Posts Tagged Summary

Guest Post: Tequila Popular with UW Students at Ignite Waterloo5

Posted by Mark Connolly in Ignite Waterloo 5 on February 23, 2011

Ignite Waterloo hosted a class of University of Waterloo students at our fifth event on February 8. The feedback that we got back suggested that it was an enlightening experience for them, and we asked their professor, Jill Tomasson Goodwin, if she would provide a blog post on the experience. Working with her class, Jill has provided the text below for us to share with the broader Ignite Waterloo community. Enjoy!

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 runner up,  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.

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.

,

No Comments

Ignite Waterloo 2 review roundup

Posted by Mark Connolly in Ignite Waterloo 2 on March 7, 2010

As with our first event, there are many reviews, photos, and tweets out there that document last Wednesday’s Ignite Waterloo event. Here’s a small sampling of it. Please add links via a comment for this post!

The stream of tweets produced before, during, and after the event is worth a look.

Ignite Waterloo organizer @wendyhoomo has a nice collection of photos from the Lego building contest.

Ignite Waterloo organizer @ramynassar has posted a selection of his pictures from the evening.

@cutergecko has a thorough rundown over at the cutebecko blog. Thanks Amy!

@angrycelery, who presented a talk, tells us what the evening was like in words and pictures.

@ericarw gives us a peak into her own pre-talk jitters.

Here’s a nice summary from organizer @daejin_v2 over at his Daejin Media blog. It includes links to various other resources/reviews/photos.

Finally, here are my own blogged thoughts on the entertaining evening, with a lone photo for visual spice.

Videos are on their way, and we’ll be sure to announce them as soon as they’re available.

2 Comments

Ignite Waterloo 2 has come and gone with a bang

Posted by Mark Connolly in Ignite Waterloo 2 on March 4, 2010

The second Ignite Waterloo event was last night and it was a blast. It was also a part of Global Ignite Week, which makes us all very proud. As with the first event last November, we had great speakers, great attendees, and a perfect venue. Thanks to everyone who attended, milled about, talked with people, and otherwise made the evening such a success.

We’ll follow up shortly with links to photos, tweets, and other digital remnants of the festivities. Meanwhile, here’s our official record of last night’s evening of fun.

Ignite Waterloo Event #2 (March 3, 2010)

6:30pm Doors open

7:15pm The Lego building contest begins

8:00pm Ignite talks (round 1, 8 speakers)

  • Angela Pause: The Evolution of Sex
  • Vince Jelenic: Community, Cliques and Scenes
  • Renjie Butalid: Myth-conceptions of Dubai & Abu Dhabi
  • Lisa Farlow: Staying Sincere Online
  • Alex Matan: How to Solve an Accordion in 45 Seconds
  • Erica Waugh: In a Roundabout Way
  • Jeff Henry: How to Change a Politician’s Mind
  • Kyle Mackie: Conferences Suck

8:45pm Intermission (chat, get refreshed, etc.)

9:00pm Ignite talks (round 2, 8 speakers)

  • Tom Skazinski: Zoom Out and Emerge
  • Hilary Abel: Something About Blogging(!)
  • Sunshine Chen: Stories on Storytelling
  • Peter Huang: Geek Music
  • Ramy Nassar: A Reverse History of Pranks
  • Schien Dong: Advertiser’s Dilemma
  • Brendan Lowther: Geocaching
  • Kareem Shehata: Lessons Learned from Flying

10:00pm Announce that the Lego decorating contest winning entry was the world’s smallest foosball table, and wrap up

11:00pm No, really! We’re done now! Time to go home!

Apparently the after-party was good fun as well.

Finally, here’s a big thanks to our sponsors Communitech, The Children’s Museum, The Event Firm, Modevation Media, Philip Bast, Schlueter Cheverolet Hummer, and Toy Building Zone.  We couldn’t have done it without you! As well, thanks to those folks who actually paid to attend; your contributions made the event a better one than it would have been.

, ,

6 Comments

Here’s the way it went down

Posted by Mark Connolly in Ignite Waterloo 1 on November 28, 2009

Artifacts from the first Ignite Waterloo event are starting to appear around the web. This one is our official record of last Wednesday’s evening of fun.

Ignite Waterloo Event #1 (November 25, 2009)

6:00pm Doors open

6:45pm The cupcake decorating contest begins

8:00pm Ignite talks (round 1, 8 speakers)

  • Jesse Rodgers: How to run an ‘unconference’
  • Jayne Thompson: Flood Forecasting and Climate Change
  • Aden Seaman: How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube in 90 seconds
  • Brent Curry: Nudging people onto bikes in the age of the automobile
  • David Swart: What do you do with visible spheres?
  • Darin White: Meta-Making: A hacker space in 17 easy steps
  • Jaclyn Konzelmann: Teaching hasn’t changed. Is it still effective?
  • Kevin Thaler: Policing in 2009: Five minutes on twenty years of change

8:45pm Intermission (chat, get refreshed, etc.)

9:00pm Ignite talks (round 2, 8 speakers)

  • David Estil: Here Comes the Sun: Solar Energy as development home and abroad
  • Simon Clark: Hacking the Hood
  • Jason Shim: ‘Til Disconnection Do We Part: A Second Life Wedding
  • Levi McCulloch: A Real Fraternity Road Trip
  • Mark Connolly: Are you sure that’s an album? Metaphor in product design
  • Dr. Matt Renaud: High Altitude Medicine
  • Nick Oddson: How Theatre Helped My Career: Improvisational guidelines for work and life
  • John Fishbein: Meet the Real Africa

10:00pm Announce cupcake decorating contest winner (Kevin, for his superb trompe l’oile hamburger), and wrap up

11:00pm No, really! We’re done now! Time to go home!

Update (2009-11-29): I was quite remiss in not again thanking our sponsors for supporting this first event. Here’s a big thanks to Schlueter Cheverolet Hummer, who came on board first; Philip Bast; and Communitech.

, ,

3 Comments