Seattle singer-songwriter Tae Phoenix walks the audience through how she takes a song from inspiration to finished product.

Tae Phoenix is a singer-songwriter living and playing in Seattle, WA. You can find out where she’s playing live and listen to her music at www.taephoenix.com

What exactly *is* introversion? It’s commonly misunderstood as shyness or a misanthropic desire to be left alone. Many extroverts mistakenly assume that introverts hate them. And that’s simply not true (well, most of the time). And many introverts think that there’s something wrong with themselves, something broken that they can’t seem to fix. And that’s not true, either.

We can do better. In this talk from Ignite Seattle 19, Jonathon Colman dishes on what introversion is, what it isn’t, and specific tactics to hack ourselves and our interactions with others in order to survive in our extroverted world.

Jonathon Colman is a content strategist, SEO & Internet marketer, speaker, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer living (and drinking coffee) in Seattle, Washington. For over 15 years he’s helped people and organizations build, find, and use the best stuff on the Web.

You can reach him at www.jonathoncolman.org.

Are you a geek? An Introvert? Afraid of the crowds? Not sure what they will make of you? But you still want to connect with people? Then you want to play: NETWORKING, The Role Playing Game.

On your very first dungeon/networking event you can go out and:

If you apply all the skills you honed with years of playing: D&D, GammaWorld, Top Secret, etc., you will find that networking is just another great RPG except the characters are really well developed and the GameMaster is not so scary. Let’s go out and play!

Adam Philipp (@MyPatents) is tech-savvy patent attorney and the founder of ÆON Law (), a high tech IP law firm in Seattle. Adam has a penchant for connecting with the tech community and does not hide his love of meeting smart people. He can usually be picked out at events as the lawyer with the glowing name badge.

In what became the very first standing Ignite Seattle talk, office fitness expert Larry Swanson gives a great introduction to the health benefits of standing desks and presents a number of inventive DIY standing desk designs. Be sure to stand up before you hit play.

It’s easy to hold onto anger and resentment for a lifetime. But why? Especially when forgiveness feels so damned good. Seattle’s Matthew Lawrence shares his story of getting unstuck through forgiveness in this great talk from Ignite Seattle 18.

Our parents and friends get older all the time, and sooner or later we’re going to have to help them deal with serious medical issues. Amy Harris, an expert on Dementia, has some advice for all of us.

Collin Henry sees important parallels between his work leading a team of engineers for SimplyMeasured and what he learned about Petty Officers in the Navy from their famous BlueJacket Manual.

Toddlers run and run and run like crazy. Adults, not so much.

Josh Maher explains why we grown-ups should give running – particularly barefoot running – another go.

Was he wearing those wacky toe shoes while giving his talk? Heck yeah he was.

Anyone who knows Shauna Causey in Seattle today would never have guessed that she faced a crippling fear of public speaking for years. One of Seattle’s iconic presences and very regular speakers, Shauna conquered her fear of public speaking by brute force: say “Yes” to speaking opportunities for one year.

Shauna’s year long experience left her with a set of lessons and stories for confronting a fear of public speaking. She shares these tips on stage, including:

• Take honest feedback honestly
• Acknowledge hecklers and move on
• Practice in front of a wall full a sticky notes with eyes on them

For the full story, be sure to watch her talk:

It’s a big country that’s getting bigger – socially, politically and commercially. But how well do you know your China?

In this talk, Lois Wang shares her theories about this culture on the other side of the world, and how to use some principles of consumer psychology to – and I quote – “sell them anything.”

Being deaf, it turns out, helps you see things others don’t.

Alex Alviar was born deaf and has lived much of his life with a cochlear implant. In this talk, he shares how he engages the world, how the world reacts, and the unexpected things his senses have shown him.

“It’s like having a secret superpower that no one’s really aware of and that I can’t fully control, sometimes for the worse but usually for the better.”

Prepare to never see deafness the same way again …

Dawn Hemminger‘s story began with a great idea to create a beautiful, safe and sustainable green space in her East Ballard neighborhood. This idea is no different than any one you may have that could enrich your life and the lives of those in your community. This talk proposes that the difference between just having an idea and turning it into reality depends on your success in following 6 key steps:

1. Share your idea
2. Host events
3. Team up
4. Embrace change
5. Be tenacious
6. Celebrate

Dawn’s community has grown the 14th Ave NW Park from a scribble on a napkin to a $2.9 Million funded reality with plans to break ground this year. If her experience can help you avoid any pitfalls or speed your progress, then this talk will have done its job.

Lee LeFever, creator of CommonCraft, is on a mission. He wants to help everyone become more effective explainers.

In this Ignite talk, Lee discusses — well, explains actually — the basics of explanation and how to take a complex idea and explain it with context, connections and stories leaving viewers with ideas for how they can be better explainers.

About Steven

Steven Stone is the Founder and Head Distiller at Sound Spirits, Seattle’s first craft distillery since Prohibition. Steven moved to Seattle in 1997 to work in engineering for Boeing (he still has his day job there). Plans for the distillery started taking shape in 2007 and Sound Spirits finally opened it doors to the public on September 17, 2010.

You’ve procreated and now your spawn has entered the education system. How can you help support your kid reach their superhero potential without being the overbearing helicopter parent that teachers talk about in the staff room?

Elementary Gifted/Talented teacher Shannon Houghton will detail the top three actions you can take to help navigate the world of parent-educator relations. You’ll be ready to strap on your jetpack in no time.

About Shannon

Shannon Houghton
Shannon Houghton is an energetic and intense elementary school teacher in the Federal Way School District. A metro Detroit native and public school graduate, Shannon believes all students have the right to a rigorous and relevant education that will prepare them to do what they love for the rest of their lives.

You can find Shannon on Twitter @MsHoughton.

UPDATE: The Ignite Seattle Challenge mentioned in Shannon’s Ignite talk was fully funded in two weeks. Thank you everyone who contributed.

Climbing one of the seven summits takes more brains than brawn.

Find out how this self-proclaimed Keyboard Athlete, non-camper, and non-hiker put her research and Energy Bank manipulation skills to work to out-think Kilimanjaro and make it to the summit with energy to spare.

About Jen

Jen Waak is a wellness coach in Seattle, WA and author of Keyboard Athletes Guide to Pain Relief and Prevention. A recovering management consultant herself, Jen loves teaching entrepreneurs and other crazy-busy professionals how to have more energy, relieve common aches and pains, alleviate computer eyes, and genuinely feel AWESOME.

You can find Jen on Twitter @jenwaak.

“I expose the secret world of parenting that nobody ever tells you about.”

About Hillel

Hillel Cooperman is co-founder of Jackson Fish Market, a user experience consultancy, and software startup in Seattle, WA. You can find him on Twitter (@hillel).

Almost all of the medical advances we enjoy today were first tested in mice. Most what we know about human physiology was first studied in mice. However, the general public’s understanding of lab mice is usually limited to a few characteristics – they’re white, and they’re probably trying to take over the world.

In truth, all mice are not created equal (many of them aren’t even white!). Over the past century an entire industry has developed that is devoted entirely to the creation and production of lab mice. My talk will cover the factors that make some mice more useful than others, and the mouse-industrial complex that exists to meet the needs of modern science.

About Molly Nixon

You can find Molly on Twitter @thebeastieswee.

Crowd sourcing has always been around but with the current technologies, its capabilities have grown tremendously. This presentation will focus on the use of these tools in an environment vastly growing by the number catastrophic events around the world. The month of September is National Preparedness Month and with that CrisisCommons, a volunteer technical community that connects people and organizations who use open data and technology to innovate crisis management and global development, will be going on a road trip. (ROAD TRIP!!!)

About Pascal Schuback

You can find out about Crisis Commons here and find Pascal on Twitter @schuback).

About George Dyson

From his TED bio page:
A member of the fabulous Dyson clan, George Dyson is sometimes defined as a son-of and a brother-of, but he has found his own voice as a chronicler and a philosopher of science and the future. The son of physicist Freeman Dyson, George grew up inside one of the most fervid hotbeds of scientific research in the Atomic Age. He spent his early adulthood living in a treehouse, and designing and building Aleutian kayaks (chronicled in his book Baidarka: The Kayak). While he maintains his kayak business now, his parallel interest in science and the future has brought him to the fore.