Update: WOW! That was INTENSE. All of the tickets, about 560 of them, were GONE in 5 minutes. Amazing. BUT! Don’t panic if you didn’t get a ticket. You can still sign up and get on the waitlist, and when people don’t confirm their tickets within 24 hours, or cancel/give up their tickets, they’ll go to the people on the waitlist, first come, first served. You guys are amazing! 
The time has come. Tickets for Ignite Portland 5 (which will take place Feb. 19 at the Bagdad Theater) are now available! Get them from:
http://tickets.igniteportland.com
How It Works
Sign up for a free ticket. You’ll receive an email confirmation which you must acknowledge within 24 hours, or your ticket goes back in the pool. Check your spam filters if you don’t receive that email right away. Once you confirm your ticket, you’ll need to print out the resulting ticket page, and bring it with you to IP5. On the night of the event, show up between 5:15PM and 6:00PM, and you’ll get right in. After 6:00PM, we go to General Admission, and your ticket turns into a pumpkin.
New – The Waitlist
We know these tickets are going to go fast. Instead of making you check back periodically to see if any more tickets have become available, we’ve implemented a waitlist feature. If you don’t get a ticket, sign up for the waitlist, as tickets become available, they’ll be sent to people on the waitlist on a first come, first served basis. So if you end up on the waitlist, keep an eye on your email, because when people give their tickets back, you might get lucky. Which brings us to…
New – Give Your Tickets Back If You Can’t Come
Another new feature we’ve implemented is the ability to cancel or “give back” your ticket if you sign up for one, and end up not being able to come. We’re asking people to be thoughtful of their fellow Portlanders, and if you’re not going to be able to be there, give your ticket back so someone on the waitlist can get in. Instructions on how to do this should be in the email you’ll receive for your ticket.
Why Tickets?
Tickets to Ignite Portland will always be free. So why have them in the first place? To try to keep lines small, and reduce your anxiety about getting in. If you have a ticket, and you arrive at the Bagdad Theater before the time appointed for General Admission, you can stroll right in, and you’ve got a seat. Didn’t manage to get a ticket? You can come down and wait in the General Admission line. We always reserve some seats for GA, and last time, no one was turned away. So think of a ticket as your way to avoid waiting in the GA line.
Good Luck!
Last time, 550 tickets were claimed in 3.5 hours. Given all the hype, tweets, and blog posts on the subject, and the fact that we pre-announced the precise time that tickets are going to become available, I suspect these might go even quicker. But the new waitlist and ticket cancellation features should make it a LOT easier for you to get a ticket if you weren’t able to snag one in the initial rush.
We owe a HUGE thanks to so many people for the fact that Ignite has become as popular as it has. The people who submit ideas and give talks, the people who have come to past Ignites and told their friends, and especially to Igal Koshevoy and his team of happy coders that put the ticket (and proposal) system together, and make this all run so smoothly. Buy him a drink or something next time you see him.
Best of luck getting your tickets, and we’ll see you in two weeks (!) at Ignite Portland 5!
