Ignite Boulder 6 Wrapup
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 8:43AM Andrew Hyde and company have done it again. Ignite Boulder 6 went off without a hitch, and everyone I talked to had a great time.
Pros
It was extremely well organized. Everyone who helped out did a great job. I sent over the slides the day before (including a custom font which had to be installed) and was sent back a PDF proof, just to make sure everything looked right. Then another set of proofs, showing all the slides for the entire evening back to back to back. It left me 100% sure that there wouldn't be any problems.
The 40 minute break. I was surprised when Andrew announced that Mountain Standard Time would be playing for 40 minutes. At the time it seemed like an eternity - I just wanted to see the rest of the presentations! However, it fit in perfectly with a complaint I've had in past years: I never seem to have enough time to socialize with everyone. The 40 minutes whizzed by and I wasn't even ready to go back to the presentations! I'd be curious to hear what newbies (who may have had less people around to talk with) thought?
The deck designs. This was the most well designed set of slides at an Ignite yet. The presenters clearly spent a lot of time making them look nice, and there were less total words than in any previous Ignite. This lets you focus on the speaker, not dividing your attention between listening and reading.
Less F-bombs. Ignite 5 got a little carried away, but it was intentionally reigned back in this time.
Cons
Stuck behind the podium. I definitely prefer to be able to wander onstage while presenting, but it wasn't possible with the setup. For me, it's harder to project energy when I can't move around. Another thing I'd love to see in the future, is to have another monitor facing the presenters, so they don't have to turn around to look for slide changes.
Drunk Driving not taken seriously. Vanessa Schneider's talk The Things They Don't Tell You about a DUI teetered nicely on the edge of being a full blown condemnation of drunk driving. It was a whole deck about everything she's had to endure since being arrested. She had to have friends come over to take out her trash while under house arrest. She'll still be blowing into a breathalizer while driving into the year 2011.
There were a few elements of humor (done appropriately), but in the end, she concluded with something along the lines of: it was the best and worst thing that ever happened to me - I started my own business because of it. I was really hoping for a strong conclusion along the lines of: I learned something. I would never EVER do it again, and after hearing my story, you'd have to be insane to even consider it. Drinking and driving were later referenced by two or three other people at the mic and sadly the audience seemed more amused than sobered. Poor form (again, not picking on you Vanessa).
The line outside. This was probably only a minor problem, but I'd guess that people who arrived at 6:05 probably spent 25 minutes in line waiting to get in - getting only half of the socializing time they had expected.
Ignite needs a better elevator pitch. Ignite is very hard to explain to people who haven't been before. How can you get your newbie friends excited if you can't even describe it?
Summary
In closing, Ignite Boulder 6 was another great, great night. Everyone was so supportive and grateful to the organizers and presenters. I truly appreciated the opportunity to present (again), and want to thank everyone who voted for my topic in addition to all the hardworking organizers. Even having presented 3 times myself, I'm still not sure what Ignite Boulder is supposed to be - other than an amazingly entertaining night in the Boulder community.
Ignite Boulder
Reader Comments (5)
How were you stuck behind the podium? I spoke at 5 and pulled the mic off the stand. Tripped over the cord from lack of experience, but that was my own fault. :)
The DUI preso was really good. Sobering without being dogmatic (which would've just caused the target audience to tune it out). The polish was outstanding. The line was outrageous.
I've been able to get a few friends pretty excited about Ignite. How quick does an elevator pitch need to be? "Real people giving presentations on whatever they want, socializing, beer, and informative hilarity." Expand as needed. ;)
Looking forward to your next presentation!
Great thoughts Ryan. Thanks for willingness to present and throw down your follow up thoughts.
RE: Tied to podium. I have to say it was much better from a video perspective. Although video is not the ultimate goal for the presos, it definitely makes it easier to capture and chronicle the event.
Though I don't think it was the Ignite Boulder team's intention to counter this, and the ease for video aside, inexperienced presenters who are free to move about tend to pace without purpose and that can actually detract from the message or presentation. Even though the presenter "feels" like it's better, in actuality the "freedom to move" ends up being a nervous energy outlet for the presenter which translates into distraction for those watching and the message is ultimately weaker.
I'm not saying any movement during a presentation is bad. Just the unnecessary stuff. Well trained and skilled presenters are very intentional with their movement and motions. Magicians will tell you that the art of distraction is one of their key skills. A carefully planned movement of a hand draws you eye to one place when it would normally be seeing something they want to hide.
Again, your preso was great. Keep it up!
@Terry
I asked about walking around with the mic and was told no. Maybe I shouldn't have asked :-) I wanted more dogma on the DUI - and I feel it could have been done in the last few slides without the audience tuning out.
Primarily I took issue with comments made at the mic by others such as "Who wants to raise a glass to that presentation?" Just not something to joke about, that's all.
I love the phrase "informative hilarity". We just might need to consciously pass around a one or two sentence description to everyone to help get their friends interested. I'm having a harder time than you...
@Craig
Good point. I hadn't thought about the video too much. Though I do feel that the video of my preso at Ignite FC #2 came out fantastically, even though I was wandering around onstage. Lighting would probably have been an issue with our setup in Boulder though. Maybe it's on me to be better behind the podium!
Love the writeup. I expected the first sentence of the DUI talk to be 'I fucked up, don't do it, ok, here is what it is like to scare you even more.'
The line was about 10 minutes from everyone that I asked, we will make it go quicker next time!
Funny story about the line, we had about 10 people come to the event because they saw a line. Never would have thought that :)
You did an amazing job as always, thanks for speaking!
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