Ignite London Admission and Vouchers

We’ve had a lot of questions about how admission will work for Ignite. As you know, Ignite London is a free event and as such, we were reluctant to issue confirmed tickets because we didn’t want to find ourselves in a position where we had a half empty venue (because people with tickets didn’t show – hey, we’ve all been there) while at the same time being unable to let people in at the door in case people with tickets do turn up. We understand that London is a big place, and no one wants to travel across town without the guarantee of getting in.

So we think we’ve come up with a compromise.

We are giving away a limited number of vouchers, which will guarantee you and a friend admission to Ignite London, provided you turn up by 7:15 pm, with a printed voucher in hand. After 7:15 pm, you are still welcome to turn up and may well get in (we have no idea what the demand will be like) but we can’t guarantee it as we’ll be letting people in at the door on a first come, first served basis. Vouchers will be given away to the first 50 people who request them.

We would really appreciate it if you only take vouchers if you plan to attend.

Please note: this does NOT mean that you need a voucher to get in. This is the first Ignite London event in the history of the world and we have no idea how busy it will be. We are hoping for a full house and have had a great response, so if you don’t have a voucher, we recommend you turn up early to avoid disappointment.

Ignite London is happening on Wednesday, 18 November. Doors open at 7 pm, talks will start between 7:45 and 8 pm and admission is free.

To request a voucher, please leave a comment below or @ ignite_london on Twitter.

Ignite London Presenting Sponsor!!

We are really excited to announce our Ignite London sponsor, without whom we would need to charge you admission to cover the costs of putting on the event. Anyone who has put on an event, particularly a free one, knows how important the support of local business is.

For personal and professional reasons, we are excited to announce Box UK’s official sponsorship of the first Ignite London. Box UK was born out of the work of leading thinkers and doers in the web and technology industry. With offices in London and Cardiff, they are obsessed with the Internet and emerging technologies and work with some the world’s best people, from the FTSE 100 to international standards bodies and leading organisations across the UK public and heritage sector. Hundreds of websites are currently managed by their leading Web Content Management System Amaxus, including the National Gallery, BCS – The Chartered Institute of IT, Tombraider.com and Investec Asset Management.

For more information on Box UK, or to find out more about their leading Web CMS Amaxus, please get in touch.

I should note that both Dan and I work for Box UK, so we have a personal connection with the company. It’s also worth mentioning that Box UK has been a supporter of the Ignite concept for a long time and has previously sponsored events in Cardiff.

We are also very lucky to have a wonderful venue partner in Ginglik, who have given us a great price on the space and have waived their regular admission fee. On November 18th, make sure you come early, stay late and enjoy some of the great drinks and food on offer at Ginglik.

Just in case you've forgotten

Ignite London is almost here! Make sure your calendar is marked for Wednesday, November 18th, doors open at 7 pm.

Here is the entire Ignite London speaker line-up (in no particular order):

• Ben Hammersley, The Sex Lives of the Great Renaissance Masters: How the Old Masters and their Mistresses Changed Art
• Matthew Baker, Diarrhea & Dodgy Doners: What’s Special About Bacteria
• Nicky Smyth, Analogue World Design Patterns: A Look at User Behaviour
• Christian Howes, Tomorrow World – The Truth
• Craig Smith, The Upsides and Downsides of Standards (web, language and otherwise)
• Katy Lindemann, What We Can All Learn from Children
• Gerard Darby, Sideways Thinking
• Sofia Pires, Creativity slash Autism
• Matt Edgar, 1794 – So Much to Answer For
• Mandy Saven, Ideas We’d Like to See More Of
  
• Allan Smith, Design + Business – A Real Life Partnership
• John V Willshire, If Advertising is a Firework, Social Media is a Bonfire
• Dafydd Rees, Guerrilla Software design – How to Make the Most of the Power of Small, Creative Software Teams
• Jimmy Greer, Rediscovery: Brazil and the 21st Century
• Ashley Benigno, error(e) 404: Italy as a Country Not Found
• Matt Clarke, Human Energy
• Jennie Albone, Things the Might Not Work Out
• Alby Reid, Operation Paul Bunyan
• Melissa McVeigh, Why Photography Defines Our World
• J.K Tina Basi, Surfing the Net as a Path to Enlightenment
  
• Chris Thorpe, Perils, Wonders and Learning to “be” in a Networked World

Final Ignite London Speaker Announced!

We are pleased to announce our 21st and final Ignite London speaker.

Chris Thorpe’s Ignite London talk is called Perils, Wonders and Learning to “be” in a Networked World. Since he gave up playing with really big computers as a research scientist, Chris has been trying to find more and more excuses to play with really big computers powering web applications. He’s been involved in projects as diverse as bringing Which? to an online audience, social worlds for 7-11 year olds, video archives of Nobel Prize winners telling their life stories, a James Bond premiere webcast, and putting contemporary sculpture on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth.

He is co-founder of Jaggeree, which is a consultancy that works in the spaces and intersections around content, play, people and data.  For more information on Chris visit Jaggeree or his other site Four Walks, or follow him on Twitter.

More Ignite London Speakers!

The following three speakers all but round out the roster for Ignite London (we are still waiting on the bio for one last speaker who will be announced very soon). It’s going to be a great night with 21 very cool talks.

Nicky Smyth’s Ignite London talk is called Analogue World Design Patterns: A Look at User Behaviour. Nicky is the Senior Research Manager of User Experience, BBC Future Media & Technology. She’s been working in digital media and broadcast since the initial boom of the 90s. With a background in user experience design, she is fascinated by ways that consumer insight can influence the way we craft experiences from storytelling through to digital services. Learn more about Nicky on her website, or follow her on Twitter.

Dafydd Rees’s talk is called Guerrilla Software Design – How to Make the Most of the Power of Small, Creative Software Teams. Dafydd is a freelance software developer with experience in the media, investment banking and mobile data industries. He started programming when he was five years old. Back in 2002, some great people made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and he’s been doing extreme programming ever since. Dafydd has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Swansea University. Visit Dafydd on his website or follow him on Twitter.

Gerard Darby will talk about Sideways Thinking. Gerard is the author of several books for young people on idea generation, including The Little Book for Big Ideas, Dare to Dream, and Get Connected. He is the co-editor of Reinvesting Education, a publication that brings together a diverse range of viewpoints on how education needs to be changed to meet the demands of the 21st Century. He runs workshops on creative and lateral thinking for both businesses and colleges in London.

Only one more speaker to announce and that’s our list complete.