Ignite Cincinnati is back for a third time at the
Know Theater in Over-the-Rhine. Fourteen speakers will be chosen to speak on any topic at this five-minute, fast-paced pitch event. The presentations are backed by 20 slides that auto advanced after 15 seconds.
Ignite Cincinnati is just one Ignite event across the country and globe. There are Ignite communities in New Orleans, New York City, Cambridge, Denver, Detroit, and dozens of others. The concept was created in Seattle by local entrepreneurs.
Ignite is about ideas and often, but not always, the speakers are entrepreneurs. Among past speakers are Dave Menninger who spoke about hackerspaces and Cincinnati's new hackerspace
Hive13. Another speaker Brian Clifford talked about managing and using social media sites more effectively in business and personal situations. Others have talked about topics as diverse as making artisan bread, to
form-based code to pros and cons of electronic medical records mandates.
The event in the past has gotten attention from a variety of local media outlets and some of the individual speakers have been featured in news articles, including
in Soapbox, and on television.
The next event is June 30, starting at 6 p.m. Seven speakers will be chosen by online voting, and seven will be chosen by Ignite's board of advisors. Interested in speaking? Submit a topic
here. Sign up to attend the event
here. Following the speakers, there will be a couple of hours to talk and follow up on the ideas.
Ignite founder and Blackbook EMG founder and CEO
Chris Ostoich said the board looks for passion, wit and smarts when choosing a speaker.
"We are looking for people who are heartfelt and have something to say that people will really get behind," Ostoich said. "Ignite is about learning, sharing and about being inspired by other people."
For example Rick Payne was chosen to speak on some of the pitfalls of electronic medical records in doctor's offices that he experienced during his leukemia treatment. Though Payne believes in the potential of better treatment through high tech medical records, he saw in current reality the technology often hindered the work of doctors and nurses who weren't comfortable with it. Payne ended his talk asking the audience to donate bone marrow.
"He turned that into a plea to save people's lives. We knew that Rick had a very strong conviction," Ostoich said.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Chris Ostoich Founder and CEO of Blackbook EMG
You can follow Feoshia on twitter
@feoshiasoapbox
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