Tuesday night I joined a standing-room-only crowd at the King Cat Theater in downtown Seattle for Ignite! Seattle 8. I think this is the fourth Ignite! event in Seattle I’ve gone to, and I like to do a little recap of my experience following the event. My body having decided this week that it needs 10+ hours of sleep a night (must be fighting off something), I’m a little tardy, but here goes: a recap of selected presentations that I thought were worthy of some special mention. Note that these are not necessarily in order.
Eugene Lin – iPhoning my way to retirement, $.70 at a time
Eugene kicked off the night with a riotously funny recap of his experiences developing iPhone apps. Excellent use of animation and repetition in the slides to carry his thesis along.
Benjamin Franklin – Intellect: without an outlet in the world
This presentation was notable for the period-authentic attire worn by the presenter, whose real name is still a mystery to me. Eccentric? Yes, a bit. He spoke about Ben Franklin being the “original geek”.
Wendy Chisholm (wendyabc) Challenge your assumptions. Innovate. Change the world.
Wendy gave an inspiring talk about how we think about design and accessibility that was punctuated with visually compelling yet understated slides. I contradict myself constantly when I think about how best to use slides in an Ignite! talk. On the one hand, dense or animated slides give the audience something to look at while listening to the speaker; on the other hand, subtle slides combined with a passionate presentation can be equally effective.
Sarah Schacht (sarahschacht) Overcoming Cacophony: Making Gov 2.0 Work for You
Sarah, the founder of Knowledge As Power, oozes spirit and intensity when she talks about good government and citizen involvement. The first time I ever saw Sarah she was giving an Ignite! presentation in the old home on Capitol Hill, and she is still active, enthusiastic, and extremely knowledgeable. Great information, strong delivery, and as always, a timely topic.
Jason Carmel (defenestrate99) Defamation and Twitter – A Practical Guide to Covering Your Ass
Another very funny presentation on how not to get sued as you spread your words out over the innertubes. Considering that I just got accused of defamation and libel by a very litigious claimant (long story), I should have been taking closer notes.
Norman Guadagno (thinktone) Amazon Archaeology OR Swimming In Our Own Clickstream
This presentation fell into the personal lifestream category – Norman looked back with humor and curiosity at his Amazon purchases and how they tied into his corresponding life circumstances. I really liked his presentation – I wonder how I’ll look back at my 2009 blog posts in 10 years.
Dylan Wilbanks (dylanw) Everyone Core Dumps: Death and Loss For The Geek
This presentation hit home for me – it was about how to care for people when someone close to them has passed away. ‘Nuff said.
Mike Tyka – Cubes in the Sky
Mike teamed with Richard Bailey to give a back-to-back talk about a giant interactive Rubik’s Cube they built at Burning Man, and it was fascinating stuff. Burning Man-as-background-story always plays really well to Ignite! audiences, and I have to say that thing they built was just fucking AMAZING.
Again and again I can’t say enough good things about Brady Forrest and the team that helps organize Ignite! Seattle. They really do a service to the community and should be applauded for their tireless efforts.
There was a strange situation with regard to minors – they had to be segregated off in one corner of the theater about thirty minutes before the start of the talks. I’m guessing that we can thank the Washington Liquor Control Board for this one – officiousness at its best worst.
Best presentation? I’d have to give it to Eugene Lin: very funny, timely, and he combined a showman’s sense of confidence with some great slides.
Hope you were there to see it in person; if not, the next event is in March, as part of some sort of global Ignite! week, where 40+ Ignite! sessions will be held all over the world.