Monthly Archive for January, 2010

Ignite Portland 8 Needs Your Talk Idea Before EOD Sunday 1/31!

Published on January 30, 2010 in Posts. 1 Comment

Just one last reminder – you’ve got about 1.5 days left to submit your talk ideas for Ignite Portland 8. Talk submissions close at 11:59PM tomorrow (Sunday) night, January 31, 2010. Every time we’ve done this, there’s been a rush of ideas submitted at the last minute (you bunch of procrastinators, you!). So we’re not surprised that we haven’t received a large number of ideas yet (about 30 as of this writing). But time is running out.

In other words, the odds of your talk idea being picked for the 20 or so that we’ll see on stage at IP8 are pretty good right now. :-) So get in there, give us a short description about who you are, and what you want to talk about. What makes you tick? What do you obsess over? We want to hear about it.

Have you submitted a talk idea for a previous Ignite, and didn’t get selected? That’s rough. We know. Just because your talk idea didn’t get selected before doesn’t mean we didn’t like it! Competition is stiff, but don’t give up – we’d love to see you throw your idea into the ring again. This could be your chance!

Do I sound sufficiently desperate in begging for your talk ideas? Good. Because we recognize fully that Ignite Portland would literally be nothing without you. Poof. Nothing. So we’re counting on you and your burning ideas – get them submitted before 11:59PM Pacific Time Sunday January 31, 2010 (yes, that’s tomorrow night)!

See you on March 3! :-)

Get Your Ignite Portland 8 Talk Ideas In Before Jan. 31

Published on January 20, 2010 in Posts. Closed

Can you believe that we’re a mere six weeks or so away from Ignite Portland 8? I know, right? But the time is upon us. And that means you’ve only got about ten more days to submit your talk idea, and have a chance at being selected to present on stage March 3 at the Bagdad in front of 600 or so of your closest friends.

“But Josh,” I hear you say, “What kind of talk idea should I submit?” That’s a good question. Fortunately, I have an answer. Think about the things that keep you up at night. The side projects you work on out of sheer love, outside your day job. Think about the kind of stuff you’d do if you never had to worry about holding down a real job to pay the rent – the stuff you dream of. Maybe a quick viewing of Liz Grover’s Ignite Portland documentary will inspire you. We know you’ve got a burning idea inside.

Want to let it out, and inspire a whole bunch of people (or at the very least, teach them something, or make them laugh), using 20 slides and 5 minutes on stage? All you have to do is hit the talk submission page and give us a brief description of who you are and what you want to talk about. Give us enough info (links, videos of you being smart/funny/persuasive, etc.) for us to make a decision, and who knows? You could be one of the twenty or so talks that light up IP8.

You have until 11:59 PM, Pacific time, on Sunday January 31, 2010 to submit your idea. Tick tock. We know it’s in you. Let it out. Share your burning idea with us, Portland!

Liz Grover Made an Awesome Documentary About Ignite Portland

Published on January 20, 2010 in Posts. 2 Comments

Do you know Liz Grover? She’s @lilbutterfly on Twitter, an Ignite Portland alumnus, author, and all around awesome creative person. And she’s a filmmaker, too.

Liz has made a terrific short documentary about Ignite Portland – what it’s all about, how it started, and what about it inspires so many people to get involved. It debuted on local community television and the web last month, and here we present it for your viewing pleasure:

Ignite Portland, A Documentary Short from Liz Grover on Vimeo.

Did you enjoy it? Post a comment or drop Liz a note to let her know what you think, and thank her for sharing her time and talents to document this crazy thing called Ignite that we all get so excited about.

On behalf of the Ignite Portland organizers and Legion of Tech, thanks, Liz – you totally rock! :-)