Author: Amy | Filed under: Ignite London | Tags: #ignitephx | 10 Comments »
Phoenix is really hot in June. My partner and I are currently on a year long, around the world journey and recently spent six weeks there visiting family and taking in enough sunshine to make up for the last two years in London. The desert was beautiful, the politics of the place a bit scary but the thing we noticed most of all was how isolated we felt where we were staying way out on the northern edge of Scottsdale, which is on the northern edge of Phoenix. Although it’s the fifth largest city in the US, Phoenix doesn’t really feel like a buzzing cosmopolitan centre; it’s too spread out and there’s no real, thriving downtown area that binds all the disparate suburbs together. Where were the young people? Where was everything happening?
On our last night in town, we were happy to find that there is actually a thriving community in Phoenix: designers, foodies, techies, geeks, cyclists and artists. And they all came together for one night at Ignite Phoenix 7. There were 18 talks, all focusing on ‘the art of’ something – very appropriate give the venue: the lovely Phoenix Art Museum. Although I love having our Ignite London events in dark little pubs – something that seems somehow appropriate for London – I really liked the marrying of an Ignite event with a museum. There was such a diverse crowd at the event and in-between talks, networking, beer and barbecue (I’ll get back to that), I think everyone fell a little bit in love with the museum and it’s friendly staff, quirky outdoor sculptures and stunning gallery spaces.
Right, barbecue. Anyone who has been to the southern states knows that there is barbecue to be had down there that is not easily replicated in other places. It’s a special culinary skill and not something that can be learned easily. Joe’s Real BBQ, the caterer for the night, obviously has some experts on staff because it was tasty and tender (the mark of really good barbecue). From the pork and chicken sliders to the homemade coleslaw and bakes beans, it was messy, messy perfection; the perfect accompaniment to the bright green margaritas they were serving behind the bar.
Ignite Phoenix 7 had a capacity of 600 people, which they sold out in under 20 minutes. An event of this size is not easy to pull off and this was reflected in the group of people organising it. The formal committee has about 15 people filling various roles from fundraising and volunteer coordination to speaker coach (yes, they actually have one of those) and on the night of the event, another twenty or so volunteers sign up to help as needed throughout the night. The flip side of having an event of this size is that, because of the cost, it isn’t free. Tickets were $10 each and, in my opinion, well worth the price. It is a conundrum though and one we’ve struggled with at Ignite London – do we keep the event small and free (and as a result be forced to turn some people away because they don’t have tickets), or do we grow the event and charge a fee to recoup some of the costs? Feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
There were so many things to love about Ignite Phoenix and it really speaks to the strength of the event concept (thanks O’Reilly!). There aren’t a lot of places where you can hear someone talk about The Art of Ghost Hunting, The Art of Creativity in a Prison Wasteland and The Art of Bastardizing Culinary Traditions all in the same night. Ignite is about people who are passionate enough to come together and share their excitement with a room of strangers; it’s amazing what you can take away from a five minute talk and where it can lead you.
After the talks were over, as we sat in the beautiful outdoor sculpture court of the Phoenix Art Museum listening to a live band play, with barbecue sauce dripping down our chins, our lips salty from margaritas, I felt that through Ignite we’d finally found a vital part of Phoenix. It took six weeks, but we left feeling like we’d learned more about that place and the people who live there in one night than in the 40 odd nights before.
A big, big thank you to the organisers of Ignite Phoenix for being such great hosts; especially Jeff Moriarty, Michael Barber, Matthew Petro and Jana Knapp.
All images by Amy Thibodeau. Please do not use them without proper attribution.
Amy Thibodeau is the co-founder of Ignite London, along with Dan Zambonini. She is a freelance writer, photographer and content strategist who is currently on a one-year around the world journey. You can find Amy online on her personal blog Making Strange, guest blogging for The Januarist, on Twitter, and via her online photography project Lost and Looking.
Author: Amy | Filed under: Ignite London, Speakers | 9 Comments »
A lot of our Ignite London speakers and organisers have an active online presence. In case you want to hear more, we thought we’d give you a list of the blogs and websites we know about so you can check them out. We’ve also created a Google Reader Bundle so that if you’re inclined, you can subscribe to all of them in one neat little package, which you can find here. We’ve also included some blogs from the Ignite London #1 group in the bundle. If you’re more the Twitter type, you can follow all the Ignite London speakers by subscribing to our list.
As for Ignite London #2 speakers, here’s where you can find them online (in no particular order):
If you are an Ignite London speaker and you don’t see your website on this list, please let us know in the comments and we’ll add you.
Hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did! Watch this space for details on Ignite London #3.
Image Credit: Lego Laptop by gilest.
Author: Amy | Filed under: Ignite London | No Comments »We’ve had a few emails about the process for admission into Ignite London. Here is what you need to know:
- Admission is free, whether you have a voucher or decide to take your chances at the door.
- If you secured one of the advance vouchers, please print it off and bring it with you to Ignite London. If you forget yours, we will also have a list of people who purchased vouchers, but to avoid a wait at the door, it would be best if you have the actual voucher with you.
- Vouchers only guarantee your admission until 7:30 pm. After 7:30 pm, we will begin to allow people into the venue on a first come/first serve basis.
- If you don’t have a voucher – unfortunately because of capacity issues, we are not able to issue any more. There is still a bit of room in the venue we’ve reserved for people who wish to show up at the door though we cannot guarantee you will get in. We will do our best to try to accommodate everyone. We toyed with the idea of creating a waiting list, but given the huge amount of interest, this didn’t feel like a manageable option though we will certainly consider it for future events.
If you have a voucher but are unable to use it, for whatever reason, please let us know so that we can make additional spots available to the many people who would like to attend. You can let us know by emailing info@ignitelondon.net.
Remember – Ignite London #2 is happening on Tuesday, 2 March at The Luminaire. Doors open at 7 pm and talks will start around 7:30 pm. The event is one of many events happening next week around the world, which are part of Global Ignite Week.
Author: Amy | Filed under: Global Ignite Week, Video | No Comments »
The fine folks at O’Reilly have just launched Ignite Show – a site committed to rebroadcasting videos from Ignite Talks.
Check it out here.
Author: Amy | Filed under: Global Ignite Week | 2 Comments »
The first Global Ignite Week is being held this year from the 1st to 5th of March 2010 with great representation from across the UK including events in London, Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff. The global effort is truly international with events being held in six continents and 60 cities in locations as diverse as Cape Town, Casablanca, Anchorage and Bangalore.
Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar and Bre Pettis of Make magazine. Since then hundreds of five minute talks have been given across the world. The idea is simple: presenters are required to stick to a rigid format of 20 slides, each of which changes automatically after 15 seconds, ensuring that presentations are exactly five minutes long. Topics range from tech and design to history and world events – the only rule is that talks cannot be about self-promotion, and that they adhere to the Ignite motto – ‘Enlighten us, but make it quick’
“We’ve been blown away by the response to Global Ignite Week,” said Ignite co-founder and O’Reilly Media Technical Evangelist Brady Forrest. “We were hoping for events in 40 cities, and now have commitments from volunteer organizers in 72 cities on every continent except Antarctica. And now that the space station has an Internet connection, we’re thinking about Ignite ISS.”
In the UK, a number of confirmed events are taking place during Global Ignite Week in London, Bristol, Manchester, and Cardiff, with a possible event being planned in Leeds. Some of the highlights include:
Monday 1 March 2010 – Ignite Manchester
MadLab, 36 – 40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN
Tuesday 2 March 2010 – Ignite London
The Luminaire, 311 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR
Thursday 4 March 2010 – Ignite Bristol
The Polish Club, 50 St Paul’s Road, BS8 1LP
Thursday 4 March 2010 – Ignite Cardiff
Wales Millennium Centre, Bute Place, Cardiff CF10 5AL
Although Ignite is best experienced in person, many events, including those being held in the UK, will be video taped to make the talks available to viewers online. O’Reilly anticipates that at least 500 talks will be available on their site, to be launched in conjunction with Global Ignite Week.
“This will be our second Ignite London event and the response has been wonderful,” said Amy Thibodeau, Ignite London committee member. “We released the final batch of advance tickets last week and they sold out in under ten minutes. We also have some amazing speakers lined up, starting with our headliners Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing and Russell Davies of the Interesting Conference and Newspaper Club.”
Bristol has received a similarly enthusiastic response. According to Peter Blackman, one of the organizers, “Bristol is such a creative, independent minded city that it’s not really a surprise that the response to the first Ignite has been so positive. We’ve sold out, and been deluged with submissions for talks on subjects as diverse as futurology, swing dancing, comic book culture, and microloans in the developing world. We can’t wait for March 4th to come around!”
Cardiff is looking forward to its biggest Ignite yet. “This is going to be the fourth Ignite Cardiff and we’re so pleased that each one just gets bigger and better,” said Claire Scantlebury, Ignite Cardiff co-organiser. “We’re in a world class venue with some incredible speakers – we’re really pleased to be taking part in something very inspirational, truly global, and having lots of fun while we’re doing it!”
Ignite Manchester is the newest confirmed event to be taking place during Global Ignite Week. “It is great that we can contribute to the ideas generated through Ignite in Manchester – we hope that this is the start of many,” said Steven Flower, one of the organisers.
Phoenix is really hot in June. My partner and I are currently on a year long, around the world journey and recently spent six weeks there visiting family and taking in enough sunshine to make up for the last two years in London. The desert was beautiful, the politics of the place a bit scary but the thing we noticed most of all was how isolated we felt where we were staying way out on the northern edge of Scottsdale, which is on the northern edge of Phoenix. Although it’s the fifth largest city in the US, Phoenix doesn’t really feel like a buzzing cosmopolitan centre; it’s too spread out and there’s no real, thriving downtown area that binds all the disparate suburbs together. Where were the young people? Where was everything happening?
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