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ignite boulder in boulder, events Ignite Boulder 7: Ponderings
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 2:23PM Ignite Boulder 7 was our most successful and feverish outing yet. If you aren’t aware, I’m one of a small group of organizers of the event. We work absurdly hard to keep the whole thing in one piece so that everyone can have a nice night of listening, learning and laughing.
Here are a few thoughts. If you were there, I hope you had fun. If you were not there and live nearby, please explain why you would hurt me so in the comments.
Artful heckling is rad; Clumsy heckling is bad
Not everyone is cut out to be a heckler. If you are clever and witty in real-life, you stand a good chance of being a good heckler. Bruce Wyman springs to mind. If you are only clever and witty online, odds are you’re going to be a lame heckler. Drinking exacerbates your shortcomings. So keep that in mind.
People need stimuli
I work in public relations. As a consequence, I think about people all day long. Audiences, demographics, consumers. I am paid to unearth ways to reach humans with something that will trigger a positive reaction. So it’s pretty apt that I regularly open Ignite Boulder with a blast of jolly nonsense (known as “The Sacrificial Deck”) that sets the tone for the evening – expectation, curiosity and surprise.
Powerpoint is poison
Whenever I describe the event to people, I see them get apprehensive the moment I mention Powerpoint. Yes, the event is essentially comprised of 15 or so Powerpoint presentations (for the record, we convert them to Keynote because it’s oodles cooler), but I really must stop describing it that way. I fear that many people don’t give Ignite a chance because Powerpoint is innately boring and there’s no way they would pay $10 for something like that. Can anyone think of a better way to sell someone on Ignite?
(Photo credit: Jason Janelle)
Reader Comments (6)
I enjoyed your presentation. Took some guts to sing in front of almost a thousand people, I'm sure!
Very good point about heckling. I would add that if you're sitting next to a bad heckler, try pointing it out. Many of them probably don't realize that they're bad hecklers. I found the bad heckling to be somewhat distracting, but didn't really notice that it was objectively bad until you pointed it out. Next time I'll try my best to ignore it.
PPT FTL.
That is all.
Ben,
I'm glad it didn't affect your night. I worry about that kind of stuff. Glad I got to meet you at Centro!
Sweet jesus. I didn't expect to be called out by name.
But, seriously, Andrew Hyde looks awesome.
Ef,
Glad to meet you, too!
Actually, it did affect my night, but my night was still awesome. I didn't realize it affected my night until you pointed it out, but it took some of the oomph out of Ignite for me. It would have been more awesome if I had either not heard the bad heckling or had been thinking critically enough to realize it was bad heckling and tune it out.
Like a music appreciation novice (been there) does with bad bands, I figured the bad hecklers know more about heckling than me, so they must be being funny, and I just didn't get it. Of course, going with my intuition helps in either case.
Oops, I meant to say "super awesome" and "even more awesome". As often the word "awesome" is used these days, it needs clarification. Ignite Boulder, the after-party, a hike around Wonderland Lake, dinner with the Welch's, and breakfast on Sunday made for one of the greatest weekends I've had since I moved here two months ago!