IGNITE IS COMING TO CHARLOTTE ~ Enlighten us, but make it quick
Charlotte, NC, June 4, 2010 – It’s official, Ignite is coming to Charlotte on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 from 7pm-9pm and we’re just a few days away from announcing our confirmed location for this Free event. What is Ignite you ask? We coupled our take on it with Ignite Hamburg’s description (yes, as in Germany):
The idea is pretty simple: you put a dozen or so creative, technically savvy, artistically capable, gutsy and motivated people into one room and let them talk about any topic possible for 5 minutes. Each of them gives a little insight into their lives, their passion or their ideas during their time on stage. And in order to prevent the talks from getting too boring, some standards were put in place whereby every talk must consist of 20 slides; each slide displayed for 15 seconds changing automatically, yep slides change automatically.
Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Makerbot.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine, started Ignite in Seattle, WA circa 2006. Partially inspired by Pecha Kucha Nights, Ignite evolved into not only talks, but also Ignite contests that provided a great warm-up and ice breaker before the talks. Well, it’s been nearly five years now and Ignite has become an “international phenomenon” with gatherings, just to name a few, in Paris, France; Sydney, Australia; Portland, OR; New Orleans, LA; Raleigh, NC; and now Charlotte, NC.
Who’s behind Ignite Charlotte?
Samuel Fagan, VP of Business Development for Blueagle Marketing thought about launching Ignite here in Charlotte around the same time Bridget B. Sullivan, Event Producer and recent transplant, was working on the Webtrends Engage 2010 Conference in New Orleans. Webtrends is a key sponsor for Ignite Portland and they adopted the Ignite-style, talk format using “sprints” to replace hour long keynote presentations. They also added an Ignite event as part of their opening reception, but they first had to assist in establishing an Ignite in New Orleans (Ignite NOLA). Sam and Bridget were put in contact with each other through the O’Reilly network in April. Blueagle Marketing agreed to be a sponsor and this past month, Andrew Gertig, Spine Consultant at Medtronic Inc., who is a Maker/Tinkerer, joined the team.
Ignite is all about ideas, and ideas can change the world so if you want to learn more about Ignite Charlotte, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, as we’ll announce the location, how to register for this free event, how to submit talks and more in the coming days.