About
The Elevator Pitch
If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. Ignite Birmingham is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring the city’s diverse community. While mainly focused on the tech and creative communities, we encourage anyone with a good idea to speak. In one evening, you will hear several passionate speakers talking about their passions for just five minutes. Presentations will educate and inspire you, and maybe make you laugh in the process.
For more information on Ignite, please take a look at the O’Reilly Ignite site.
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
- 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.
- About two weeks prior to the event, we close submissions and select the presentations for the event night. Our team of judges selects 18 presentations from the submissions. We work hard to create a well-rounded event night.
- We notify the presenters. If you are selected, you must develop your presentation and submit your slides to the Ignite Birmingham presentation team by the deadline they assign.
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 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 Birmingham group.
- In the days after the event, the Ignite Birmingham team begins preparing the videos of each presentation and posting them online on YouTube..
