Until the decisions have been made here’s a brilliant ignite talk:

Matthew Inman – How to Get 5 Million People to Read Your Website

Why we like it?

Claire says: I love the comics on The Oatmeal, and Matthew’s ignite talk is simply hilarious.

We will announce the successful line up of speakers on this site early next week, and its not long now till Ignite London 3 on the 28th September at The Luminaire!  We will be releasing ticket vouchers in batches soon for the audience, so keep an eye on this website and twitter feed for details of their release.

The Ignite London committee will be meeting Monday next week to agree a line up which we are sure will inform, inspire and entertain you.  The selection process will try to ensure an interesting mix of topics, light hearted / seriousness and a mix of speaker backgrounds and originality to ensure there will be something for everyone on the night.  I can tell you it will be a very difficult decision process with so many fantastic ideas submitted to us.  We will let all those who submitted know the outcome directly either way soon after, so you have as much time as possible to prepare.

We will announce the successful line up of speakers on this site early next week, and you will see for yourself what a great night Ignite London 3 will be on the 28th September!  We will also be releasing ticket vouchers in batches over the coming weeks for the audience, so keep an eye on this website and twitter feed for details of their release.  If the last event was anything to go by, they will be snapped up quickly.  The vouchers are free, but we do have a limit on numbers at the venue.

Anyway – enough for one evening and again a big thank you and good luck to our submitted speakers.

Scott Berkun – “Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk” Ignite Seattle

See you can do it! We want to hear your cool ideas, hacks, projects,loves, hates,  lessons, and stories. What do you want to talk about?

These talks will each be 5 minutes long with 20 slides and only 15 seconds a slide (they auto-advance). Go on speak at ignite london #3
Email your proposal to speakers@ignitelondon.net . You can find out more details about how to submit a proposal here

First up Lean programming (the fridge vs the radiator) by Jason Yip Ignite Sydney

Why we like it?

Andy says: I’m afraid that the sound is a bit quiet on this video, but it is an excellent example of a slightly different approach to Ignite slides. The subject matter is on a professional and fairly serious topic, but his hand drawn, stick men type cartoons, add a lot of additional message to support his point, and a bit of humour as well. Enjoy!

and The Sex Lives of the Great Renaissance Masters by Ben Hammersley from our very first Ignite London.

The Renaissance Masters and their Mistresses by Ben Hammersley – Ignite London 18 November 2009 from hurryonhome on Vimeo.

why we like it?

Claire says: This is my favourite ignite talk ever. Ignite london #1 was filled with so many amazing talks, but this one holds fast in my memory. “are we ready to do art!? yeh! woo” hell yes. It constantly inspires me to find out new slighly bizare but interesting things about art and culture.

From these two examples you can see just how wide and diverse ignite talks can be. Tell us about what interests you! send us a proposal to speak at ignite london #3
Email your proposal to speakers@ignitelondon.net .

Sounds good right? Want to be involved? Yes? Excellent! We are still looking for speakers!

What do you want to tell people in 5 minutes? If there’s a topic you are passionate about and you to tell the world, in front of a very enthusiastic live audience, this is the place to do it.  Any topic at all! We’re after a mix of funny and serious personal and social, low and high tech, digital, analog, crafty, webby, environmental, quirky and mainstream. Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, enlighten us. The only thing we insist on is No Sales Pitches.

Here comes the sciencey bit …How to submit a Proposal

Email your proposal to speakers@ignitelondon.net . Please include as much information about your proposed presentation as you can as this will help determine who is picked.  If you can, include the following:

• Your Name
• Title of Your Talk
• Brief description of what you want to talk about
• Twitter Name (if applicable)
• Email Address
• Contact phone number
• Blog or Website URL
• Short Bio – who you are and what you do

By submitting a proposal, you are agreeing that we may use your name and the title of your talk within Ignite London promotional material.

Deadline

Proposals must be received by 6 pm on Wednesday 1 September 2010.  Based on the previous two events we expect to receive many more submissions than can be accommodated so there more information about your talk you can give the better. We will endeavour to respond to your proposal as soon as we can to confirm we’ve received it.

If there’s a topic you are passionate about and you want to spend five minutes sharing it with an enthusiastic audience, and possibly the whole world via Ignite Show, this is your chance.  We’re after a mix of funny and serious, social and personal, high and low tech, crafty, webby, environmental, quirky and mainstream. Making us laugh is a good thing, making us think is even better! The only thing we insist on is No Sales Pitches.  To get an idea of the wide range of previous talks take a look at the videos of previous events.

How to submit a Proposal

Email your proposal to speakers@ignitelondon.net . Please include as much information about your proposed presentation as you can as this will help determine who is picked.  If you can, include the following:

• Your Name
• Title of Your Talk
• Brief description of what you want to talk about
• Twitter Name (if applicable)
• Email Address
• Contact phone number
• Blog or Website URL
• Short Bio – who you are and what you do

By submitting a proposal, you are agreeing that we may use your name and the title of your talk within Ignite London promotional material.

Deadline

Proposals must be received by 6 pm on Wednesday 1 September 2010.  Based on the previous two events we expect to receive many more submissions than can be accommodated so there more information about your talk you can give the better. We will endeavour to respond to your proposal as soon as we can to confirm we’ve received it.

How will selections be made?

Talks will be primarily selected based on whether the topic is interesting, inventive, creative and unique. We will also make an attempt to select a wide range of topics so that there isn’t too much overlap in terms of content and subjects that haven’t been covered at previous Ignite London events. It would be great to have more ladies speak too.  We’ll let you know soon after the deadline whether your proposal has been successful in order to give you as much time as possible to prepare.

why we like it?

Dave says:  1794 is not a year that most people would recognise as an important year in history. As Matt Edgar highlights in this fascinating talk from Ignite London 1, the collision of a number of people in that very short space of time heralded important innovations in technology and thought.  A classic example of how Ignite can help you discover the overlooked. And as good as Matt looks in his, if you are thinking of speaking at Ignite London 3, you don’t have to wear a waistcoat.

You can find out more about the 1794 story here

Remember Remember Ignite London #3 on the 28th September!

Restoring The Archimedes Palimpsest by Will Noel

Why we like it?

Claire says: this is brilliant, he loves the subject, as do I, digital image processing of manuscripts is amazing and he presents the process really well. He manages to fit ten years work into 5 minutes! Engaging the viewer in a world of mathematics, conservation and academia with ease, making it palatable and most importantly really interesting and exciting.  (beware there is some swearing in the first 20seconds)

Are you thinking “Pah! I can do that”
Got something interesting to share?
20 slides in 5minutes
Enlighten us, but make it quick.
What do you want to tell people in 5 minutes?
We’re going to be calling for speakers for Ignite London #3 soon…

What does the hard hat and Wonder Woman have in common?

Why we like it?

Claire says: the title, for one, is brilliant, secondly the presenter, Stacy Holmstedt, is wearing a fabulous dress. But mostly I really like her slides, I like the fact that she has taken the comic book concept and ran with it. Plus you learn some pretty cool stuff from it. Who knew the same guy invented Wonder Woman and the blood pressure monitor!?

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.