Now that the event is over, it’s time to tell us what you thought about it.
After we do an event, we like to have a thread where you can comment and tell us …
What worked well? (We’ll try not to change those)
Where were the rough spots that we should improve for next time?
So this post is your chance - post a comment below, let us know what you thought of the event, what you liked and give us your suggestions for how to make it better. Just like everything else about Ignite Portland, we need you, our community, to contribute here to make the next one the very best it can be.
The video feed worked pretty well, especially when you toggled between the slides and the speaker.
The speakers didn’t have a monitor to see what was on screen–I hope that was an unintentional accident.
Aside from the buggy blue screens I thought it was most excellent. In particular impressed by just how many people know each other in the crowd.
Compliments on the production values. Talks moved apace and the video fillers and ads were well done and entertaining. Ignite is now much more than a geek fest, it is a celebration of what is best about PDX.
That was a great event to attend. My only suggestion is to have MORE BEER LINES!
oh and maybe better audio…it was spotty at times with a rather large distortion area.
All in all congrats on a successful event and I look forward to July!
Great job guys. Overall it was great despite the AV issues and an overly zealous presenter preaching from her soapbox about about soapboxes, while ironically attacking people for using a perfectly acceptable definition of ironic.*
j.
* See def #3 at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ironic or consult any other English dictionary
A quick shout out to the speakers and organizers. Thanks for enriching my life! I didn’t make it up to Portland, but watching a recording of the live feed now, with great interest. Thanks again.
Amazing production values on the advertisement videos. A majority of the talks were entertaining, thoughtful and engaging. It is quite a feat that after five events IP continues to have such an amazing collection of speakers and high quality organization! Keep it up folks!
The technical glitches were minor and repaired quickly but I wish that we had had a chance to hear the rest of the personal telco talk. Maybe there should be a chance for him to fix the YouTube video.
My first ip event - great fun. The spotlight seemed to blind the speakers. Looking forward to ip6
The talks were solid, people. My special mentions go to “How to be a Refugee”, “Science: It Works, Bitches” and “How to Kill Four Chickens”.
I will say BIG HUGE THANKITY-THANKS to everyone involved, as I know it takes a lot of work to run these events and you’ve got a rotating cadre of volunteers. I will also say that the 20m intermission was better than IP4’s 30m version.
I won’t rehash technical glitches as I think you guys are pretty clear on all of that. A non-technical glitch: Starting the videos during intermission meant we couldn’t hear the audio on 50% of them, which was a bummer as people had clearly put a lot of work into them.
Can’t wait for IP6!
I didn’t realize the sponsor videos started during intermission so I missed the first several… Next time maybe a heads up that they’ll be playing?
Everything was great though. The speakers killed it, the volunteers were amazing as always and it seemed like a good time was had by all. What could be better?!
To echo what others have said, the production value is up from recent IPs. Forget about the bluescreen problems, shit just happens sometimes. I’d say that after 5 events the thing is getting very streamlined and efficient.
The previous commenter mentioned the sponsor videos starting too early in the intermission; I agree, the first half of them were drowned out in the general sussuration of the room, sadly because some of them were really well done. Someone last night mentioned the possibility of running the sponsor videos in between presentations. I think this would hurt the snappy rhythm of the event, but it’s something to think about.
My only real complaints are: 1) it’s too early in the evening for a weeknight. Even if I have a ticket I have to rush straight from work, and if I’m late I’m SOL, standing room only. I’d say either move it to an 8pm start time, or hold the event on the weekend (I know, this would probably not be the Bagdad Theater’s favorite choice).
2) Sell tickets. It’s great that you want it to be a free event, and that you have some great local sponsors, but the ticketing system is not very useful in it’s current form. I get a ticket that becomes void unless I can show up an hour before showtime (see above). Sell advance tickets for half the house, leave the other half for walk-ups. I know, this would lead to no-shows and empty seats. I don’t have the whole solution worked out, maybe make it all walk-up ticketing; it’s been apparent to me since I first started attending Ignite that you’ve got to sell tickets. $3 should do it, and I bet the cool local companies will still want to sponsor.
In all IP5 was better than IP4, and that’s progress. Progress is good. I look forward to IP6.
ip5 was wonderful, and the only thing I’d add to the above is a suggestion to intersperse the sponsor commercials with the 15 seconds of flame videos.
1) Love the video feed, made it “there” while not being there.
2) Sponser videos were rather long thru intermission, It might be better to have them as the bumpers between talks.
3) Speeking of video, are we going to start seeing video/animation for speeker slides? or is that limit still going to stay?
4) ! please level the audio, it was painful over the feed !
I appreciated the live streaming on the web since I have a newborn and could not make it down to the show in person. I thought the video was great, but he sound a bit ‘intolerable’ at times. Oh well, it was only momentary. Good transition work from the slides to speaker.
The intermission was too long in my opinion but maybe I am jaded because there wasn’t a beer line at my house :).
Overall great job and loved all the talks. Good mix.
Great job and kudos to everyone who made it happen. I’m going to say something that sounds ridiculous:
Five sponsors, max. The reel was way too long. It’s wonderful and amazing that so many people want to support Ignite, but if that’s true, then some number of them will be willing to pony up. Perhaps offer up smaller sponsorship opportunities (shirts, whatever), but those people don’t get screen time.
There’s two problems with the huge reel - first, beered-up wags in the audience get bored. Second, sponsors don’t feel like they’re getting value (”mine was first and everyone was in the lobby!” “Mine was last and by then nobody cared!”).
You solve the attention gap by limiting number of sponsor and max. time of video. Sponsors get 30 seconds. Ring the bell or whatever to get people back in the seats, run the sponsor reel, and then go.
It would also reduce lag time between halves. Between intermission creep and the sheer number of sponsors, it made for a pretty drastic gap. My opinion is that IP4 had great attention and appreciation for sponsor vids. IP5 was less awesome for sponsors.
Obviously only turn away people if you can afford to, but I think the point of having only five is that the ones you get frickin’ WANT to be there, want to make an engaging little sponsor video, want to be the ones who sponsored Ignite. As @kveton pointed out, you’re to a place where Portland, and not just the Portland tech community, can be proud of this event. That’s big.
Loved IP5 - It was my first Ignite! I was amazed how much info was put out so quickly. The pacing and energy really kept me revited.
I’m also glad there was a nice 20 min break in the middle so my brain could catch up!
Hightlights for me were the sexy life of fonts, the one about riding the bus - I wanted to speak with her afterwards about the thrill of riding the 72 up and down 82nd avenue - I could totally relate! I loved the big bang one, appreciated the gravity of the Burma refugees story - such a great mix of content.
Naturally, as the guy that got stomped on the hardest by the screensaver, I’ll mention the screensaver. I sort of lost the whole end of my talk and the call-to-action part, which is disappointing for someone who actually wants to see public last mile happen here. So, fire the Comcast dude that doesn’t know how to turn off the screensaver (there were other momemtary blue-screens at other times too).
I saw some complaints about the audio. The speakers have no clue how the audio is coming across, so have a sound person to adjust the output as necessary on the stream as well as in the hall.
Also, as a representative of the ‘i can’t remember wtf i was talking about without some prompt’ minority, please reconsider allowing some notes onstage or something. Move the podium with the laptop in front of where the speakers stand, which seemed to be on the left side of the stage. Anywhere else and the spotlight seemed to interfere with the slides.
Otherwise, it was great. The other speakers were all fantastic. Thanks for giving me the chance to present!
Ahh — what a great night. Nothing demonstrates the power of sweetopian community like IgnitePortland. Except perhaps BarCamp, or WordCamp, or….I could digress. So! Thanks for everything. What a great night. What a wonderful, wonderful night.
Perhaps a mandatory voice soundcheck on the afternoon of the event is in order, so the planners know the sound quality and mic positioning of everyone who speak that night? I know that we tried to do one this time, and several folks can’t make it.
All in all, what a great Portland tradition!
Great speakers, great event and once again, I’m always left enlightened and light hearted when I leave an Ignite event.
A couple of suggestions for improvements:
1. The ticket systems sells out because the system has been gamed; people with tickets get in early and “reserve” seats with coats, jackets, sweaters. Newcomers really get the shaft if they don’t know how to game the system.
2. Don’t let people reserve seats. Period. It will probably help eliminate the ticket problems.
3. Better yet, get rid of the ticket system. Open the doors at 6:30pm for general admission period. First come, first served.
4. Why feed people? Its just another line and honestly, if it opened at 6:30pm, all of Hawthorne would be buzzing with activity and the local eateries would see a nice boost. That’s a win-win IMHO.
5. Let Ignite grow up. I’d love to see it in a bigger venue; don’t stifle it because the formula is perfect. It wants to grow and honestly I think it could be *the* talk of Portland when it happens and not just a geek event.
6. As it grows, ask for help from people who have done bigger events. The geek crowd that does this event has done great for 800+ people … but we saw some serious creaks in how the event went off. That’s okay, its growing; but ask for help early and often and don’t be afraid to let the event evolve.
Thanks again everyone for a great event!
I’d add, I agree with the suggestion to just do first come, first served. Combine that with a larger venue if need be. While I know you all put heroic efforts into making the ticket system work, it’s a big turn off and the main reason I stay home. And… as it turns out, it never really fills to the point of sending people home so I think it’s not necessary.
Those were some really great talks! I want to second what Bram said — a mic check is in order for the speakers. Yes, there’s the tech rehearsal, but presenters need a chance to be on stage, with the mic, before their moment in the spotlight.
My favorite Ignite so far!
Congrats to the producers — that is not an easy job and you all did it with grace and professionalism.
Positives first: the presentations were great, very high quality over all. Even the sponsor videos seemed better than ip4.
But… something is not working with the tickets and the seating and the timing of the event. I had a ticket and showed up less than 30 minutes after the doors opened, yet I already had to trek up into the nosebleed area to find an open seat. (I don’t know, maybe there were some single seats here and there, but it’s hard to interrogate a coat about whether it’s covering two seats or three, and you can only ask so many people if that seat is free before you give up and accept a crappy seat.) By the time a seat was found, all the free food was gone. Not to complain to much about what was, after all, free, but given that there’s no time to eat at home between work and the event (if you want a seat) and the only other option is overpriced mediocre pizza, it made me a bit grumpy. Finally, it seems rather baffling that somehow 90 minutes of content stretches out into a 4-hour event.
Concrete suggestions? I’m not sure. Opening the doors 2 hours before things start needs to end, IMO. Changing that requires either going fully ticketed, or no tickets, I think. Limit the event to the actual number of seats, not the fire code maximum (how is it within fire code to have people sitting in the aisles anyway?). Opening the doors later would give people a chance to eat before coming, so you could ditch the free food, and the pizza line would be a lot shorter, and then we wouldn’t have to wait forever for everyone to get seated to start the event.
I’m just reiterating here — I agree with starting later and opening the doors no more than 1 hour ahead of time. Even, say, a 7:30 start time, with doors open at 6:30, would probably work better. And I think going to all ticketed would be better, too. Also, as Russell mentioned, I think it would be good to move the monitor for speakers off to the side. Anyone who actually stood in front of the monitor blocked part of their slides.
Overall, I had a great time! I just wish it weren’t necessary to get there so early.
Having the live stream was wonderful and very much appreciated. It seemed like the topics and speakers for IP5 came off a lot better than for IP4. Not sure why.
Great event, and some really memorable talks. Overall had a lot of fun. I loved the sponsor videos and the “30 seconds of flame”. Fun vibe at the Bagdad that night, and overall was very glad to be there.
I agree that the seat-savers seemed a little overzealous. We walked into the Bagdad at 5:40… and finally found seats in the balcony. It seems unlikely that number of people were actually admitted to the theater ahead of us. There certainly didn’t *seem* to be that many people there. It’s OK to save seats for your friends in the beer line, but not for your 20 friends in the GA line, IMHO.
Also, the people standing in front of us in the main aisle of the balcony (in the “standing room only” section), was very frustrating. There should have been an usher or crowd control people to help with this. We gave them a friendly “Hey, can you please sit down? We can’t see!” Which was ignored. So while I could see the slides pretty well, I have no clue what most of the presenters look like.
Frankly I could care less about free food - it’s just another line. Maybe spend the money on some side screens (think “jumbotron”) for those of us that couldn’t see the actual presenter.
Great job… and thanks for all your hard work! It doesn’t go unnoticed, really!!
WORKED WELL
- Volunteers: Thanks for organizing and running the event.
- Speakers: Thanks for sharing meaningful, educational and fun ideas.
- Sponsors: Thanks for funding the event and making great custom videos.
- Spotlight: Thanks for letting us see the speaker and slides.
- Doing more presentation: Felt like the “right” length.
- CubeSpace’s satellite viewing: Great idea and initiative.
- Proposals system: Worked great. [Disclaimer: I'm the primary author of the software]
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
- Paid food/drink lines: Too long. Tell venue to get more servers so we can buy more stuff.
- Presenter computer: Let speaker see their own slides so they don’t need to turn around and watch the big screen.
- Display computer: Provide spare machine in case of technical problems.
- Intervention: If there’s a problem, stop the show and fix it, rather than punishing the speaker.
- Sponsor videos intro: Announce “and now a word from our sponsors” before showing videos, rather than rolling them without audio or notice.
- 15 seconds of flame: I didn’t see or hear these because they were played with the house lights on and the audio muted.
- After party: Thanks to FOE for hosting, but I didn’t like their venue due to lack of oxygen, painfully loud music, lack of drink/food options, etc.
- Tickets: We’ve outgrown the current processes for issuing and redeeming tickets. I want us to provide a fairer, more foolproof way of deciding who gets into the venue. [Disclaimer: I'm the primary author of the software]
- But despite my critiques, it was still fun.
What a fun event! It was all I could do not to run out and get chickens last weekend, raccoons be damned!
As for the ticketing and seating issues, you could make the balcony a general admission section with the main floor reserved for ticket holders only. Ushers stationed at the main floor doors could check for tickets. Or, ticket holders could get a special hand stamp when they enter the building and the stamp could be checked at the doors to the main floor.
Looking forward to IP 6!
Thank you for the wonderful experience. I had a blast presenting to over 700 people. The crowd is very cheerful and encouraging, I felt the love coming right back at me. I would recommend this experience to anyone who would like to present their ideas to a crowd.
Considering the difficulty of the event, I would give high marks to the Legion of Tech for putting on the show. Despite the glitches, I think the team did a great job.
For the presenter who had technical difficulties, I would offer to allow him to perform his address at Ignite6.
The only other critique is that there are far too many ads during the show. I know this sounds crazy coming from an ad guy but I really think it drains the show of its punch.
All in all, however, it was a great production! Thanks again.
Ignite Portland #5 was great. I agree with most of what has already been said. I’ll reiterate a few points worth repeating.
- Great job organizers. Excellent use of the venue and great job keeping everything going along.
- I’m not sure that there is a good way to improve the ticketing strategy. The on-line system works great, but the unfortunately the venue runs out of space fast.
- As a speaker I found the monitor and screen (blank) in front almost completely useless. That said, I didn’t plan to rely on them anyhow. It is a short and casual talk with a forgiving crowd. I don’t see an urgent need to improve the speaker’s setup.
- My friends were able to show up just before 6pm and snag a table and five seats on the lower level. Everyone had a blast.
- Awesome job with the live video cast and putting the video on-line so quickly! Please keep this up for future Ignite talks.
It’d be great if somehow the Bagdad could seat 1,000 more people! I’m looking forward to seeing Ignite#6.
It was a good show, I had a good time, I want to go again, I got every penny’s worth and then some. Most of my comments have been offered up already, but I’m a ex-theatre kid and I like to hear myself type so you’re gonna have to suck it up.
Things that made the event less than totally thrilling and possible solutions:
If there was less wasted time you could have more speakers…
1) Not enough seating. Only let in as many people as you have seats in the house.
2) Tickets sold out in like 5 minutes. Charge money for tickets. Not a lot, but just enough to slow it down and reduce the number of sponsors needed. Alternately, limit the number of tickets you can get without a sponsorship to like 2-4. You offer free food (obviously just for those with tickets who can get in before it’s gone), so you might also have grounds to keep GA free even if you charge for advance tickets. Kicking the freeloaders up to the balcony works to make an incentive to buy tickets.
3) Sitting around in the theater for 1-2 hours before the show is NOT COOL, not improved by waiting in line beforehand. Doors should never open more than one hour before starting for any reason.
4) The sponsor reel was what, 30 minutes long? Ads are not actual content, however much you like the people behind them. I’m all for supporting local tech businesses, but I seriously wanted to claw my eyes out with a rake. Limit the number of sponsors, and perhaps raise the sponsorship cost accordingly. Mix the 15 seconds of flame with the bigger ads, and show them during all seating and intermission and exiting. Thus, no endless ad reel tacked on to a lengthy intermission. No more splash screens with totally random stock photography.
5) Tech problems blah blah blah
6) Speakers need to be able to easily see when their slide has changed. I wasn’t counting seconds, but are the slides changed on a consistent schedule? Seemed inconsistent to me, but that might be the speakers not really reading their presentations with their slides auto-changing beforehand.
7) More speaker guidelines are needed, perhaps. Turning away from the audience and reading your slides into the microphone would not get you a good grade in any community college speech class in the nation, and it shouldn’t be done at Ignite AT ALL. It’s nice to be low-pressure and all that, but we’re talking about 700 people here. There is GONNA be pressure, and the right way to deal is to be prepared and professional. Do more rehearsals together, so you can better hone your technique and improve the actual presentations. A week’s evenings commitment from the speakers isn’t really too much to ask I hope…
Anyway, not trying to harsh your high, just hoping you take it in the spirit it’s given, which is to say snarky with love.
Interesting article here, well written and much to think about. I wound up in a discussion with my wife over this subject earlier.