Ignite Seattle 16 will be December 7th at 7pm, and we want YOU to speak! The submission deadline is October 18th, but we encourage you to submit your Ignite talk early!

What are you waiting for? Enlighten us, but make it quick.

Ignite Seattle and Dorkbot Seattle are collaborating to bring you a new kind of festival this August. On the afternoon of Saturday, August 20th (before Ignite Seattle 15), we’ll be opening up the Fremont Outdoor Movie Cinema parking lot (N. 35th St. & Phinney Ave) for builders, garage hackers, diy makers and the generally curious. Everyone is encouraged to bring an interesting project to share or something to show off. There are a few caveats, though. We have a limited amount of power, so we can’t promise electricity for everyone. And if you’re bringing something dangerous (please do!), let us know, so we can make sure the appropriate signage gets posted.

If you’re interested in participating, or if you know of a cool project we should seek out, let us know in the comments of this post, or on the Facebook Wall. We’ll be adding additional information about the event as we get closer to the day. Get building!

The next Ignite is going to be OUTDOORS on SATURDAY, August 20th at the Fremont Outdoor Movies space. We intend for this to be a family friendly event and we’ll be looking for under 18 speakers. This is our first ever outdoor event. Please come out in droves and make it our best one yet.

Submit your talk ideas now!

Scott Berkun teaches us some of the techniques he uses to write well. In the background is a timelapse video of him writing an essay – from start to finish!

Scott Berkun is the best selling author of The Myths of Innovation, Making Things Happen and Confessions of a Public Speaker. His work as a writer and public speaker have appeared in the The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, and other media. He has taught creative thinking at the University of Washington and has been a regular commentator on CNBC, MSNBC and National Public Radio. His many popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at Scott Berkun.

See Scott in action or read his popular blog on his main site: www.scottberkun.com

Ignite Seattle 14 is this Wednesday, May 18th! The schedule for the evening:

7:00pm: Doors Open.
7:30pm: Icebreaker game. As always, this is optional, but definitely a lot of fun! This time it should only be about 15 minutes.
8:00pm: Talks start!
8:45pm: 15 minute intermission.
9:00pm: A surprise! We’re only having 8 speakers this time because Brady has an awesome surprise for us. We’ll be ending around the normal time though, so don’t worry about being out too late!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at 7pm at the King Cat Theater! Tickets are $5 at the door, and bring a friend!

I’m the founder of the indie clothing brand Might Tees and a writer for the technology website Cultofmac.com. I’m also an aspiring speaker, which is what led me to tell my story at Ignite 13.

Two years ago, for about 5 months, I lived a secret double life. It was at that time that, though some celebrities were beginning to embrace twitter, most still didn’t know what it was and weren’t using it. There were no verified accounts, no way to know who was who.

So, as a joke, and as a homage to one of my favorite actors, I donned my internet mask and starting tweeting under the guise of Neil Patrick Harris, or as my eventual 25k followers came to know me, @therealnph.

To be honest, when I started the account, I didn’t think anyone would follow me or care. After all, I wasn’t actually impersonating Neil and his real life, I was acting more as a caricature. I had decided to take on the character he played in the Harold And Kumar movies. I tweeted about absurd drug benders, outrageous partying escapades, and sexual conquests and escapades.

Boy, was I wrong….

What occurred between the account’s inception and eventual shutdown by twitter (twice!) was a wild ride fueled by controversy, tweets from actors Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and even a direct message from Late Night’s Jimmy Fallon.

I’ve never told the story publicly, and would like to recount my adventure for all the world to judge at the feb 13 ignite.

I’m definitely not the first or the last person to spend a significant amount of time at Disney World alone. However, I’m probably one of the few people who has dissected every aspect of my trip to discover what amazing secret benefits there are to doing the Disney solo. From the “single rider line” to “crowd parkour” there are definitely some perks to being a party of one. I’ll be sharing all these benefits as well as some snapshots of this last visit (benefit #62: you can stop any time you like to take as many pictures as you want). Finally, and probably the best benefit of all, I discovered that I can pretty much do anything on my own and still have a seriously kick-ass time doing it.

About Beth

Beth is a self-described gadget loving, game playing, movie junkie who reads, skis, knits, sews, solders and spends far too much time on the internet. She lives in the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford with her dog, Willie and cat, Pixel and loves to have people over to @casagoza for a night of German Board games or yet another viewing of the *real* Star Wars trilogy (complete with rifftrax). Follower her adventures by following @bethgo!

I love karaoke. I do it often and with vigor. A lot of people believe they cant sing, and therefore never try to karaoke. I believe differently. Everyone has the ability, they just need a little strategy and guidance. I’ll give them some so they get started, with some infographics and humor for good measure.

Doral Chenoweth: a viral video (made by a flip camera) of a homeless guy with a great voice spread like wildfire and his life was changed forever. A very simple act of grace, a few hours on the computer and pow, massive impact. SalaamGarage: thousands of dollars spent, thousands of miles traveled, pro gear and award winning media makers with social media at their fingertips capturing stories of people in dire need. Where is the impact? What’s wrong with this company? SalaamGarage, several years later.

About Amanda

Amanda Koster is an acclaimed photojournalist, founder of SalaamGarage.com, pubic speaker and author who can’t spell worth beans. After speaking all over the country about how to combine media making and giving a darn, she still calls Seattle home and the Ignite Stage her playground. Her talk “I May Have More Impact On Cheezeburger” was a short story that made a big difference for women dealing with fistula in Ethiopia .

A note from Amanda: Thanks Ignite! You raised $2600 in 5 minuets and paid for 8. 5 fistula surgeries!

Tom Music – a great human being and a dear friend of Ignite Seattle – passed away last night.

Tom went into the hospital about a month ago. It looked like things had turned around, but then they took a turn for the worse.

Friends will be gathering this Friday for a vaguely Irish-style wake in Tom’s honor. Jana, Tom’s wife, has details on that over here. She’ll also be posting details there about the pending memorial service for Tom when they firm up.

Again, here’s Tom delivering one of the best Ignite talks we’ve ever hosted.

If you have been around the Seattle geek community for long, it is likely that you’ve run into Tom Music. Tom is a developer, writer, speaker, musician, and one of the nicest guys you are ever gonna meet.

A couple of years ago, Tom was diagnosed with double lymphoma. He had been in remission for a while, but just took a turn for the worse over the last couple of weeks.

Tom’s wife Jana posted an update over the weekend and things are not looking good.

Tom gave one of my favorite Ignite talks of all time last year about his experience with lymphoma. He called his talk “Lymphomartini” and delivered it complete with double rainbows! I’ve embedded the video below.

So hang in there Tom. There are a lot of us who are better for having you in our lives/community. We want you to be around for a lot longer!

UPDATE: Event postponed. See Scott’s site for details.

Be sure to join Ignite Seattle favorite Scott Berkun at Seattle’s Town Hall on Wednesday March 9th at 7:30pm. Scott will be speaking on “How Do Creativity and Innovation Happen?”. Find details on Scott’s site or grab tickets directly from Brown Paper Tickets.

Here’s Scott with his excellent Ignite talk on “Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk”…

The Founder of ÆON Law: Adam has been involved in building patent portfolios in the computer science, electrical devices, consumer products and related fields since 1998 and with Internet and technology law since 1995. He can be often found out in the tech community looking for the latest new gadgets.

We’re having our final Mousetrap Car Workshop this weekend. On Sunday night, from about 7 to 11, we’ll be down at Metrix Create:Space building mosuetrap cars. You’re welcome to bring your own supplies, mousetraps, whatever. We will have some construction items on hand. RSVP in the comments or on the Facebook page if you can make it.

In case you can’t get down to Metrix Sunday night, there are some supplies that will be available at Metrix throughout the week – just ask the staff. We’ll also have some kits on hand at Ignite on Thursday. Happy building!

Buster Benson is the founder of a new health-improvement social game called Health Month. In previous lives, he co-founded The Robot Co-op, and McLeod Residence, and has build a few fun things like the Locavore iPhone app and 750words.com.

Six days until Ignite Seattle 13!

If you want to get an early start on the Mousetrap Car Challenge, we’ll be hosting an informal workshop / build session at Metrix Create:Space this Sunday. Work starts around 7, and goes until whenever. Please RSVP in the comments, or on the Facebook page, so we know approximately how many people are coming. See you there!

In honor of Global Ignite Week, we’re trying something a little amibitious – mousetrap car races! For the Ignite Challenge, we will be pitting cars against each other to see who can get across the King Cat stage fastest.

Enter as a team or an individual. You are encouraged to build your car ahead of time – heck, you could even bring multiple cars. We’ll be holding two workshop nights at Metrix Create:Space in Capitol Hill – Sunday, January 16th and Sunday, January 30th. Some materials will be provided, but you can bring whatever you want, so long as the mousetrap is the sole source of power. For those that prefer to wait until the last minute, you will also have a chance to build a car at Ignite Seattle on February 10th.

So get cracking! There’s tons of resources on the web, including a fantastic instructables.com how-to. Thirty seconds of Googling should help you find some of the tips and tricks. Remember, we’re building for speed, not distance. Check back on this blog over the next month for updates.

Karen’s pitch:

It’s happened to all of us – you hear a song that you don’t want to like. You try to resist, but you can’t. By the end of the song, you’re tapping your foot and singing along. Why are some songs so irresistibly catchy?

I used to think it was magic. But when I looked closer, I had an epiphany – It’s actually just math. Songs are catchy because they’re scientifically engineered to be that way. I’ll show you how.

About Karen Cheng

Karen is a Program Manager for Microsoft Excel and plays in a local Seattle rock band, Electric Villain. You can find her on the web at karenx.com and on Twitter at karenxcheng.

Our next Ignite Seattle will be February 10th, 2011 and it will be a part of the 2nd Annual Global Ignite Week. Last year, Global Ignite Week was held in 65 cities on 6 continents and featured over 500 speakers. Submissions are now open and we’d love to have you speak at our next Ignite. Submissions are due by January 10th, although earlier submissions are encouraged!

If you’d like to spread the word about open submissions through Social Media, you can use this bit.ly link: http://bit.ly/5XPH1

We’ve heard some people say they always want to come to the event, but they forget as the date approaches. If this sounds like you, take a second and sign up for our Ignite Seattle Newsletter, and we’ll make sure you don’t forget.

During this week leading up to Ignite Seattle: 12, we’re going to be posting some of the best videos from previous events!

The first one is from Elan Lee. He is one of the founders of 42 Entertainment, and he when he spoke he told the audience what his thought on people’s lives: “If you’re bored – you’re doing it wrong!”