We’re super-excited to present our line up for our next event, held once again at the King Cat Theatre on September 14th at 7pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Here is the list of speakers for Ignite Seattle 11 (in no particular order):

Todd Bishop (toddbishop) Geek Guide to Seattle

Andrew Hyde (andrewhyde) I own 15 things: The Art of Minimalism and Travel
Recently I gave away or sold almost 1000 items I owned. I now just own 15 and am embarking on a yearlong vagabond around the world. Homeless, unemployed and without any direct purpose or plan; I’m either the most alive or the most alone I’ve ever been. This Spark will be about the unintended consequences of these actions.

Michelle Bates Toying with Creativity – the Joys of Plastic Cameras
The world of photography has become a race for the newest and most advanced cameras. Spin the wheels of technology backwards with Michelle Bates as she introduces you to the wonders of image-making with simple plastic cameras that use film and have no adjustments. See world-class photographers using Holgas and other toy cameras for fine-art, photojournalism, portraiture, fashion, commercial and editorial photography. Learn how going low-tech can open up a whole new world for your creativity!

Jenny Ingram (jennyonthespot) How To Be An Internet Movie Phenom Without Taking Your Clothes Off!
Vlogging is all the rage. But let’s face it… YouTube has far, FAR more crappy vlogs than awesome ones. What does it take to go from “crap” to “awesome”? I have some ideas, and not one of them includes taking off your clothes for the camera.

Roy Leban (royleban) Anatomy of a Crossword
In this talk, I’ll discuss lessons learned from solving and constructing crosswords and other kinds of puzzles, reasons why everybody should solve puzzles, and how creating puzzles can you make you a better solver (and maybe a better person).

Roberto Hoyos (throwboy) King of Geeky Pillows: How I turned a one-time sewing hobby into a global business
Once upon a time, I was selling products for Apple. Today, I’m selling my own product and my own idea

Myra Stephens (SniperWulfzen) Citing your sources: Controlling Hazardous Substances in Consumer Goods
That hoodie you’re wearing? It might surprise you to know that potentially every part of it – zipper, thread, fabric, etc – came from a different source. In a free market economy, corners are frequently cut in order to keep high profit margins, which can result in cheap goods containing potentially hazardous substances. Through elementary sketches, let me help you become an enlightened consumer.

Jenny Lam (helveticagirl) – What Not to Wear: the typography edition

Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) How Science Is Destroying My Childhood
I love science: As a kid, I marveled at planets such as Pluto, wanted to see a real dinosaur, and enjoyed mysterious sea creatures. My love of science spawned a career including stints as a science and tech reporter, science-fiction writer and, lately, tech industry consultant. But science is slowly erasing my childhood, and Pluto was just the start. It appears no planet — or creature — is safe.

Lisa Bronwyn (junefontaine) Finding Your Nietzsche
What do you when you’re 36, for example, and still have no idea what you want to be when you grow up? What if you missed every memo and hint thrown your way? What if, horror of horrors, you were sick during fingerpainting class in kindergarten and that very day held the clue to your future self?

Tom Music (@tommusic) Lymphomartini: Immutiny on the Bounty
Knowing something is wrong, but not knowing why (or what you can do about it) is scary. Even scarier is when that something is cancerous! After learning the mechanical side of what he faced, and the ways to attack it, Tom was mentally ready to join the fight for his life.

Cheri Walters (@dearcheri) How to Taste Wine Like a Smarty Pants – 5 Steps to Building Your Palate
Many assume a golden palate is required to experience the nuances of wine. But this just isn’t true. In fact, if you were born with the ability to see, smell and taste you too can train your palate to compete with the experts.

Damiana Merryweather (merryweather2u)
Wookin’ Pa Nub on the Internets or A guide to successfully navigating online dating
Finding a love match has never been easy. Especially for those of us who work a lot, have busy lives already or who aren’t naturals at standing out in group settings. Thankfully, that is what internet dating sites are for. Unfortunately, being good at coding or running complex Google searches doesn’t mean that you a natural at on-line dating.

Jacob Appelbaum (ioerror) Going Dark

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Because you demanded it, (ok, actually, several people asked very nicely) we’re extending our submission deadline until this coming Monday, August 16th! Submit your talk here.

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The Oatmeal is one of the top webcomics out there. Matthew talks about creating the site, his ideas and how he drove traffic to it. While sharing his favorite comic strips, he offers up some advice on how to create successful viral marketing campaigns.

About Matthew Inman

Matthew InmanMatthew Inman can be found on the Internetz at TheOatmeal.com and on Twitter @Oatmeal. Matthew’s Web site offers many useful tech tips like “What your email address says about your computer skills” and “8 Web sites you need to stop building.”

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Ignite Seattle 11 is happening on September 14th and talk submissions are open. If you have a 5 minute talk that will inspire, teach or just make people think then throw your hat in the ring. We’ll take ~16 speakers (and no repeats from last time). Get your talk in by tomorrow, Friday, August 13th.

Submit your talk here.

If you need inspiration about “How and Why to Give an Ignite Talk,” Scott Berkun can help you out. We’ll have talks from the last Ignite Seattle posted here soon, say stay tuned.

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Ignite Seattle 11 is happening on September 14th and talk submissions are open. If you have a 5 minute talk that will inspire, teach or just make people think then throw your hat in the ring. We’ll take ~16 speakers (and no repeats from last time). Get your talk in by August 13th.

Submit your talk here.

If you need inspiration about “How and Why to Give an Ignite Talk,” Scott Berkun can help you out. We’ll have talks from the last Ignite Seattle posted here soon, say stay tuned.

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I have been extremely lucky to organize and present the icebreakers and challanges at the last few Ignite Seattle events. Tonight will be no exception. Attendees at tonight’s Ignite will get to play (for the first time ever!) Ignite: the Card Game.


The game is based off of Quorum, designed by Greg Costikyan and Frank Lantz. To go into any more detail would give too much away. And there will be prizes! You can get some hints about the cards and the prizes from the photo above. Also, after tonight we’re planning to release the game under the Creative Commons license, so other Ignite organizers can use it.


If you want to play, the game starts at 7:30p, and will run until the talks start. See you tonight at the King Cat!

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Business Lessons from Star Wars – Becky Anderson

June 10, 2010

Becky’s pitch:
Running a business ain’t like dusting crops! Without knowing Star Wars, you could fly right through a star, or lose half your staff, and that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?

About Becky Anderson
You can find Becky on Twitter @beckyan or on her blog.

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Details, details, details…

June 8, 2010

Ignite Seattle 10 is next Monday! As part of our effort to get organized and make this the most awesome Ignite yet, here is a quick run down of some important details for attending.

Ignite Seattle 10 will be on Monday June 14th. Doors will open at 7:00, icebreaker/game starts at 7:30, talks start at 8:30. [...]

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Create a Metalcasting Foundry in Your Garage – David Cole

June 8, 2010

David’s pitch:
I’ve recently discovered sand-casting, which is a very cheap and very awesome way of casting metal parts at home. You can make your own car parts, robot parts, science projects or artistic sculptures – anything!

About David Cole
During the day, you can find David at Phinney Bischoff Design House where he works as a [...]

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Wanna help with Ignite Seattle on Monday, June 14th?

June 6, 2010

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re getting a bit more organized here at Ignite Seattle. So much so that we’ve identified a few things we could really use some help with for our next Ignite on Monday, June 14th.

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Atoms to Bits – David Albrecht

May 26, 2010

David’s pitch:
My friends and I spent a few months developing a low cost USB peripheral which allows people with cerebral palsy to use computers. Ill detail our solution, explain our design process and demonstrate how low the bar (financial & technical) really is for getting started with hardware hacking.

About David Albrecht
David Albrecht is an engineer [...]

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The Future & Ball-Point Pens – Harold Carlton

May 26, 2010

How robots have revolutionized ball point pen manufacturing. Without robots we’d still be using pencils! Bah! Who wants pencils?

About Scotto Moore

You can find Scotto Moore on his Web site at scotto.org. His most recent show, “When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive,” just finished a run at the Annex Theater.

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Ignite Seattle 10 Speaker List

May 24, 2010

We received the most submissions we’ve ever gotten for an Ignite Seattle, and whittling it down to what you see here was very hard to do. That said, save the date, and hold on to your hats, this is going to be our biggest Ignite EVER!
We’re very happy to present the speaker list for [...]

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Thanks, Seattle!

May 20, 2010

Last night, Ignite Seattle had the honor of winning the “Best Event for Startups” at the Seattle 2.0 awards. We won entirely through the community nominating us and voting for us, so we wanted to say a big “thank you”. Ignite Seattle would not be as fantastic an event as it is without your feedback, [...]

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5 Reasons To Take a Motorcycle Class (even if you never plan to ride a motorcycle) – Kathy Gill

May 12, 2010

Kathy Gill gives us a humorous look at two wheelers as commuting option and illustrates the need of increasing driver awareness of bicycles, scooters and motorcycles.

About Kathy Gill
Kathy teaches undergraduate digital journalism as well as classes in the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington.  You can find Kathy on [...]

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Ignite’s Scotto Moore’s Play About Near-Omnipotent Botnets

May 11, 2010

Scotto Moore has been Ignite Seattle’s Artist-In-Residence for the past year. His latest talk was during Global Ignite Week on the future of pens (Remember, horde pens! You will need them in the future). Scotto has released a near-future, sci-fi play with Annex Theatre (map). It’s called “When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!“.
As [...]

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