Ignite Seattle #39 has sold out! This is going to be one of our best shows yet, and if you missed your chance at a ticket, don’t despair. Here’s how to attend:
Watch the event live online. For those of you who won’t be able to join us at the event, we’re working with Punch Drunk Productions to bring you the next best thing: a live-stream on the web which makes you feel like you’re in the front row. Sign up now!
Join the standby line. At 6pm on Thursday, June 6th, we’re setting up a line outside Town Hall Seattle for standby tickets. We’ll release any unclaimed seats shortly before the show starts (there are usually some available).
The doors at Town Hall Seattle open at 6:30pm (bar & snacks), Show starts at 7:30pm.
(One last thing: if you’re an organization working with people traditionally underrepresented in public speaking – low-income, Black/Latinx, etc – we hold a limited number of completely free tickets for each event. If you’d like to be notified for our next event, or advise us on how to do better outreach, for Ignite Seattle #40 (October 3rd), please drop us a line at diversity@igniteseattle.com.)
We’re thrilled to bring you another edition of the best open submission public speaking event in the Northwest. We’re on a long stretch of sold out shows, but there are still some tickets left for this one (don’t wait).
If you’ve never come before, or have missed a few, this is a great one. Here are seven reasons to come to Ignite 39:
We are one of the first events in Town Hall Seattle’s newly renovated Great Hall, it’s one of the best venues for live events in town (and their bar opens at 6:30pm)
Wish you were McGyver? Evy Haroldson will tell us how she learned how to fix nearly anything.
Curious about what happens when a transgender band plays a gig in a rural bar? Ginger Chien tells a great story of a lifechanging event.
Nicole Steinbok, Ignite Seattle alumni and organizer, will be our guest MC. She’s a fantastic Ignite veteran and improv performer and we’re thrilled to have her host #39.
Wonder what happens when you mix AI with cats? Ben Hamm talks about a machine learning project to help train his feline friend.
Want to be a better friend (human or otherwise)? Christin Boyd explains how to do more they say “let me know how to help.” when a friend is in crisis.
Beat the traffic and grab a pre-show snack or drink in the neighborhood near Town Hall Seattle – our recommendations.
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.
The talks at Ignite Seattle are often about creativity and exploring ideas, which explains why we are excited to announce that Mindhatch is now on board as one of our sponsors.
Mindhatch
Many organizations and teams struggle to find and develop new ideas into solutions, but if you work with Mindhatch, based in Seattle, they’ll show you the way.
Using their masterful blend of Design Thinking, Organizational Improv, and Innovation Facilitation, they help you solve complex business problems, boost customer value, and improve team performance, while having engaging and productive fun and the same time. Their customized experiences develop team skillsets and spur collective creativity, innovation, and actionable results.
Coonoor Behal, the founder and CEO of Mindhatch, will be at Ignite #39 (June 6, 2019) to help celebrate our new partnership. Her amazing background in both strategy and innovation consulting, combined with her experience as an improv performer and teacher, makes Mindhatch a stellar organization to help you grow and develop your organization. Watch a video of them in action here.
We are supremely pleased to announce our speaker lineup for Ignite Seattle #39. We had over 70 submissions of which we picked 12 fantastic talks (thanks to all who took the time to share their story with us). And we’re excited to return to Town Hall Seattle on Thursday, June 6th, now that their major renovations are finished.
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.
Ignite Seattle thrives on diverse ideas and challenging stories and we’ve coached hundreds of people how to share them live on stage. We know everyone can be better at speaking in their daily lives and we’re hosting another workshop (last one sold out in a day) to help you do that.
Join us to learn:
How to tell better stories at work or in life (and do it fast!)
The 6 most common mistakes speakers make and how to avoid them
The science behind fears about speaking and how to manage them
How to get a talk proposal accepted at events like Ignite Seattle, TEDx, etc.
Plus a few volunteers who bring 60 seconds of a talk they have will get an expert critique
You don’t need to have a talk idea or submit to Ignite to attend.
Your coach will be professional speaker and Ignite Seattle emcee Scott Berkun from SpeakHQ. 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.
In 2018, Sarah went on record publicly with her own #MeToo story as part of an article by Molly Redden of the Huffington Post. Her talk was about the logistics of telling a #MeToo story publicly, along with the potential ramifications both personally and professionally.
In the podcast, we talk about why Sarah decided to come forward with her story publicly to begin with. How her perspective has changed about her story over time, and what motivates her to keep going.
After months of anticipation and anxiety, none of which you got to experience, we are excited to unveil our next project to the world. The Ignite Seattle Podcast.
If you’ve read enough and want to subscribe immediately, you can do so by clicking the appropriate links:
Or you can search for “Ignite Seattle Podcast” in your podcasting app of choice RIGHT NOW to listen to our first three episodes. Our first episode is also available for you to listen to on this very page below.
If you have some patience and want to learn a little more about the first episode, and how and why we’ve decided to get into podcasting, then read on.
Who’s the guest on the first episode?
For our first episode, I thought it would be fitting to sit down with Scott Berkun, Ignite Seattle’s MC and speaker coach. He talks all about what it’s like to be…an MC and speaker coach.
Scott shares some critiques of a talk he gave all the way back at Ignite Seattle #6, “How and Why to Give an Ignite Talk“. He also speaks about what he’s learned in the ten or so years since then, and how he passes that knowledge on to our speakers.
Lastly, he gives his thoughts on the importance of being an MC, and answers a question we’re all dying to know, “Where did those red trousers come from?”
If you have any feedback, or fashion tips to pass on to me, or Scott, please email them to podcast@igniteseattle.com or leave a comment below.
Why did we decide to get into podcasting?
“We” isn’t so much Ignite Seattle, as one person named Daniel. Who is currently writing this post in third person, now first person.
I decided to help Ignite to start their podcast because I’ve often sat in the audience at Ignite events wanting to know more about the speakers, and their topics. Unfortunately I’m far too socially anxious and introverted to visit the after party to meet the speakers and talk to them. I’m also not the type of person that would Tweet a total stranger about their Ignite talk.So literally the only option left was for me to spends hours of my life creating a podcast. Now I get to talk to all of my favorite Ignite speakers and learn all about them, and you get to benefit from it!
When will new episodes be released?
Every 2 weeks, on a Monday, a new podcast will be released. They’ll appear here on our website, or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for the “Ignite Seattle Podcast”.
What will the format for each episode be?
Each episode will give an opportunity for you to hear one of our favorite past Ignite talks, with an in-depth discussion with its speaker about what inspired their talk, what they didn’t get to say on stage, and anything else that piques curiosity. If there’s a talk or speaker that you’d love to know more about, please send me an email letting me know, and I’ll do my best to get them on the show!
What to say about Ignite Seattle 38? We laughed, we cried… we cried some more. (There were a lot of emotional talks!) In the end this was another one for the history books.
Whether you attended in-person or online, thank you for joining us to hear so many of the wonderful stories Seattle has to offer.
Before we get to the list of talk videos, we wanted to remind you that Ignite Seattle #39 is only three months away! Please consider:
Submitting a talk. We want to hear your important, funny, or wonderful story on stage. Submissions close April 25.
Buying your tickets! Last Ignite sold out within hours of our speaker lineup announcement, and this one is selling even faster. We’re already more than 20% sold-out! Get a spot before it’s too late.
Ignite Seattle 