Ignite Ann Arbor

In 2006, in Seattle, as the story goes, two technology geeks – Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis – got the idea to take the Japanese phenomena known as Pecha Kucha and repackage it for technologists and DIYers. They called the event, sponsored by O’Reilly Media and Make magazine, Ignite, and, since then, it’s been growing across the American tech landscape like kudzu. And, it’s finally reached our doorstep. Tuesday, June 30, the first Ignite event is scheduled to take place in Ann Arbor.

For lack of a better analogy, Ignite is like a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting for a generation raised on sound bites, the internet and MTV. Instead of asking three people to talk for 20 minutes or so each, Ignite books several times that many people, and gives each one just a fraction of the time to hit the highlights. And, every speaker made to follow the same format –- any topic, 1 speaker, 5 minutes, 20 slides, rotating every 15 seconds. The speakers lined up for next Tuesday are:

Stefanie Murray: What’s up with news in this town? Evolution of The Ann Arbor News and what’s next

Eli Neiburger: Hacking your Library

Eric Jankowski: Why every second you spend not playing Go is waste

Brad Boegler: Real-time NOAA weather satellite imagery reception from home

Dianne Marsh: Under-representation of Women in Computer Science: Why I care and why you should too

Zach Steindler: Expensive Camping Gear? DIY!

Dave Askins: Ann Arbor Chronicle – From origins to the end of a teeter totter

Heidi Kumao: Making Things Work: Acquiring New Skills for Art Projects

Aydin Akcasu: Wii Will Wii Will Rock You! !! !!!

James Deakins: Playing with balloons. How to make a near space balloon that collects data while it travels.

Kyle Mulka: The Many Uses of Twitter

Bob Stack: Technical co-working. Economy, synergy and friendship

Laura Fisher: Keeping Things in Balance: Classic Visual Ratios

Brandon Dimcheff: Gittin’ ‘er done – What is Git and why should I use it?

Ignite Ann Arbor takes place next Tuesday, June 30, at 7:00 PM, at Ann Arbor’s Neutral Zone (310 E. Washington). Those wishing to attend can RSVP here.

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3 Comments

  1. Karen
    Posted June 24, 2009 at 11:54 am | Permalink

    I’ll volunteer to teach unorthodox fighting techniques.

  2. Posted June 24, 2009 at 10:18 pm | Permalink

    Anyone else?

  3. Posted June 30, 2009 at 10:45 pm | Permalink

    It looks like they got a pretty good crowd.

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