Ignite Portland 10 moves to mid-2011

Published on November 1, 2010 in Posts. 2 Comments Tags: .

We love putting on Ignite Portland for everyone. It’s a total blast. But there’s a lot of work involved, and due to availability of some key volunteer organizers, the end of year holidays, as well as the general desire to catch our breath a little, we’ve decided to bump Ignite Portland 10 out into mid 2011 (instead of February). We don’t have a specific date in place yet, but when we do, we’ll be sure to post it here.

Thanks for all your enthusiasm and support – that’s what makes Ignite Portland worthwhile! We’ll see you in a few months. :-)

Ignite + Government: Join Us for the First Ever IgniteGov

Published on October 21, 2010 in Posts. Closed Tags: , , , .

This is a special guest post from the folks organizing IgniteGov. We thought you’d be interested. –Josh

On Wednesday, October 27th, the Government Open Source Conference will be hosting IgniteGov, the first Ignite event to focus exclusively on open government topics. We’re hoping the thriving Portland Ignite community will join us as we welcome several local speakers on topics ranging from open data to what Bangalore and Burning Man have to teach civic planners about infrastructure planning. We’re also particularly excited to have Brady Forrest, Creator of Ignite, as one of our presenters.

IgniteGov will be held at GOSCON’s venue, The Nines. Doors open at 6:30 PM and talks begin promptly at 7 PM, so make sure to arrive early so you have time to grab a snack and drink before the festivities begin. While it’s not strictly required, we’d love it if you could RSVP to let us know you’re attending. Our venue is limited to 350 attendees, so it’ll be first come, first seated. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Here’s our speaker lineup:

Abraham Hyatt – Give me back my Facebook: What you don’t understand about Web users

Brady Forrest – From Whim to City Infrastructure: Learning from Burning Man

GovHub Team – Gov Hub: Open Source and Open Government Collaboration

John Weathersby – Operation Bearclaw: the real story behind OSS adoption in the US government

Justin Houk – The Government as Community Curator

Laurel Ruma – Better  than Winning the World Series: Boston Open Real-Time Transit Data

Lou Alvis – Principal Versus Law. How rules create crime, how Ideas prevent them

Max Ogden – Why middleware is the key to a successful gov 2.0

Philip Ashlock – The Municipal Web: Open311 and a Network of Civic Services

Rami Kassab – Designing and Developing Effective and Efficient Municipal Websites

Skip Newberry – Lessons Learned from a Regional Approach to Open Data and Civic Apps

Zack Denfeld – Learning from Bangalore: Urban Informatics at Street Level

We hope to see you at the first ever IgniteGov! For regular updates and notice when talk videos are posted, follow @ignitegov and @goscon on Twitter.

Cheers,
The IgniteGov Team: Andy Stein, Deb Bryant, Jeff Sheltren, John M. Scott, Leslie Hawthorn, Nathan DiNiro and Selena Deckelmann

Watch the Talks for Ignite Portland 9

Published on September 24, 2010 in Posts. Closed

Thanks to the awesome folks at Blaze Streaming Media, we’ve got the videos of all the talks from Ignite Portland 9 for your post event watching enjoyment. You can check them all out in this Ignite Portland 9 playlist on YouTube, or simply enjoy them in the embedded player below:

Open Thread: What Did You Think of Ignite Portland 9?

Published on September 24, 2010 in Posts. 4 Comments

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.

Save the Date and Submit your Talk Ideas – Ignite Portland 10 is Feb. 10, 2011

Published on September 23, 2010 in Posts. Closed

By now, it’s tradition. Even before the flames die down, we wonder when the next Ignite Portland will be. So mark your calendars and save the date – Ignite Portland 10 will take place on February 10, 2011.

Of course, we can’t have an Ignite without *your* burning ideas, and if you attended Ignite Portland 9 in person or vicariously, you probably have lots of great “I should do a talk about *insert topic on which you have passion and authority*” ideas floating around in your head. Now is the perfect time to submit your talk idea – you could get 20 slides and 5 minutes to share your thoughts at Ignite Portland 10! :-)

Watch Ignite Portland 9 LIVE!

Published on September 23, 2010 in Posts. Closed

Here’s the live stream for Ignite Portland 9. Hang out in the chat, and check out the tweet stream as it flows by (use #ip9 or #igniteportland in your tweets). Enjoy the show! :-)

How To Enjoy Ignite Portland 9

Published on September 20, 2010 in Posts. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Ignite Portland 9 is upon us! This Thursday night, September 23, the Bagdad Theater is *the* place to be in Portland. The talk lineup is awesome (natch), admission is free, and you know you want to come.

Whether it’s your first Ignite Portland or you’re going for the record and this is number nine, here are some important things to know to get the most out of the evening:

  • Doors Open at 5:00 PM – No Ticket Needed. As of IP7, we’ve done away with the free ticket system. Too complicated. Just come on down, and we’ll let people in until the Fire Marshall says we can’t anymore. :-)

  • Overflow next door at Back Stage. If you’d rather take in the proceedings in the Back Stage bar environment next door to the Bagdad, we’ll be showing the talks on the big projection screen there.
  • Please, No Seat Saving. We know you’re excited to watch the show with all your friends. And maybe they couldn’t make it down as early as you did. But it’s not fair for one person to squat on a whole bunch of seats with coats, etc. so their friends can saunter in late. Please don’t be a jerk about this. We’ll have ushers milling about to help you remember. We want everyone to have a fair chance at getting a good seat. It’s fine to hold a seat for yourself, so you can get up and order drinks/food, but if your friends come a little later, they’ll have to find their own seats. It’s only fair. Thanks for understanding.
  • Live Video Stream. As has become tradition, we’re planning to have a live video stream of the night’s proceedings. Come back to this site, IgnitePortland.com, on the day of the show, and you’ll see a streaming player where you can watch LIVE and hang out in the chat with the other cool kids who are watching. This is for our friends who couldn’t make it in person to the Bagdad, and for any Ignite Portland fans outside of Portland. :-)
  • Keep the Beer/Food Lines Moving. One of the awesome things about the Badgad Theater is ordering your favorite beverage with a slice of pizza, a burger, or some tots in the lobby, and having them bring it right to your seat inside the theater. Please do order as much food and drink as you’d like. Just try to keep the lines moving smoothly. Doors open at 5:00 PM, but the show doesn’t start until 7PM. The smart cookies will get their victuals squared away with time to spare, or grab some food before the show at one of the many nearby restaurants (hint hint).
  • After Party at Back Stage. Everyone loves a good after party. And you’re all invited to Back Stage Bar, right next door to the Bagdad Theater to compare notes with your friends about your favorite IP9 talk, and start rustling up ideas for the killer talk idea you’re going to submit for IP10. Or, just come hang out and have a drink. Back Stage closes at 12AM. I hear there’s going to be a rollicking game of Werewolf at the after party…
  • Follow @IgnitePortland and Tag Your Stuff “ip9″ and/or “igniteportland”. Make sure you’re following the @IgnitePortland account on Twitter – we’ll be using it for real time updates on things like how much seating is left, night-of event announcements, etc. And tag your tweets, pics, videos, and whatever else with ip9 and/or igniteportland to make it easier for everyone to follow the backchannel, and find the bits that you generate.

The time is almost upon us! The organizers are stoked, volunteers are ready, and the speakers are probably nervous. But we know it’s going to be great. So come join us at the Bagdad Thursday night, and let’s Ignite Portland for the ninth time! :-)

Volunteers and Sponsors Needed for Ignite Portland 9

Published on August 24, 2010 in Posts. Closed

Ignite Portland 9 is next month (Thursday, September 23rd) and as the date approaches, we are looking for a few good folks to join us as sponsors and volunteers.

Ignite Portland is paid for completely by our beloved sponsors – admission is always free. If you want to help us make these events happen with sponsorship dollars, head over to the Sponsorships page, to see what you’ll receive (a happy feeling, our thanks, reserved seats, etc.), and contact Jason Mauer to let us know you’re interested.

We’re also looking for some “super-fantabulous” volunteers, to help out on the day of the event. If you’re interested and available in helping us out, here are some Important Details:

  • Ignite Portland 9 is Thurs Sept 23rd at the Bagdad Theater.
  • Volunteers need to arrive at approx 4:00 p.m. for pre-event coordination.
  • Another important date is the Volunteer Prep meeting & dinner on Thurs Sept 16 at 5:30 p.m. (location TBD). Attendance at this meeting is strongly encouraged.

Let us know if you want to join our elite group of volunteers by contacting our awesome Volunteer Coordinator, Anne Buckley (@pdxrox)

Ignite Portland simply wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the sponsors and volunteers who give of themselves every time. Thanks for supporting Burning Ideas in Portland, and we’ll see you on the 23rd of September! :-)

UPDATED: Announcing the Ignite Portland 9 Talks

Published on August 9, 2010 in Posts. 2 Comments

UPDATE: Sadly, we had a couple of selected speakers have to bow out due to various issues, so we’ve added some new talks to take their place!

UPDATE 2: Double sadly, one of our speakers, Max Ogden, was in a bike accident earlier this week. He’s OK, but he won’t be able to present tonight. We look forward to seeing his talk on The Civic Web at a future Ignite Portland!

After 65 idea submissions, and long, hard toil to narrow the field down to the talks we can fit on stage, we’re proud to present you with the amazing talks that will be burning your mind at Ignite Portland 9 on September 23, 2010 (in no particular order):

We want to extend a big thanks to all of you who took the risk of sharing your burning talk ideas with us, especially to those of you whose talk idea didn’t make it this time. Don’t be discouraged! Competition is fierce, and time is short. We’d love it if you submit your talk idea next time!

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the lineup – it’s going to be a great night!

Help Us Pick the Talks for IP9 With Your Comments

Published on August 2, 2010 in Posts. Closed

The talk idea submission form for burning ideas at Ignite Portland 9 closed last night at 11:59PM (we’re very sorry to those few of you who didn’t make the deadline, but we keep the close time firm to be fair to everyone). The Ignite Portland team will be agonizing this week over the 65 talk ideas we received to pick the 20 that you’ll see on stage at IP9.

And that’s where we need your help.

Did you know that you can read and comment on the talk ideas that were submitted? The comments are confidential, only viewable by the event organizers, and they’re *really* helpful in letting us know what topics and speakers you do (and don’t) want to see on stage.

So head over to the IP9 proposals page, peruse the ideas that were submitted, and if you see one that really lights up the happy parts of your brain (or gives you a stomachache), let us know. It’s really helpful when we’re trying to narrow the field down to only 20 talks.

We’ll be letting everyone who submitted a talk idea know whether they made it or not later this week, and we’ll publish the talk lineup next Monday, August 9. Thanks for sharing your burning ideas! :-)