Thank you to everyone who attended Ignite Portland 3! Last night the speakers had their turn to talk, now we want to hear from you. What did you think about the event? What did you like and what can we improve on?
We made lots of changes this time based on your feedback from Ignite Portland 2. Everyone wanted shorter lines and more bartenders. Some wanted more technology topics, some wanted fewer. We want to keep the things you like and improve what needs improving. Your thoughts and ideas helps us create a better event, so please tell us what you thought of Ignite Portland 3.
Not able to attend last night, unfortunately. Will anyone be posting vids?
The whole thing went really smoothly… so kudos to the organizers for putting on a great event.
It was great to meet so many of you at Ignite Portland! We’re posting a few videos on our blog. Enjoy!
Loved: talks, smooth running show, food, beer, sponsor quickies, sound, line control.
Needs improvement: lighting. House lights too low to see people and network well before, between, and after talks. During talks too much light, washing out screen. Need some way to light speakers better - they were often silhouettes with occasional bright crowns.
Thanks LoT for a great evening!
I’ll second Paul on the lighting and the washed out projection … everything else was great. Even the beer lines seemed to be moving faster. Cheers to the LoT.
It was my 1st time- great experience!! Enjoyed the food, drinks and presentations! Nothing beats laughter at the end of a work day. I hope to tell more people about it for next year and get my company to submit something! I learned quiet a whole lot too, but not that “sitting in a meeting force yourself to learn something…” more like “SWEET! DIDN’T KNOW THAT! HA HA HA…” So thank you. Loved how we could pre-order tickets and not wait in line!! Wish the lighting was brighter before show and during breaks- couldn’t see what I was eating. Thanks again can’t wait till next year!
It was my first experience and I loved it! I’ll second the dark lighting made it difficult to network well, and some of the slides did seem washed out. Also, during seating while you have the sponsor slides up, it’d be great to also see summaries of the presentations for the evening. The Tticket system worked great, loved the food and atmosphere, etc etc etc.. Can’t wait for IP4!
Great event. Smoothly run both in the leadup and during. Shorter lines, everything seemed less packed/crowded this time. Agree with lighting comments.
I’d like to see the sponsors get more airtime to talk about what they do & say a few words on their support/involvement. A couple of them got cut off.
The after party was great. Suggestion for next time - do an “after-after party”, and maybe we can set up a “pre-party” nearby too
Well done. Was great to start on time and see things running a bit smoother. And Egal hit a home run with the ticket system. Note for next time: the sound system had an echo that was somewhat distracting.
Videos are starting to appear already - check out @linuxaid on Twitter. We’ll get them posted here to the site soon, but AJ’s cranking them out alreday!
I’ll write up my thoughts and ideas for improvement soon. Basic impressions: it was awesome. Tickets/GA dual admission worked very smoothly. Heck, even the wifi held up all night long!
Suggestions I’ve been hearing are small things - lighting, bathroom lines, etc. It seems like a bunch of little tweaks we could do to make things even better. A nice place to be.
* We either need to increase the brightness of the projector or lighten up slides to compensate. I was writhing in my chair when Liz Kimmerly’s beautiful Afghanistan photos were too dark to see well.
* The bathroom lines were long at times, we need to tell people about the second floor bathrooms during the ‘What is Ignite?’ talk next time. They were mostly unused.
* There were some hecklers in the back that would yell at times during silence, I’m not sure what they were trying to say, if they were drunk, or what was going on. Not much we can do about that other than crowd peer pressure. Crowd noise is fine, just as long as it’s in context with what the speakers or saying (or in direct response to the speakers).
Great event! I loved the ticket system, appreciated the vittles & shorter beer lines (tho’ they blew the Hammerhead keg @ the small bar before the event started).
The mix of topics was really great. Super creative, inspiring, and informative. And fun!
My only request in addition to the ones above would be more bike parking. Maybe some temporary bike racks?
Was my first time to Ignite but I think it all went so well… though I agree with the need for better lighting both in the house and to light presenters.
Great job all involved!
ditto lights comments and sound system echo.
What was up with our blue raffle tickets and favorite number?
Also- thoughts on a post revealing judging method for picking talks? Transparency a good idea esp as this event gets more popular. (For example, I can’t help but note the large percentage of werewolfers who have been presenters.)
Hi there. Great event!
a) as has been noted, the lighting before the talks starts and during breaks needs to be much higher.
c) could volunteers have badges? I would be willing to PURCHASE a badge. 
b) It would be great to hand out nametags. Networking is made very difficult when you don’t know people. I would be willing to donate nametags. I could hand them out with tickets.
Overall, a very fun and informative event! Thanks so much to organizers, sponsors, and volunteers for making the fabulous event possible!
- Registration system was AMAZING. Keep that up please!
- Too dark overall, the speaker was hard to see
- Venue is (still) cool
- Sponsors during the break was nice
- Much better organized this time around.
IP4 will be awesome!
ip3 was the best yet. Excellent speakers, beer, food. More vegan choices would be nice, although I had plenty.
Moving the sponsers to the middle was good. Next time, can we get them to wear funny costumes like chicken suits? Just an idea.
Additionally- I was surprised you didn’t use my email address from IP2 to contact me about IP3 opportunities… volunteering, tickets, etc.
I had a lot of fun at this event, definitely seemed a little smoother than the last Ignite. We were happy to sponsor the event and personally I was excited and honored to be able to present.
I actually had a couple old friends from Alaska come up and re-connect after they saw my presentation. I didn’t even know they were in Portland, awesome!
-Kevin
http://myVidoop.com
Would like to have nametags and encourage people to write their twittertags on them.
Also it might be useful to have notepads or postitnotes and pens strategically located, many occasions during the networking when people wanted to jot something down but didn’t have anything to write on. Found this very handy at BarCamp and DrupalCamp.
Overall excellent experience and very much looking forward to #ip4!
It was my first IP, not the last… and it was the BEST event I have ever been to. Great organization, great presenters, great people, great beerchips and above all, tons of energy and enthusiasm. Oregon rocks!
@Gerry… yes! we need a pre-party next time
Extensis was happy to be sponsors for the third time. I videoed a number of presentations and put them up on Viddler today:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/extensis/videos/
Uploading to YouTube too, but they’re much slower on the upload, and Viddler has better video quality anyway.
Jim
We at Extensis were happy to be sponsors for the third time. I put up videos of many of the presentations onto Viddler:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/extensis/videos/
I’m also uploading to YouTube, but they’re much slower for uploads, and have much poorer quality video anyway.
My first time. Thought it was great. Nicely organized (loved the tickets!), and the talks were quite good. Would love to see more talks and less “milling around time”. Also would suggest either spacing out the Sponsers, or having them do something more entertaining (enjoyed Planet Argon’s attempt).
RE: Tickets…
One of our employees printed out the form and then asked, “Where is it again?” I said, “look on the ticket!”
Then we looked at the ticket and it had:
* Who
* What
* When
…was missing the *where* part.
Location name + address might be a helpful addition.
Regarding the darkness, lack of saturation, and color in the slides: this is a problem that, properly solved, would add a lot to the experience. The visual aspect of IP is lacking.
I do not think the answer is lightening the slides. Perhaps the projector could be calibrataed and the correct color profile information given to the presenters to adjust their images by.
This was my first Ignite and I was absolutely impressed. The format is great because it’s quick paced and, for the most part, the speakers were very informative and entertaining.
Keep up the good work and see you next time!
IP3 was the best Ignite yet. To echo everyone, I think that the lighting and projector could be improved. They’re both somewhat dark right now.
Idea (we kind of talked about this before): what if each sponsor could make a 15–30 second video in lieu of going on stage? That way, they’re going to be able to present something more unique and compelling (not just a person talking) and all the organizer has to do is play a video file.
Great event! Thanks for including the Boiling Water (nuclear power) talk. I hope that Ignite Portland will continue to include talks on the physical sciences, life sciences, and engineering.
Excellent Event! Most of the presenters seemed to be insiders - affiliated with a sponsor or tech community.
Subjects were outstanding, but some presenters need to improve their speech 101 skills. It is not enough to simply be a geek with a cool topic. Six hundred people came to hear your best and those selected need to give it just that. Anything less detracts from the total impact such a high-powered event can make within the community.
bob