About Ignite

The Elevator Pitch

Ignite Phoenix is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring Phoenix’s creative community. In one evening, you hear 18 passionate speakers from our creative, technical, and business communities talking about their current projects or favorite ideas for just five minutes. Presentations will educate and inspire you, and maybe make you laugh in the process.

The Presentations

Up to 20 slides and 5 minutes is all you get. Not a second more. The presenters need to get to the point quickly, and make it exciting and engaging.

We welcome topics about anything that other people will find interesting. That’s a wide criteria and that’s just fine. If the most interesting submissions end up being technical, then Ignite will have a technical feel. There is a wide mix of topics. If you’re not interested in the current topic, all you have to do is wait for 5 minutes and a new one starts.

We do have a few rules. Check out our rules and guidelines.

The Presentation Process

1. After we open submissions for an event, you submit your talk idea online. All you need is an abstract of who you are and what your talk is about. You do not need to start working on your slides yet.
2. About two weeks prior to the event, we close submissions and select the presentations for the event night. Our team of judges select 18 presentations from the submissions. We work hard to create a well-rounded event night.
3. We notify the presenters. If you are selected, you must develop your presentation and submit your slides to the Ignite Phoenix presentation team by the deadline they assign.

Tickets

Because of the overwhelming success of the previous Ignite Phoenix events, we expect this event to sell out. This means that every person who attends Ignite Phoenix must have a ticket.

Learn more about Ignite Phoenix tickets.

The Event Schedule

The general schedule for the event:

• 5:00 pm – Building opens.
• 5:30 pm – Theater doors open, seating begins for everyone with a ticket.
• 6:00pm – Welcome, introductions, and preliminary presentations begin.
• 6:30pm – First half of the presenters go, back to back, with no commercial interruptions!
• 7:15pm – Break & networking. Talk to the first half presenters, ask them questions, mingle, enjoy the bar.
• 7:45pm – Ignite Karaoke competition.
• 8:00pm – Second half of the presenters go, just as action-packed as the first half.
• 8:45pm – Final announcements and more networking time.
• 9:00pm – Event ends, and the after party begins at a local establishment.

During it all we expect a lot of audience interaction, back-channel Twittering, and maybe some giveaways. The Twitter hashtag is #IgnitePhx.

The Aftermath

• We start taking submissions for the next event that night on our website. If you are inspired by what you have seen, toss your hat in the ring for the next event.
• We encourage everyone who attends to tweet and blog about your experience.
• If you blog about your Ignite Phoenix experience, post a link to your blog on our Facebook wall.
• Post your comments on the event Facebook page.
• Upload your pictures to Flickr and mark them for inclusion in the Ignite Phoenix group.
• In the days after the event, the Ignite Phoenix team begins preparing the videos of each presentation and posting them online on YouTube..

We always welcome your comments and your feedback about the event.

• Have an idea for how we can improve? We want to hear it.
• Want to help us put on the next event? Drop us an email (at IgnitePhoenix [at] gmail dot com) and volunteer.

The Point Of It All

If Ignite Phoenix succeeds, then participants have:

• Learned something new about what’s going on in and around Phoenix.
• Met new people and made new personal or professional connections.
• Had fun!

If you want to attend, present, or just help out let us know!

The Ignite Phoenix team