I’ve finally found the time to publish the agenda for the event including all of the presentation topics
The important stuff:
Doors open at 5:30: As Josh mentioned, we will be admitting people on a first come, first serve basis, but the doors will not open until 5:30 (this gives us time to set up for the event).
Welcome and Introductions at 6:20 begins the formal agenda for the event.
We ran into a problem that none of us anticipated. A whole lot more of you are interested in coming to the first Ignite Portland that we had ever imagined. And we’ve run into some upper limits. The fire code at our venue, Wieden+Kennedy, limits us to a total of 297 people (that includes attendees + staff). As of now, there are 325 of you who have said “I’m Attending” at Upcoming.
Since we know that not everyone who RSVPs is going to make it, and since we don’t have a way to correlate your “real” name to your RSVP on Upcoming, this is how it’s going to work:
The first 297 people (give or take) who show up on the night of Oct. 25 will get in. After that, unfortunately, we’ll have to close the doors.
That means that just because you RSVP’ed (which we appreciate!), there’s no “guarantee” that you’ll get in. We don’t have a list of names to check at the door, to see if you RSVP’ed or not.
That also means that just because RSVPs are now closed (we capped the Upcoming event at 325), you can still show up on the night of the event, and if you’re in the first ~300, you’ll probably get in.
We know this sucks. It’s going to potentially make a lot of people mad at us. We’re really sorry! We had no idea this would become so big - we thought we’d be lucky to get 100 people. Really. We’re going to account for it when planning the next Ignite Portland.
We’ll be posting a detailed agenda of the evening soon, but the plan is to open the doors at 5:30 PM (with presentations starting about 6:20PM). I recommend getting there early if you want to make sure to get in. There are lots of little shops and cafe-type places around to hang out or have dinner before the event. The Pearl District is a very cool place.
Update: RSVPs at Upcoming are now closed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come to the first Ignite Portland! Unfortunately, it also means that just because you RSVP’ed, there’s no guarantee you’ll get in. See this post for details - we had to make admission “first come, first served”.
I can’t believe how fast the RSVP list for Ignite Portland has been growing. This morning, we crossed over the 250+ mark for people who have said “I’m Attending!”, and that doesn’t count the 26 more who are “watching”/tentative. We’re thrilled and a little freaked out that so many people want to come!
There’s still one week before the big night, if you haven’t already made plans to come. We might run into a problem, though - our space at Wieden+Kennedy has a fire safety occupancy limit of 297 people. I never dreamed we’d fill that place up, but here we are. I know that not everyone who RSVP’s will be able to make it, so for now, we’re doing a balancing act. I’ve capped the number of RSVP’s that Upcoming will accept for the event somewhere north of 297, to account for no-shows. But, if you REALLY want to come to Ignite Portland, you’d do well to RSVP now. It helps if you have your “real name” associated with your Upcoming account, so we can know that “beerinator” is really “Bob Smith”.
We’re not planning on being strict about checking for your name on the guest list at the door, and we don’t plan on turning anyone away. There’s overflow space at W+K that we could probably use should the atrium be completely full, but we won’t have the ability to pipe in the presentations. So help us out by making sure your RSVP info is accurate, including removing yourself if you know you can’t make it. We’ll be sad, and we’ll miss you, but accurate data makes everyone’s life better, no?
I wanted to start by thanking everyone who submitted a proposal to speak at Ignite. There were so many amazing presentations that it was incredibly difficult to select only 14. It was so hard that we decided to select 18 instead
Please keep in mind that this will be a quarterly event. If your presentation was not selected this time, please propose it again next time!
The presenters for the first Ignite Portland are:
Raven Zachary (What is Ignite?)
Urban Scout
Steve Morris
Audrey Eschright
Sarah Gilbert
Kevin Tate
Scott Huber
Scott Kveton
Crystal Beasley
Douglas Wolk
Hideshi Hamaguchi
Adam Duvander
Justin Kistner
Keith Gerr
Bill DeRouchey
MarcoPolo
Selena Deckelmann
MJ
You can see all of the topics by visiting the “Want to Present” page. We’ll have an agenda page shortly with a few more details about the schedule for the event.
Update: RSVPs are actually full now - 325+! But you can still come. Probably. See this post for the details.
Due to some shortsightedness on my part, there was a short period where Upcoming wasn’t accepting new RSVPs for Ignite Portland - it said that “attendance was full”.
When I created the event on Upcoming, I picked 150 as an arbitrary upper limit, because honestly, I never thought we’d get that many people. Well, we’re already way past 150 people interested in attending, and our hosts, Wieden+Kennedy can accommodate more than 150, so I removed the RSVP limit on Upcoming.
So, if you saw that “attendance is full” message, try again, and you’re in. And if you haven’t RSVP’ed yet, go do it! It helps us to know how many people are going to be there, so we can plan food and drinks. By the way, we’re still looking for sponsors to cover the costs of the event.
As we enter the week prior to Ignite Portland, we are trying to finalize sponsorships to pay for food, refreshments, signage, and other miscellaneous costs associated with producing the event. 100% of sponsor dollars are used for event costs - the four organizers are all volunteers. At this stage, we only have two confirmed sponsors and I am waiting for final confirmation from an additional five potential sponsors that have expressed an interest.
With the attendee RSVPs having passed 150 on Upcoming, the costs to produce the event, especially where refreshments and food are concerned, have gone up.
If we are unable to obtain additional sponsors, we will have to cancel plans for food at the event, providing limited drink service only.
Please email me if you are interested in sponsoring Ignite Portland.
All you have to do is pack an idea/pitch into our format - 20 slides, shown for 15 seconds each, auto-advanced, and make your idea sound more exciting than the others!
We’ve had a great response to our call for presenters. So much so that we have more ideas than presentation slots; however, keep them coming! We’ll just have to pick the best ones. Keep in mind that we expect these to be regular events, so if you do not get to present at this one, you will have other opportunities.
You can submit your idea and view the timeline, presentation format, rough agenda, and more on the presentation page.
We’re looking forward to your burning ideas - we know that there are more smart, unique, amazing people with burning ideas in Portland than anywhere else in the world - that’s why we’re doing Ignite Portland. So get submitting!
Four people are largely responsible for putting together the first Ignite Portland - Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster, Todd Kenefsky, and me. The four us got together for a planning meeting over lunch on Friday and delegated responsibilities in the few weeks now before the event. Please reach out and make contact with these individuals, as appropriate:
Presentations - Dawn Foster. Dawn is handling the selection process of the 12-16 speakers for the event, and making sure presentations are sent to us, in advance. If you want to present at the first Ignite Portland, please post your idea as a comment to the presentation page. We will use those comments to make our selections.
Marketing - Josh Bancroft. Josh is reaching out to as many people and groups as possible to spread the word that Ignite Portland is being held on October 25th. We have 60 or so RSVPs on Upcoming, so far, but expect attendance to be in the 100-150 range. Can you help us? Reach out to Josh.
Sponsorships - Raven Zachary. I am handling sponsorships, as I ended up with this responsibility for BarCamp Portland. I am looking for additional sponsors to help with the costs of refreshments and signage. 100% of sponsorships go towards costs directly, no middleman. Are you interested?
Logistics - Todd Kenefsky. Todd is handing the logistics for the event - the venue arrangements, on-site registration, A/V - working closely with W+K to make sure the event goes well. Todd will likely need some volunteers for setup and registration. Reach out to Todd.
Are you looking for an example presentation to help craft your own deck for Ignite Portland? Take a look at Rob Gruhl’s ‘How to Buy a New Car’ talk from Ignite Seattle:
This is great example presentation and one that shows that diversity of topics that can be presented. It doesn’t have to be tech, but it has to be interesting!
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We had no idea this would become so big - we thought we’d be lucky to get 100 people. Really. We’re going to account for it when planning the next Ignite Portland.
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