Last night was the tenth edition in what is unarguably the best geek event in Seattle, the Ignite! series.  Hey – don’t believe me?  The Ignite! crew just won some sort of award.  To summarize the format for those of you too new or too forgetful to the scene – bring about 15 speakers up on stage in front of about 700 raucous geeks, have them talk for exactly 5 minutes in front of their slideshow, which is exactly 20 sliides long and which advances every 15 seconds.

You get nerves.  You get laughter.  You get those squirmy uncomfortable silences as the slide show gets borked or the speaker goes all doe-eyed in front of the headlights.  Mostly you get entertained and informed.

Maybe it was just me, but the crowd last night seemed more restrained compared to previous Ignite events.  My hunch is that there were a lot of people attending Ignite for the first time – call them late adopters, to use a geek’s parlance.  The cover charge may have had something to do with it.  It may also just be a busy time of year and the normal attendee patterns are thrown off a bit.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s very nice to see new faces and meet some new people.  But the normal drunken naked debauchery was in short supply.  (ed: Drunken?  Naked? – OK, not naked, and maybe just buzzed).

There were some headline names that everyone in the Seattle geek scene probably knows, or knows of: Marcelo Calbucci, founder of Seattle 2.0; Andy Sack, founder of Founder’s Co-op; and Matt Harding, better known as Dancing Matt, and who is truly Internet Famous.  In keeping with the egalitarian theme of the event, however, the speakers that stole the show were:

• Mark Selander, presenting on the Commutapult, a utopian commuting scheme with a sure-thing 100% safety record.  Biggest LOLs of the night.
• Bradley Vickers, who gave a talk on his real-world experience rowing across the North Atlantic with four guys and not enough food.  Not quite the Shackleton experience, but very captivating.
• Dan Shapiro, former CEO of Seattle mobile tech company Ontela (which merged with PhotoBucket last year), who gave a funny and informative presentation called “Hacking Birth”.
• Vanessa Fox, one of the handful of people who might legitimately vie for the title of “Best Search Expert in the World” (ed: didn’t she just write a book? Yes!  Yes she did), gave a fast-paced and very diverting talk about search and Those Crazy People On the Internet.  I must, in good conscience, ding Vanessa several points for showing photos of a guy on ChatRoulette dressed in a very meowy cat costume.

Last night was one of those nights I learned a lot.  For example:

• You can put rose petals in ice cubes. (via Kim Prohaska)
• You can hail a taxi using the same dispatch system the cab companies use. (via Aimee Cardwell)
• There is a restaurant in Seattle called Nettletown, which coincidentally is located not 100 yards from where I sit as I write this, that serves foraged food. (via Michelle Broderick)
• A donation of one pint of blood can save three lives. (via Jeff Shuey)

Overall: Even a slightly subdued crowd can’t diminish the pure genius of the format or the enthusiasm that the speakers bring to the stage.  If you haven’t yet attended an Ignite event, plan on making the next one – they’re not going away soon.

p.s. What happened to the exclamation point?  I think it used to be Ignite! Seattle, but now it’s just Ignite Seattle.  As a result, my synapses fire slightly less frequently when I read the name.

p.p.s. PSA: do not – EVER – use your cell phone when you are standing at the urinal.  Just sayin’.

p.p.p.s. If you’re in even the slightest funk, go to an Ignite event.  It will expand your consciousness, connect you with the community, and make you laugh.  Guaranteed.

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.

At the Ignite! Seattle 7 event the other day, I was speaking to a friend about future topics that I – yours truly – might consider presenting.  I’ve never presented at Ignite! before, so there’s a first time for everything, and one topic immediately came to mind as one that was:

(a) interesting

(b) original

(c) familiar

The topic?  “Dealing With Heartbreak”.  I selfishly claim a special relationship with this topic lately, but consider these many life examples of heartbreaking circumstances and tell me if there wouldn’t be some stories there that could be incorporated into possibly the Most Memorable Ignite Presentation Ever:

• A friend is currently going through chemotherapy.  He’s young.   Too young to have to go through this.  I can’t imagine what his wife and family are feeling right now.
• An extended family member, not too many years ago, accidentally ran over a 4 year old boy who ran into the street.  Can you imagine what the family went through?
• Another friend has a parent going through chemo right now.  In addition to the miserable suckiness associated with cancer, there’s the special circumstance of having to deal with the (possible) loss of a parent; someone who has cared for you and nurtured you for your whole life.  I know when my dad passed away in 2005, from complications of emphysema, it was a terrible, terrible blow to me personally.
• Another friend found out about a year ago that their child has ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).   There’s nothing “wrong” with a special-needs child, far from it, but consider the anguish and yes, heartbreak, associated with the realization that the path of your child’s entire life has been irrevocably altered in a fundamental way.
• Finally, there’s your good old romantic heartbreak.  We’ve all had our hearts broken, sometimes so painfully that you feel like you’re literally going to die, that your heart is ACTUALLY BROKEN IN TWO, and the bitter acid drips down into your gut and causes pain and nausea of a type that you’ve never felt before and hope you’ll never feel again.  The most tragic examples of romantic heartbreak – and thus, perversely, the most interesting – are those where circumstances conspire to double the agony; Shakespeare is a master at this.  Think of Romeo and Juliet, Pyramus and Thisbe, etc. etc.

So what would an Ignite! presentation on topic actually consist of?  Nobody would want to hear twenty slides’ worth of sob stories, no matter how poignant.   Maybe a more solution-oriented presentation, perhaps focusing on Positive Psychology.  Maybe a solution that showed how geeks/nerds/thoughtful types have traditionally dealt with heartbreak – using examples from books, movies, theater, etc.

I could end with some great quotes that would really set the audience to weeping:

• “They say that time heals all wounds but all it’s done so far is give me more time to think about how much I miss you.”
• “The greatest pain that comes from love is loving someone you can never have.”
• “Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never knew.”

There is apparently a whole cottage industry of “broken heart quotes” on the internet, which speaks to the universal experience and continuing vitality of the topic.  Maybe I could take a quote and make a slide/story out of it, with examples from literature and the arts.

Is your heart broken?  Has it ever been?  If so, what would you like to see in a potential Ignite! topic?  Let me know in the comments!

There were two main local sponsors at last week’s Ignite Seattle 5 event at the Capitol Hill Arts Center.

The first was Ontela, a local mobile-imaging startup. A really nice representative named Janette Fong got there early and was handing out drink tickets with the Ontela logo on them. I’d never heard of Ontela, but they have what looks to be a great product in a good niche, with high-powered backing. Strangely enough, they don’t have a consumer product, which makes me wonder why they sponsored something like Ignite — I can’t just jump on their website and try something out. My carrier (AT&T) has to roll out a product on Ontela’s platform, and even then it might be invisible to me in terms of branding. Maybe they just want to support the local startup scene, which is cool.

The second was Biznik, which I first ran into a few months ago. Their tagline is “Business Networking That Doesn’t Suck”, and the Ignite crowd seemed tailor-made for their pitch. But there wasn’t one (a pitch, I mean). I didn’t see any Biznikers hanging around out front, and it wasn’t until the end of Ignite when Brady put up the slide thanking the sponsors that I even realized that Biznik was there.

Now, there was a huge crowd, and much like startups in China, the Biznik rep only needed to reach 1% of the crowd to have a good ROI. But the whole thing got me to wondering about sponsorships — strategically (in Ontela’s example), as well as tactically (in Biznik’s example).

Promoting the sponsorship on the web would seem to be natural, but none of the three organizations mentioned say anything about the sponsorships on their websites. In the case of Ignite, that’s probably unacceptable to not throw a shout out to sponsors somewhere. They have references to both Ontela and Biznik, but they’re buried and the posts were in reference to Ignite 2 or 3 or something back in August 2007.

For Ontela and Biznik, not mentioning the event probably speaks to a strategic gap in their marketing. They could use a 360° scorecard or something

What do you think? Are strategy and tactics both essential for making the most out of local tech event sponsorships? Is one more important than the other?

OK — I butchered the headline. This blog is not the New York Times, and my only editor is the slightly fuzzy one between my ears. I just had to find some creative way to express how AWESOME the Ignite Seattle 5 event was last night at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. I haven’t had that much fun in a dark room full of men on Capitol Hill since [REDACTED]. Ha ha ha!

But seriously, the crowd was probably 85% male, 15% female, which in terms of geek events has to win Brady some sabermetrician’s award for gender balance.

First: a shout out to all my skillbit and twitter friends I saw at the event: Brian, Rob, Adam, Jocelyn, Amir, Leo, Matt, Lindsay, Leigh, Deepak, Adam, and Anders. I’m forgetting one or two. Nice to see everyone!

Next, to the talks themselves: This is a fantastic format. It makes PowerPoint fun again! The presenters have a fixed amount of time per slide and so as you’re listening to their presentation your brain is engaged with this meta-level analysis of how they’re doing relative to the clock. It definitely keeps you interested.

You can go online in a couple weeks and view the video. For now, I’m going to give out a few “Xideys” to my favorite presentations:

• MOST INFORMATIVE: This is a tough category, as there were many, many good presentations here. I’ll call it a tie between Noah Iliinsky, speaking about complex diagrams, and Adam Philipp, talking about patents, but really, all of them were informative.
• MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING: Jordan Andersen, talking about opinion systems.
• MOST INSPIRATIONAL: This one has to be Ramez Naam’s talk on bottoms-up market democracies. I’d like to meet Ramez; he seems like a really interesting and engaged person.
• MOST FUN: Another close contest between Ryan McMinn’s hilarious Geek Dating Guide, and VJ Vijai’s talk on Hacking the Technical Interview.

I’ll definitely be back for the next Ignite event. Props to Brady Forrest for throwing such a great event.

Tuesday night I’m going to Ignite Seattle 5, the fifth in a series of geekfests hosted by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. It looks like a ton of fun and the last couple events in the series drew 350+ to the Capitol Hill Arts Center.

Check out videos of previous talks over here at blip.tv, and be sure to check out the talk schedule for Tuesday night here.

My most-looked forward to 15 minutes? Of course I’d like to say “all of them”, but it wouldn’t be very bloggy of me not to express an opinion (especially if said opinion is under-researched), so I’ll pick my top three talks in advance of the event, then pick my favorites after actually seeing them.

1. Justin Martenstein on The Six Hour Startup. After my great time at Seattle Startup Weekend in January, how could I not look forward to a talk about how to roll up that experience into a single afternoon? I can see where this trend is going. Next year we’ll all get together on Twitter between 9:00 and 9:10 one morning and launch the next Google-killer.
2. Todd Sawicki on The History of Online Advertising. because perspective is important, and because there are still many, many bites left on that apple.
3. Helen Cook on The Most Beautiful Game In The World. I love go. I’ve been playing on and off since college, when I got hooked on IGS and had my ass handed to me by random people around the world. Every now and then I get the urge to break out my ten or fifteen Kiseido titles and spend a few weeks re-immersing myself.

Honorable mention goes to Adam Philipp on How to Roll Your Own Patent Application. If you’re full of ideas, you’ll want to see this one. Full disclosure: I’ve seen a draft of this presentation already. You won’t want to miss it.

Presented by Leo Dirac at the Ignite Seattle 4 event last September.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWHsDBLY_Mg]

Note to Leo: write more! You have a neat blog, but it’s sparse.