Ignite Portland 6 is coming up on July 16. We’ve announced the talk lineup, and lots of you have been asking when we were going to give word on when our free tickets to the event would become available. So here’s the deal:
You won’t need a ticket to attend Ignite Portland 6. Just come on down, and walk right in.
What? No tickets? I know, right? The thing is, given the fact that all 500 or so tickets for Ignite Portland 5 were claimed in about three and a half minutes, it just didn’t make sense to keep doing things that way. Pretty soon, you would need the ability to *go back in time* to snag a ticket fast enough. 
So we’re going to try it this way.
“But what about crowding?”, you ask. “The Bagdad can only hold so many people”, right? That’s why we’re happy to announce that you can also attend Ignite Portland 6 at the Back Stage bar, which is literally behind the screen of the Bagdad. Back Stage is a very cool space (the ceiling is seven stories tall!), and increases our total capacity by a couple hundred people. The show will be streamed live onto the various screens around Back Stage (courtesy of Joe and Blaze Streaming Media), plus you can hang out, order a drink or a burger, and still be a part of Ignite Portland 6. More people will be able to watch Ignite Portland 6 than any previous iteration.
We struggled to find a solution to the ticket scarcity problem that would be the most fair to everyone, and while this setup isn’t perfect, we think it will work out just fine. We’ve always held a couple hundred “walk-in” general admission seats, and for the last couple of Ignites, haven’t had to turn anyone away. We understand that now you don’t have a way to “guarantee” yourself a seat at Ignite, but we’re confident that if you come down, you’ll be able to get a seat either in the Bagdad or at Back Stage.
And since the question is bound to come up, selected speakers get a reserved seat (obviously :-)) plus one for a guest, and sponsors get a few reserved seats, but for everyone else, no matter how much we like you (and we like you all very, very much!), even if you make an individual donation, we can’t guarantee you a seat. There’s just no fair way for us to manage that. We hope you understand, and that we can still be friends. If you have any questions about how things are going to work, feel free to post a comment here.
We’ll open the doors at 5:30 PM (the show starts at 7 PM), and hustle everyone in to the Bagdad as quickly as we can for as long as we can (until we hit fire code, basically). Back Stage opens at 5PM. Come down early, grab a drink or a burger, and hang out with your friends. Everything is on track to make this the best Ignite Portland ever. All we’re missing is you!
Brilliant idea!
You guys are the shizzlebomb!
It’s like the good old days!
As a volunteer for Ignite Portland 5 I can say that this will solve many of the gripes I heard from those in line as well as those who showed up late with tickets. It eliminates the expectation and makes it a bit more fair. Now if we can just ask people not to try and reserve entire rows for their friends who show up late.
@David: One of the upsides to the July event? No coats to put down to reserve seats.
(This was mentioned in the Legion of Tech advisors meeting–but I can’t remember by whom.)
You guys do have a seating issue but I think this solution makes it worse not better.
I think you should charge for tickets and allow people to reserve seats. Not a lot - just a few bucks. Having people just show up completely discourages those who have to work and can’t get out until 5 or 6. Showing up that late is guaranteed standing room only and a less enjoyable experience.
You guys announce the ticket sales in advance plenty early and the only people that have issues getting a ticket are those who don’t snag them at the time you announce - so why should there be an accommodation?
In addition, you shouldn’t save so many reserved seats. Example, I get the announcement of when the tickets go on sale - I put it on my calendar - I get ready about 5 minutes ahead of time - I start refreshing my page - I snag my ticket - I’m done. I’ve done what I should and have my ticket. From there, I even show up a bit early to get a good seat. But what do I find? half of the lower section is reserved and the other half has 1 or 2 people per row saving the whole section for their friends in line. It’s a broken process.
Ultimately, if it’s just too small - move to a bigger venue. But, again, this solution of just having people show up is worse - not better.
Dear Anonymous Commenter “My name”:
You raise some great points. We’ve discussed all of those at length at one time or another. In case you’re curious, here’s why we didn’t choose any of those options.
Regarding charging for tickets, Legion of Tech events will always be free. It’s in our bylaws. It’s a big part of the character of who we are and the events that we put on. They’re for the community. So, we won’t be charging for Ignite Portland anytime soon.
You say that the “only” people that don’t get tickets are those who don’t snag them at the appointed time. For IP3, it took 22 hours for the tickets to run out. For IP4, it took 3.5 hours. For IP5, it took 3.5 *MINUTES*. Think about that for a second - the only people who got tickets for IP5 were the ones that were lucky enough to be at their computer between 10:00AM and 10:04AM. That just doesn’t strike us as fair.
You mention people saving seats, and we agree that’s a problem. We’re going to agressively ask people not to do it this time. Plus, it’s the middle of July - even Portlanders won’t be wearing many coats in that weather.
And hopefully, with everyone getting in at the same time, we won’t have one person with a ticket getting in earlier to save seats for their friends who didn’t snag tickets in that three minute window.
You mention moving to a bigger venue, and we’ve actively explored that option. If you can find us a bigger venue as nice as the Bagdad that we can afford, please let us know. Seriously. All Legion of Tech are paid for 100% by sponsor donations, and remember, admission is always free. We’d love to do Ignite Portland in a bigger venue, like the Schnitzer Concert Hall. We’ve looked into it. It’s many thousands of dollars out of our price range. Besides, at this point, the Bagdad has become a part of the spirit and character of Ignite Portland, and our goal was never to grow to a huge size. We’re content to stay there as long as they’ll keep having us.
Thanks for sharing your concerns with us, I wish you had left your name, so we could perhaps chat more about this offline, or face to face. But even so, I hope I’ve at least explained why we haven’t done the things you suggested. I hope you’ll still come and enjoy Ignite with us!
Gotta say, not a fan of the new scheme. If you want to go bad enough, you can pay attention to this website and claim your tix (always worked for me).
Maybe this will help weed out some attendees not willing to hang around the Bagdad for several hours just for a shot at getting in. A lot of folks wanted to go to the NBA Finals and you didn’t hear David Stern doing awayyy with the concept of a icket.
Mike, that’s a valid opinion, but the thing is, there’s been enough room for everyone who wanted to come for the last few Ignites, and we felt like the ticket system was just causing hassle and stress to fix a problem that wasn’t there.
The problem hasn’t been that there are too many people that want to come to Ignite, and not enough room, so we have to find a way to decide who gets to come. There’s been plenty of room for everyone, so we’re hoping the same holds true this time, and everyone can just get in, without hassling with tickets that disappear in three minutes. The ticket system became a solution without a problem.
And there are a LOT of differences between how Legion of Tech and the NBA run things.
If we were the NBA, you’d have to buy a ticket for hundreds of dollars way in advance, or buy them from a scalper if you weren’t lucky enough to get one at retail. At least with LoT events, the worst thing you have to deal with is waiting in line a bit with some cool geeky people. 
Its your show, and be it the NBA, a concert or any other event where a lot of people go see something … 99% of the time, tickets are used as a mechanism for goers to rest assured that they will get in with a decent seat.
I know I am not going to wait in line for “a bit” to stand for 2 hours after being on my feet all day @ the paycheck place.
I will stop being a critic now so good luck w/ #ig6
Awwww, what’re ya gonna do? This solution seems like a great compromise. Not ideal, but fine seeing that the event is free and is put on by volunteers.
I would like to say THANKS to all who help Ignite PDX and I send you a virtual beer for your efforts. Cheers !
Brilliant! It may not work–but jeez… the old way sure didn’t work. All these pre-registered people and even still–did anyone ever get turned away? Maybe a much bigger place is necessary–but adding more and more management to the whole ticket thing is silly.
Here’s a tip for those who will actually arrive way early to stand on line: come 10-20 minutes early and you’ll be fine.
Yay!
Fair for everyone, simple, elegant, free, open-everything.
Well done, Ignitors!
Ok, I lied /criticmodeon
We were having a drink with friends and got on the subject of past ignites and how much fun they were. The friends have never been and wanted to go. As none of us can be in the first few hundred ish people @ 5:30pm, we would be standing. Result? Friends do not want to go.
The new scheme is great for all the young, healthy folks with flexible schedules, but punishing for EVERYONE ELSE. Please rethink this for ip7.
I think doing away with the ticket system is a good step.
@Mike…at the last two Ignites, there were far from hundreds of people lined up at 5:30 PM when the doors opened. At most, there were maybe 50.
As a presenter during IP5, I was there pretty early and the place wasn’t filled in until close to the start of the event. And even then, there were empty seats scattered about.
Your concern about a) not getting in without having to stand in line before 5:30 PM and b) not being able to find a seat are a tad premature until one or the other actually happens. Thus, I can’t see how “everyone else” is being punished.
- taking the day off work to attend
- driving down from seattle, arrival around 3pm to check out the line
- if the line exists, I’ll stand in it, but will bring a chair
- after all that, I’ll be applying squatter’s rights on 2 other seats with my coat, until my friends show up, or until there is an “abandon your unclaimed saved seats” message like last time.
- anyone from seattle want to drive down (and back the same night?) twitter is egrigg9000
It’s summer people. And they’ve done barely any advertising this time around. I guarantee you there will only be 300 or so people there in the first place. Stop whinging.
If you don’t want to leave work at 6pm, arrive and stand in line for ten minutes to get a nice seat in the first row balcony, well then - that’s your problem.
Now that it’s over, I’m curious how the new system worked?
Phillip, the general admission system worked really, really well.
The line moved faster and smoother than ever, not having to mess with checking tickets. We had GREAT attendance - about 600 people was the last count I heard. Higher that the last few Ignite Portlands we’ve done. We didn’t have to turn anyone away - everyone who wanted to get in did. The overflow next door at Back Stage wasn’t used much at all, so there had even more head room that we didn’t use. The live stream was very well “attended”, too - about 850 people watched at least part of the stream.
In short, none of the things we were worried about (low attendance, having to turn people away, etc.) happened, and all of the problems we were trying to fix seem to have been addressed. I can’t say for sure what we’ll do for IP7, but it’s very likely that we’ll continue to do admission this way. It’s so much easier all around.