It’s a new year and it’s time to gather the Ignite Waterloo community together. Our eighth event is on Tuesday February 28 at the Waterloo Region Museum in Kitchener. We’re excited be bringing our event to this wonderful location that’s rich in local history.

As always, the doors will open for the event at 6:30pm, and there will be time for mingling prior to the presentations starting at 7:30pm. Also as always, we have a fun contest planned, with some fine prizes. The evening’s speakers will be presenting in two groups with an intermission in between. We can’t wait to hear their presentations, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy them.

Tickets go on sale at 9:00am on Monday February 6. They won’t last long, so be ready to buy yours. Details will be announced here and on Twitter.

We’ll be announcing the date and other details for our February event very shortly. We’re pretty excited about the great location that we have lined up.

Meanwhile, we’re looking for speakers!

Who can give an Ignite talk? Anyone can! We’ve had an eclectic range of talks over the last two years, and we’ve been thrilled that so many people have been eager to speak. If you haven’t given a talk and want to give it a try, have a look at the details on what we’re looking for, and then apply right now to give a talk! If you’ve applied in the past but haven’t yet given a talk, don’t give up! Apply again to let us know that you’re still interested.

Another speakers workshop

We’re having another speakers workshop! This one is at 7:00pm on Thursday January 26, 2012. As with our most recent workshop, it’s in the boardroom at Barley Works in the Huether Hotel, located at 59 King Street North in Waterloo. Just ask the great staff there to help you find the room if you’re unsure.

Come on out and share your passion!

Who can give an Ignite talk? Anyone can! We’ve had an eclectic range of talks over the last two years, and we’ve been thrilled that so many people have been eager to speak. If you haven’t given a talk and want to give it a try, have a look at the details on what we’re looking for, and then apply right now to give a talk! If you’ve applied in the past but haven’t yet given a talk, don’t give up! Apply again to let us know that you’re still interested.

A speakers workshop

Still not sure? Try attending our next speaker workshop, where you’ll hear about what goes into preparing and delivering an Ignite talk, and learn from people who have given talks in the past about what it’s like. Our next speaker workshop is at 7:00pm on Monday January 9, 2012. As with previous workshops, it’s in the boardroom at Barley Works in the Huether Hotel, located at 59 King Street North in Waterloo. Just ask the great staff there to help you find the room if you’re unsure.

Great talks are a big part of what make Ignite Waterloo events such successful affairs. Come on out and share your passion.

Doors will open for the event at 6:30pm, and there will be plenty of time for mingling prior to the presentations starting at 7:30. We also have a great contest planned, with some fantastic prizes, so you don’t want to be late! As always, our speakers will be presenting in two groups with an intermission between. Our speaker applications have been looking really great this time around. We can’t wait to hear their presentations in full, and for them to share their passions with you.

Tickets are available now, but they won’t last long. Get them now!

Sold out!

Touched by Ignite

Hello, my name is Sudhershi Kularatnam and I am a third year Speech Communication student at the University of Waterloo. During the winter 2011 term I took a course titled SPCOM 329, Digital Communication, instructed by Jill Tomasson Goodwin. As part of this course we attended Ignite Waterloo 5, not only to spark our creativity and imagination, but to guide us with our own end of term “Ignite 329.”

When I was first introduced to our Ignite 329 presentation assignment I assumed that we had to choose a technology we felt would change the world because the original vision of Ignite celebrates technology. I chose smart phones.

It wasn’t until we attended Ignite Waterloo 5 that my great idea started to seem not so great anymore. I was watching these presenters talk about their topics with such knowledge, enthusiasm and passion. I thought to myself ‘how on Earth will I be able to conjure up the passion to talk of smart phones like that?’ After speaking with Jill during the intermission I came to the revelation that, as wonderful as they are, I just wasn’t that interested in smart phones to speak about it for Ignite 329.

As the second half of Ignite 5 went on, I heard Robb Farago, a WLU student speak about his involvement with 5 Days for the Homeless as a participant and the executive director of the national campaign. He was close to shedding tears speaking about his personal connection to why he camped outside Laurier for five days to raise money and awareness for homelessness and at-risk youth. On the bus ride home I recall mentioning to a classmate how amazing I thought his story was and that I would actually consider doing it myself. We both thought it was a little extreme and brushed off the idea. Later that week, I started to feel differently, so I looked into the campaign details and realized that the University of Water did not participate. I shot Robb an email about starting it up on our campus and he emailed back asking to co-chair and start up the campaign. Another interested UW student, Ameesha Isaac, and I did just that and participated in the campaign by living homeless with no food, money or showers for 5 days.

It was life changing.

Our first morning during the campaign we shared a small slice of cake five ways which we’d saved from the night before. We made a pact that whatever food we received, however big or small, we would split equally. We struggled as homeless people. For the first few nights, “hell” would be the only word I could use to describe the experience of sleeping in the cold knowing that warmth wasn’t coming anytime soon. Most days I would wake up really early because I physically could not sleep in the weather and just hoped I’d gotten enough hours of sleep so I could start the day and warm up.

For my Ignite 329 class presentation, I decided to say “You should donate to 5 Days for the Homeless or purchase a 5 Days bracelet.” Homelessness is a current problem that can happen to anyone at anytime and needs to be eliminated. Only when shelters and rehabilitation institutions have the necessary funding to permanently get someone off the street and keep them going and not just giving them a temporary fix can we eliminate this problem.

To appeal to my class audience, I relayed that we have all witnessed homeless people on the streets, sometimes begging for change, but we usually turn a blind eye to them. This may be because we don’t know what our money will be going towards purchasing or we just don’t want to bother spending the time to stop and pull out some change. I also wanted to share my story the same way that Robb shared his to impact my class. Donating to 5 Days is helping the homeless without directly giving them your cash, but by helping the institutions designed to get them on their feet do the rehabilitating. I wanted them to build trust in the organization and the cause.

If it weren’t for attending Ignite Waterloo 5 I would have never heard Robb speak or even have known that the 5 Days campaign existed. I am so glad his passion for the campaign resonated with me and had the power to move me towards action. It taught me a lot about altruism and that university does not have to be all about academics. I learned so much through this experience and I think it has really changed me as a person. I will never walk past a homeless person again without knowing that they could be warm and well fed. I will never pass judgment on them again. But not just homeless people — everyone in general. It’s helped me realized that everyone has their own story and different experiences make up who we are. Some people are more fortunate than others and I understand this and I know that those in the positions to help should use it wisely. I will end off with the words from Edmund Burke I shared in my Ignite 329 presentation, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”

We’ve finalized the two most important details for Ignite Waterloo 6: the date and venue!

The event will be held on June 15th at Whistle Bear Golf Club just outside of Cambridge. We’re thrilled about this location for a few reasons.

• It will easily accommodate 300-400 people.
• It’s a lovely location and event space.
• For the first time we’ll be sharing the fun of Ignite in a new Waterloo Region location.
• The folks at Whistle Bear are excited to have us there and are working hard to help us make it a great event.

If you’re not car-enabled and it’s a concern that the location doesn’t fulfill our desire for access via public transit, fear not! We’ll have free shuttle buses available for the evening, and we’ll soon announce details on how Ignite devotees can be delivered to Whistle Bear in comfort and style for the event.

We’re continuing to receive fantastic speaker applications – our speakers committee is going to have a hard time with the selection process! However, there’s still time to apply, so if you have a passion or an idea, head over to our Be a Speaker page for all the info.

We’re also finalizing details for our second speakers’ workshop in May, and will publicize that information shortly.

More details to come, including ticket information, so stay tuned, and start spreading the word!

For our first five events we’ve enjoyed some wonderful spaces: The Museum, The Conrad Centre, and the event space at the Tannery. We may well have outgrown their capacity, though. Where in Waterloo Region should we hold our next event?

Here’s what we think we need in an ideal event venue, in order of priority:

• Seating for all attendees
• Space for socializing/mingling for all attendees
• Clear sight lines to the speaker, and to screens showing the visuals that accompany a talk
• Room for our Ignite Contest
• Comfortable access to food and drinks
• Easily accessible via public transit
• Capacity for 300–400 attendees

If you’ve been to any of our events, these requirements shouldn’t be a surprise. Note that the capacity is the lowest priority requirement in the list above. That is, we need to address the other issues, and if we can’t do so in a  larger venue then we’ll need to somehow manage with a smaller venue.

Please let us know about any venues that you think we should be considering. You can let us know by contacting us via Twitter, or by sending an email to info@ignitewaterloo.ca, or by commenting on this post. Those of you who know any of the organizers can, of course, approach us directly.

Tequila Popular with UW Students at Ignite 5

Our students attended Ignite Waterloo 5 with a very particular goal in mind: to prepare for their own, in-class Ignite event, staged as part of a university course in digital presentations.

In a follow up class, the students reviewed presentation best practices and lessons learned, and voted on their favourite presentations, awarding ‘first prize’ to David Yoon for his presentation on Tequila, with close runners up, Robb Farago’s ’Five Days for the Homeless,’ and Matt Scobel’s ‘Ideas, Action and the Evils of Planning.’

Why Tequila?

Not just for the content!  Applying course principles, the class identified some classic hallmarks that contributed to all three presentation successes:

• Practice, practice, practice.  Each presenter was smooth and polished, synching their message with the 15-second march of the slides.
• Audience, audience, audience.   Each presenter tailored their message to connect with us – the audience of 250 Waterloo Ignite urban professionals ready to hear something new, and something inspirational.
• Simple, simple, simple.  Each presenter made great design choices – little text, compelling images, single message.

Real-World Models

Ignite is a great format for real-world presenting – fast-paced, networking-focused, and public-facing (via the Twitter wall).  Students noted what was inspiring: the positive atmosphere was positive, the supportive crowd, and the networking with the ‘neighbours’ beside and around them.  At its best, Ignite can truly ignite the community.  One of our class members has been in touch with Robb Farago to start a UW version of Laurier’s ‘homeless awareness’ campaign.

Tips for future Igniters

We’d like to offer a few thoughts for presenters and audience members:

• Tweet thoughtfully – build on the presentations with relevant and useful comments
• Remember Ignite’s byline – “enlighten us,” don’t market yourself
• Speak with confidence and passion – it’s inspiring!

We had a great night.  Many thanks, from Jill Tomasson Goodwin, and students from Digital Arts Communication/ Speech Communication 329, University of Waterloo.

So what have we learned from you?

We confirmed the obvious, that people attend to hear the talks, and to meet and converse with friends old and new about interesting topics old and new. Here are a few comments to help give the flavour of what you told us:

• “I come for the talks. I want to see people doing interesting things and sharing interesting ideas and telling great stories.”
• “Its everything. Its entertaining, interesting, amusing, provides great perspective about our community dynamics. Its great networking and one of the best things about it is that it is very inclusive for all age groups – the cross section of attendees is amazing. I have loved every event I have attended.”
• “I love hearing about the variety of things people are passionate about. I’ve learned about a lot of different things going on in and around Waterloo because of the people who present at Ignite.”
• “I like the idea of having a large variety of talks on different subjects all in one place. There’s plenty of events that have great speakers on a particular topic, but it’s quite a bit more rare to have an event which gathers together many different disciplines in one place at one time.”
• “The talks, the cool venue, something different to do, and the friendly, busy atmosphere. Also, I like that I don’t choose the topics so I’m not self-filtering for what interests me; I’ll learn something I didn’t know before.”

You also told us what you think we can do to make Ignite Waterloo events even better. While there were a great variety of suggestions on how to do that, there are a few main themes that emerged.

1. You want the talks to be less obviously “pitchy” than some that you saw at the fifth event.
2. You want a space that isn’t too crowded and that supports the kind of socializing and conversations that make Ignite Waterloo events such a valuable experience for you.
3. You want us to ensure that there are seats for everyone who attends.

We’re already working on ways to address these issues for our next event. You’ll see more about our progress in the coming weeks and months. In fact, as we move forward we’ll be coming back to our community with some specific requests for help with making Ignite Waterloo better.

Thanks to everyone who responded to our request for feedback, and thanks to everyone for your continued support of Ignite Waterloo.

We’ve been fortunate to hold our previous events in some fine venues in Kitchener. The Museum and the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts were both home to some great Ignite Waterloo events.

We’re very happy that Google will be hosting this Ignite Waterloo event at their new home in the Tannery in Kitchener. More specifically, it will be held in the ground floor event space — use the entrance beside Balzac’s Coffee. There’s parking off Charles Street. It’s a great space, and should make for a wonderful event.

Tickets are available now and, as with previous events, are likely to go fast. Register now and avoid the disapointment of not getting tickets. As with our November 2010 event, tickets are $5 per person.

Are you interested in getting involved with the Region’s thriving geek culture and getting your brand out there? Become an Ignite Waterloo sponsor! Sponsorship opportunities are limited, but we’d love to chat with you about getting involved.

We’ll be announcing more information soon, so mark your calendars and get ready for another great Ignite Waterloo event!