignite alums, and fiancées, Jason and Mónica will share the secrets of how to have an argument that doesn’t involve legal fees. Their talk also marks an Ignite first, a tag team talk.

About Jason Preston

Jason is currently the Director of New Media at Parnassus Group, the company responsible for the 140 | The Twitter Conference. You can find Jason on Twitter at Jasonp107, on his blog or sharing his gaming expertise on his site, l33tsauce.

About Mónica Guzmán

Mónica Guzmán is a reporter for the Seattle PI‘s Big Blog You can find her on Twitter @moniguzman.

Ignite Seattle 9 Speaker Order

Here are the speakers for tonight’s Ignite Seattle. The first set goes on at 8:30PM. The second set will take stage at 9:45PM. Doors are at 7PM and the cost is $5.

Speakers: First Set

Jason Preston (@jasonp107) and Mónica Guzmán (@moniguzman) How to Have an Argument
Accomplished contrarians, Ignite alums, and fiancées, Jason and Mónica will share the secrets of how to have an argument that doesn’t involve legal fees. Their talk also marks an Ignite first, a tag team talk.

David Albrecht (@davidralbrecht) Atoms > Bits
My friends and I spent a few months developing a low cost USB peripheral which allows people with cerebral palsy to use computers. I’ll detail our solution, explain our design process and demonstrate how low the bar (financial & technical) really is for getting started with hardware hacking.

Todd Sawicki (@sawickipedia) Things you don’t want to hear from the doctor: Your Wife has Breast Cancer
There’s no real good way to break the news, as Katie and I have learned – we just found out Katie has breast cancer. We’ve been telling the world since well before everyone could see from Katie’s baldness what was going on. And we learned a lot about how to tell people that you or someone important in your life has cancer.

Amanda Koster (@salaamgarage) How I made sense of my trip to Vietnam.
Ranging from chopsticks and fish sauce, to ‘bombies’ and landmine victims; I’ll show how my trip to post war Vietnam can actually be put into a context that makes sense for all.

Becky Anderson (@beckyan) Business Lessons from Star Wars
Running a business ain’t like dusting crops! Without knowing Star Wars, you could fly right through a star, or lose half your staff, and that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?

Sol VillarealYou Paid For It – You Might As Well Use It
A quick guide to the City of Seattle from a member of the McGinn Administration

Jeremy Calvert (jcalvert) KiteBot : DIY Kite Energy
Using kites to harness wind energy is getting increasing attention and investment world wide. We’ll breeze through a survey of the field, which has an evident emphasis on elaborate and expensive approaches. Then, we’ll deconstruct the fundamental problems that such a system must solve and present a solution that strives to be scalable, while also being accessible to the hobbyist.

Brian Aker (@brianaker) Guide to NoSQL
Putting your thinking caps on. This talk will be hardcore geek.

Harold Carlton – How robots have revolutionized ball point pen manufacturing
Without robots we’d still be using pencils! Bah! Who wants pencils?

Speakers: Second Set

Ben Huh (@benhuh) Evolution of the Meme
I’ll walk u through the history of viral ideas.

Kathy Gill (@kegill) 5 Reasons To Take a Motorcycle Class (even if you never plan to ride a motorcycle)
A humorous look at two wheelers as commuting option.

Beth Kolko – The King Road Drag, Post-Apocalyptic Scenarios, and Why Sen. Stevens Was Sort of Right About the Tubes
The ability to move information from place to place is the cornerstone of civilization! So, trucks as much as tubes come into play if we want to really think about how creating innovative ways to move bits around can change the world.

Nicole Steinbok (@nicolesteinbok) 22 Minute Meetings
Meetings are a huge productivity & time suck. This humorous talk will explain how to fix that in 9 easy steps.

David Cole (@davidscole) Playing with Fire – Create a metalcasting foundry in your garage.
I’ve recently discovered sand-casting, which is a very cheap and very awesome way of casting metal parts at home. You can make your own car parts, robot parts, science projects or artistic sculptures – anything!

Andrew Lueck – Self Publishing
Four years ago I set out to illustrate, author and publish my own children’s book. Being the impatient “control” freak that I am I quickly realized that the traditional book publishing process was arcane and would compromise my vision, my voice and take a lifetime to complete. My answer, self-publishing!

Evangeline Marzec (@pocketprotector) How Microfinance Really Works
Go around the world with Kiva.org in five minutes or less. War stories from a Kiva Fellow after 6 months in the field, with insights on how, when and why microfinance works – and when it doesn’t.

Dan Reeder (@DanMonsterMan) Papier Mâché 3.0
Renowned author and creator, Dan Reeder brings us the state of the art in papier mâché and the monsters he wants you to make.

Defamation and Twitter: A Practical Guide to Covering Your Ass – Jason Carmel

A little warm up for tonight’s event, Jason Carmel’s fantastic (and hysterical) talk about the legal do’s and don’ts involving Twitter.

Here’s Jason’s pitch:

Should you really send that tweet calling your competitor a “douchebag”? What about that status update letting the world know how your mechanic is a “lying, cheating scumbag who would steal medicine from a pediatric ward?” How liable are you for giving all the baddies out there a well-deserved, spleen-filled bitch-slap?

In this talk, I will walk through a very quick explanation of defamation law and explain how it might apply to the social media landscape. I will also provide a few practical ways that might protect your right as an American to roast the bejeezus out of the asshats of the world, without getting sued into oblivion.

About Jason Carmel

During the day you can find Jason Carmel as a senior optimization manager at ZAAZ. You can also find him on Twitter @defenestrate99

Ron Burk – Three Strange Definitions of Computer Programming

Ron’s pitch:

Legendary computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra once said: “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” But if programming is not about the computers, what IS it about?

I want to give you three strange definitions of computer programming that will forever change how you think about software. Exploring the true nature of programming requires tracing its connections with philosophy, psychology, evolution, and physics, and following these threads leads to a startling conclusion: computer programming is not a product of the mind of humans – it’s a product of the mind of the universe!

About Ron Burk

Ron Burk has been a programmer for 30 years, a magazine editor (Windows Developer’s Journal) for 10 years, and an amateur medical researcher for 5 years (publishing papers on treating the anemia of cancer, and the relationship of melatonin to chemotherapy symptoms).

He is currently writing “The Pop Psychology of Programming”, a synthesis of psychology and computer programming. You can find Ron on his blog and on Twitter @ronburk.

What Does Your Amazon Clickstream Say About You? – Norman Guadagno

Norman’s Pitch

Every time we buy from Amazon we give their algorithms a little more information about ourselves (or at least the things we buy). But, do we have our own algorithms to help us make sense of purchase after purchase across time? What can we learn about ourselves through the things we buy?

Over the past 13 years, I have made far more purchases from Amazon than I care to count (actually, I have counted and will share). Why did I buy lots of batteries and have them shipped to my mother? Why did I buy an “Interactive Yoda with Lightsaber” and where is it now? Do web design books from 1999 still have relevance today?

Join me on a whirlwind tour of my 1-Click® habit and the things some of these books should have taught me.

About Norman Guadagno

Norman is a Principal/Interactive Practice Lead at Methodologie. You can find him on his blog, on Twitter at @thinktone and perhaps most importantly, his profile on Amazon.

Google vs. Microsoft: An Insiders Guide – Peter Wilson

Google vs. Microsoft: where will the battles be fought, how will each companies strategies and blind-spots impact the outcomes, and who will win? The speaker spent 9 years at Microsoft and 4 at Google, and so thinks he knows something about this.

About Peter Wilson

You can find Peter at Peter Wilson Consulting (although there may be something else he’s working on) and on Twitter peterwil.

Editor’s note: TechFlash has a write up of Peter’s talk as well as a “bootleg” version of the video :-).

Everything You Need to Know About Philosophy in 5 Minutes – Scott Berkun

Scott’s pitch:

I’m the sad owner of a philosophy degree. I’m convinced i can give people a better education in philosophy (and make them realize how much they already know and love philosophy) in 5 minutes than I got in 4 years.

About Scott Berkun

Scott Berkun is a friend of Ignite and we’ve referenced his last talk “How and Why to Give an Ignite Talk” when anyone asks that very question. Scott’s work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Wired magazine, National Public Radio and other media. His latest book, which is near and dear to us at Ignite, is “Confessions of a Public Speaker.”

You can find Scott on his blog and Twitter at @berkun.

Veronica Sopher – Jewelry: It’s What Geeks Know!

Veronica’s pitch:

Elizabeth Taylor and Ivanka Trump may have their own jewelry lines, but it’s geeks like you/us who are the experts in jewelry. Yes, it takes a real geek to know jewelry, cut through the salesperson’s bs, and shop like a pro. Let me show you why.