Ignite Portland

We’ll be closing the submission form at the end of today, so if you want to present something at Ignite Portland 2, you need to have your idea submitted before, say, midnight-ish. If it’s datestamped after today (Jan. 15), it won’t be included.

Note that this doesn’t mean you have to submit your whole presentation. Just the “idea”, in a few sentences. An abstract, if you will. And it doesn’t have to be “techy”, “geeky”, or anything else you may be thinking that’s preventing you from sharing your idea. If it’s interesting, and you think it would be fun at Ignite, then do it!

During the rest of this week, the selection group will pick the lucky 13-14 topics that will make up Ignite Portland 2, and announce them here. Stay tuned!

The next ignite Portland is a month away, and the buzz is starting to heat up. Get it? “Heat” up? Haw!

Seriously, though, I’m getting excited. Plans are being made, our venue is secured, we’re getting a great stream of submission ideas, and over 140 people have already RSVP’ed on Upcoming. All the Portland people on Twitter have exploded with conversation about it (thanks in no small part to Rick Turoczy’s Silicon Florist post on Portland Twitter People). You can follow the Ignite conversation on Twitter by following @IgnitePortland, and also by using Hashtags, under the tag #ip2. If you tweet about it, try to include that tag so your post will be included in the aggregation.

There’s even rumor of Moo.com having to charter a special delivery plane to Portland because so many people are stocking up on their awesome little photo calling cards for IP2. Hope my order doesn’t get delayed!

So, one month out, what do you need to do?

1. Spread the word (say, with a blog badge), and RSVP at Upcoming. February 5, 2008, 6 to 9 PM, at the Bagdad Theater in SE.

2. Submit your presentation ideas. They DON’T have to be techie! Only criteria is that they’re interesting, and I KNOW that you have at least one interesting idea in your head. Remember, the presentation format is 20 slides for 15 seconds each, auto-advanced. Check out the presentations from the first Ignite Portland to get an idea of the variety we had, and check out the talk submissions that are in the running for IP2.

3. We still need sponsors - the more sponsorship money we get, the more food, etc. we can provide at the event. If you’re interested in sponsoring Ignite Portland 2, for any amount, get in touch with Todd Kenefsky.

I can feel the excitement in the air. Can’t wait to see how hugely awesome Ignite Portland 2 is going to be!

The gears have started turning, over pad thai and pizza, and Ignite Portland 2 is on its way to becoming a reality.

We won’t publish the details until we have them locked down (date, venue, how to submit presentation ideas, etc.), but we wanted to let you all know that there WILL be another Ignite soon in P-Town!

We filled our last (awesome) venue, Wieden+Kennedy, to capacity, and we expect an even bigger crowd next time, so we’re scouting out venues. The date we’re tentatively working with is in the first week of February (we’ll post as soon as we have it for sure). And we’ve got a very cool custom web app for submitting presentation ideas.

If you’re interested in helping out as a volunteer to help us plan an execute, then join this Ignite Portland Google Group. That’s what we’ll be using to collaborate and make sure everything gets done. Only join if you want to be a volunteer (that means work!). News and announcements will happen here on the site.

So, stay tuned, make sure you’re subscribed to the feed (you can even subscribe via email if the whole RSS thing gives you a rash), and get ready to share even more burning ideas!