What did *you* think of Ignite Portland

Published
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Dawn
on February 6, 2008
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We had a fantastic time at the event. Some things worked really well, like the awesome presentations. Other things could have been better, like a faster-moving line for drinks.

Let us know in the comments: What did you think of Ignite Portland?

  • What was awesome? (we’ll try to keep these the same)
  • What could we do better?

Here come the videos…

Published
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Raven Zachary
on February 6, 2008
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The first batch of videos from Ignite Portland 2 are starting to appear online, thanks to our friend A.J. (aka Linuxaid). A.J. did an amazing job shooting video for the first Ignite Portland in October 2007, and he’s at it again for Ignite Portland 2, less than 24 hours after the completion of the event. As he will be posting them throughout the day, you can look for the most recent videos directly from Linuxaid’s YouTube profile page. We will update this blog entry with links to the individual videos are they come in…

Ignite Portland 2 Videos:

What is Ignite? by Scott Kveton
Where Does Imagination Go? by Chet Fiedler
That’s Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign ‘08 by Jon Perr
Open Source Rockets by Sarah Sharp
Time for Portland to Take Its Place by Chris Logan
Wouldn’t You Like To Be a Pepper (Expert) Too? by Kelly Guimont
Beauty in Abandonment by Peat Bakke
How to be an Undercover Hooker by Jessica Bruder
Living a Made Up Life - And Getting Away With It! by Adrienne Fritze
Biodiesel: the stuff you need to know by Brian Jamison
Six Weeks to Robot by Brandon Philips
Why Deutschland Loves David Hasselhoff by Mario Schulzke
What Would Dr. Seuss Say About Online Communities? by Dawn Foster
Irrashaimase!: Traditional Sushi in a Newfangled World by Melissa Casburn
A History of the Stick Figure by Eric Lewallen

That’s all of the videos! HUGE thanks and props to A.J. (a.k.a. linuxaid) for getting these up and available so fast! Less than 24 hours, just like last time. This guy is a superstar! :-)

If you didn’t get a chance to register at the event…

Published
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Raven Zachary
on February 6, 2008
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…then please do so online now. This will help us plan for future events.

The online registration form.

I’m am far too tired to do a recap post tonight (and I’m guessing Josh will do that on Wednesday). The event was a huge success and I am so proud to live in a place like Portland where these types of events are possible.

What a cool place we live in!

PS: We’ll get video and the slides posted in the next 24-48 hours.

If you’re making media at Ignite, tag it so we can all find it

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on February 5, 2008
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Just a quick note on tagging. We’re going to generate a tremendous amount of media at Ignite Portland tonight. Photos, videos, blog posts, Twitter updates, and who knows what else. Here’s how to tag the stuff you create so we can all find it.

  1. If you’re using Twitter, use the #ip2 Hashtag in your posts (I’m bad at remembering to do this, but I’ll try to be better!). Then we can all watch/subscribe to #ip2 on Hashtags, and see what other people are saying. Don’t know what Hastags is? Find out here.
  2. The general tag we recommend for photos, videos, etc. is “igniteportland”. So if you post to Flickr, YouTube, or whatever else, add the tag, and people will be sure to find it.
  3. If you made some media you’re especially proud of - a great video, photo, or whatever, and want to have it featured on this site, leave a comment here, and we’ll see what we can do.

I can hardly imagine the sheer volume of media that we, collectively, are going to create tonight. I doubt any one person will be able to absorb it all. But if it’s tagged, at least we can all stand a chance at finding it! Thanks! :-)

Can’t make it to the Bagdad? You can still Ignite!

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on February 5, 2008
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I’ve been talking with a few people who want to come to Ignite Portland 2 tonight, but for whatever reason, can’t make it to the Bagdad in person. So here’s a rundown on other ways you can plug into the excitement tonight, even if you can’t physically be there.

  1. Watch the live video stream. John Hartman and his crew from AlphaGeekTV are going to be on the scene, providing a live video stream. They are partnered with Justin.tv, and they have the same equipment, chat room, etc. that goes along with the stream. Assuming we don’t have bandwidth problems, this should be a great way to watch the presentations. And of course, we’ll post videos of all the presentations on the Watch page afterwards.
  2. Follow IgnitePortland on Twitter. We’ll be posting updates and venue information (stuff like “you’ve got 15 minutes until the bar closes”, etc.).
  3. Watch pulseofpdx.com to see what Portland is saying about the event. PulseofPDX is a little site some of us Ignite-y people put together to show a stream of Portland people on Twitter. Since lots of those people are going to be at Ignite, I can imagine it’s going to be full of talk about the event, the presentations, etc. Think of it as the unofficial backchannel. if you’re in Portland, and want to be included in the “stream of Portland’s collective consciousness”, just follow @pulseofpdx on Twitter, and it will follow you back. Once it’s following you, you’re in.

We’re expecting an amazing crowd tonight - almost 600 people on Upcoming have said “I’m coming!” (making it the second most popular event on all of Upcoming, behind only SXSW), and I’m sure we’ll get a lot more from people who heard about Ignite in the Oregonian or on the radio. Make sure you read this post about getting there early, what not to bring, and other logistical stuff.

I’m so excited - the anticipation is huge! I feel like I’m sitting on a powderkeg, and I can’t wait until it goes off tonight.

See you there! :-)

It’s Almost Time for Ignite!

Published
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Audrey Eschright
on February 4, 2008
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Are you ready? Here’s a few things we’d like you to know:

  1. There is no dedicated parking at the Bagdad. This means you’ll have to deal with the mess of trying to find street parking near Hawthorne. Unless… you take the bus. We’d love for you to take the bus. It’s a great way to meet your neighbors. The 14 line stops right in front of the theater, and you can catch it downtown on 2nd Ave. Bus 75 stops just two blocks away at SE Hawthorne and 39th, and it runs all the way from St. Johns to Milwaukie, connecting with MAX twice: at Lloyd Center and N Lombard. If you need more info, go to http://trimet.org, or try the Google Transit trip planner.
  2. Ignite is here to be documented. Bring your camera, your video camera, your tape recorder, or even a notebook. You could just sit and watch, but wouldn’t it be more fun to take pictures? AlphaGeek TV will be streaming live with four camera operators, for anyone who can’t be at the event in person. You can go to their site to find the live video tomorrow night.
  3. Don’t bring anything you can’t carry around. There’s no coat check, and we’re expecting a big crowd. Ignite attendees are a friendly lot, but your brand new MacBook Air might be too tempting if it’s left on a seat.
  4. The Bagdad does have wifi, but we can’t guarantee it’ll work if everyone tries to check the Super Tuesday results at once. This might be a good night to leave the laptop at home. Asking around for information (”Hi, I noticed you were looking at your iPhone. Do you know how the primaries are going?”) is one of my favorite ways to mingle.
  5. The theater will be full. Saving a seat for your friend is fine, but if they don’t show by the time the presentations start, we’ll be asking you to move in so everyone can sit down. Help us make this a fun night for everyone.
  6. Since the theater will be full, you’ll want to show up early for the best seat. Doors open at 5:15. We have reserved seating for the speakers and sponsors, but everything else is first-come, first-served.
  7. The Bagdad’s full menu of food and drink will be available for purchase, so you can come straight from work without finding dinner first. They’ll even bring it out to your seat while you sit back and enjoy each presenter’s five minutes of glory.

Ignite Portland on the Radio

Published
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Raven Zachary
on February 4, 2008
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Tomorrow is the big day! With Upcoming RSVPs well over 500 now, we’re hoping to fill every seat in the house at the Bagdad Theater. As a reminder, you do not have to RSVP using Upcoming to attend. We’ll have seats for 580, and standing room for a few hundred, so while we think it’s going to be a packed house tomorrow (at least the seats), we don’t expect that we’re going to have to turn away anyone due to fire code limits this time. We know from a few people that the fire code issue at the last event actually kept a few people away. Come one, come all!

Ignite Portland is going to be included in the Rick Emerson Show on AM 970 (”Solid State Radio”) today sometime in the 2-3pm hour. If you want to listen in live over the Internet, or listen to a recording later on, both the live stream and the recorded shows are available from the AM 970 website. You can, of course, just tune into 970 AM during the 2-3pm hour, as well. I will be interviewed by Rick Emerson and provide some background on Ignite Portland 2 and what people can expect. We appreciate the opportunity from AM 970 to get the word out. Twitter and Upcoming have been great avenues to market the event, but getting coverage in The Oregonian and AM 970 will help us reach those people not actively participating in the Portland online community.

Update: Here’s the audio of the show. Listen to his Raven and Rick Emerson discussing the Ignite format, highlights of the presentations we’re going to see at Ignite Portland 2, and how cool Portland is in general! Click to listen in the embedded player below, or click here to download the MP3 file directly (2.5MB, about 5.5 minutes).

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Welcome, Oregonians!

Published
by
Raven Zachary
on January 26, 2008
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photo by Scott Kveton

The Oregonian this morning has an article about Ignite Portland 2 on the cover of the Living (C) section. Laura Oppenheimer is the author. There is also an online version of the article, posted at OregonLive.com - “What’s on your mind? You’ve got five minutes …,” although you will see from the photo that Scott Kveton took above, the print version is worth the trip to the store to buy a copy for $0.50. There are a few people whose names were not mentioned in The Oregonian article who have been a big help with Ignite Portland planning - Scott Kveton, Adam Duvander, Aaron Hockley, Ann Marcus, the rest of the board of Legion of Tech, Renny Gleeson, and a whole host of volunteers who help from crowd control to cleanup and everything else that needs to be done to make Ignite Portland operate smoothly. Thank you!

If you’re just finding out about Ignite Portland 2 from the article in The Oregonian - WELCOME! The event is open to all. Here’s some quick information about the event - we hope to see you there!

* Ignite Portland 2 takes place Tuesday, February 5th, from 6-9pm at the Bagdad Theatrer on 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. We have posted directions to the venue.

* Doors open at 5:15pm and admission is always FREE. We are recommending that you get there early as there is always a possibility that we hit the fire code limit again this time. For the first Ignite Portland event, we hit fire code at 297 people over at the beautiful Wieden+Kennedy space in NE Portland. We had to move the venue this time to accommodate more people. The Bagdad will hold 580 sitting, and I think we can get around 700 total people in there.

* We are hoping to get an attendance count prior to the night of the event for planning purposes. If you have a few minutes, it would help us if you’d visit our page on Upcoming, and add yourself to the RSVP list. You do not have to RSVP to attend, but this process helps us in terms of event planning and logistics.

* Make sure you take a look at the agenda for the event. For Ignite Portland 2, we’ll have 14 speakers and an intro on ‘What is Ignite?’ for the newcomers. You can also check out videos from the first event to get a sense for how this all works.

* Ignite Portland will continue on a regular basis. We’ve already begun work on Ignite Portland 3, and will share details on the third event the night of February 5th at Ignite Portland 2.

* If you’re inspired to submit a presentation idea for the next Ignite Portland, please be patient for a few more weeks until we get the submission form back online for the next event. We look forward to your submission!

* This event is supported by our wonderful sponsors - you can check out the list on the right sidebar of this site. Thank you, sponsors!

We look forward to seeing you at Ignite Portland 2!

Announcing the Ignite 2 Presentations

Published
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Aaron Hockley
on January 21, 2008
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Last Friday, the presentation selection committee had the tough job of choosing 14 presentations for Ignite Portland 2 out of a field of 54 submissions. We looked for a mixture of topics from presenters with a variety of backgrounds. We’ll kick things off with a quick “What is Ignite?” primer then dive into 14 of Portland’s hottest burning ideas. I’m excited to announce the following agenda and presentation lineup for Ignite Portland 2:

5:15 Doors Open
6:00 Registration & Networking
6:20 Welcome and Introductions
6:30 Presentations Wave 1

7:15 Break and Networking
7:40 Door Prizes
7:45 Presentations Wave 2

8:25 Networking
9:30 Go Home! (or adjourn to the bar for further networking)

* Minors are required to leave at 9:00 due to OLCC regulations

I’m really looking forward to seeing these presentations; it should be a fun and informative evening. Be sure to RSVP on Upcoming if you’ll be attending so we have a rough headcount. I hope to see a few hundred of you at the Bagdad on February 5th!

(Updated to include links to the presentation proposals.)

Idea submissions closed, we’ll announce the “winners” later this week

Published
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Josh Bancroft
on January 16, 2008
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The idea submission form for Ignite Portland 2 has been closed. We received 54 terrific idea proposals for 20-slide presentations.

Now, the folks who are doing the selection have the daunting task of going through the submissions, and narrowing it down to the 14 that will be given at IP2. Talk about a tough job! I really wish we could do all of them, because they’re that good.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who submitted an idea! Ignite Portland couldn’t happen without you, and it kills me that we’re going to have to tell 40 or so of you “not this time”.

We’re so spoiled here in Portland - an embarrassment of rich ideas! :-)

We’re deliberating and voting now, and we’re going to meet on Friday this week to make the final decisions. We’ll post the lineup shortly thereafter. Stay tuned!