Ignite

My friend Jolene invited me to a cool event last month.  It is called Ignite Boulder and you should check it out at Ignite Boulder.  The concept is that twelve people give five-minute presentations on a variety of subjects.  Each presenter uses 20 slides that automatically transition every 15 seconds.  That’s it. 

Presenters are chosen based on a combination of popular vote and panel choice.  I believe last time, six speakers were voted in and six were chosen by the Ignite people (of whom all are volunteers, by the way).   Most of the presenters looked like they have never done anything like this before, which contributed to the fun.  And the audience (there were 750+ in attendance) doesn’t heckle, but there are regular shouts of color commentary that can really throw off the speaker if they aren’t careful.  The slides change automatically and there is no slowing down or speeding up.  Plus, booze is served so there isn’t much inhibition by the audience to be part of the show.

If you got to the link, you can scroll down and see the topics at the last event.  Some of the highlights for me were:

• The Indian guy that barely spoke English did a presentation on ‘Everything you Need to Know About Cricket.’ 
• A woman did ‘The History of Contraception.’  I didn’t even have to see her presentation to love her – she was nine months pregnant. 
• Another woman did something on how to survive the apocalypse of 2012 with a musket and bonnet.  It was inspired by her parents and their love for participating in civil war reenactments.
• An IT guy did a presentation on DNS and it was oddly fascinating.

There is another Ignite coming up next week in Denver.  It sounds a bit different, since it is tied in to the Great American Beer Festival, but the format is the same.  Click here for the scoop on this one: Ignite Denver.  One of my buddies is organizing a guys’ night out to attend the event.  He and I both want to do a presentation in the future, so this will be a scouting event in addition to just enjoying the show.  If we decide to apply, I’ll be hitting you up to vote me in the field.

I have a topic idea that I feel good about, but I want to consider others before getting to work. So far, I’m thinking about doing a presentation called, “Why Chicks Should Dig Baseball.”  There is a lot I can do with it.  Everything from starting off with a serious effort to show why baseball is a game to be loved to ending up with fool-proof ways to interest women: sun, drinks, mound ball, dipping dots and chatting with their girlfriends while the guys watch the game.

Other presentation ideas I’m tossing around include:

• How Everything in the World Can Circle Back to a Conversation About My Balls
• The Pursuit of Happiness and Getting Laid – What is the Difference?
• Things That Confuse Me (this one would be about women every other slide)
• How to Make Your Home an Amusement Park for Your Kids
• Topics I Considered for this Presentation but Rejected for the Following Reasons

Clearly I could use some help on this.  Please give me some topic ideas.  Or better yet, think of your own presentation and apply for the same event I do – we can have a competition like a dance off! Without the dancing.  Cuz I’d lose for sure.

I keep coming up with more ideas Maybe I should do:

• Craziest Fricking Bloggers I Read and What I Have Learned From Them
• Internet Friends: Are They Real or Silicone
• Dating Sites, Bars, Strip Clubs, Blogs, Grocery Stores, Funerals, Rehab, Target, Self Help Section of Book Stores, Coffee Shops, Waiting Room at Therapist's Office and Other Ideal Places to Pick Up Women

C'mon people, help a brutha out.  Every comment must include at least one idea.  Multiple entries are encouraged.