I'm about to get all gushy. Ignite Boulder does it to me every time. I don't know if it's because I've been to every one that Andrew Hyde has organized here in Boulder or because I've spoken at 50% of them, but this is my absolute favorite event that happens locally. While Ignite may have started as a small tech event, it is no longer that. This event sold out the Boulder Theater last week and with it, proved that there is such thing as a sense of humor to be found in Boulder.
The first few Ignites were sorely lacking in female presenters. At the first one, it was just me and Julie Penner. Fortunately, the tides have changed and at this most recent event, there were more female presenters than men. Simply put, the ladies rocked it.
One of my favorite food bloggers, Jen from Use Real Butter, started off the night (after Ef's humorous musical introduction) with a presentation about food porn.
In case you don't know, I'm a big fan of the food porn and if given more free time, would probably post more of it.
Vanessa Schneider told us all the grizzly details behind getting a DUI. While I sympathized with her dilemma, I also couldn't help but laugh because this chick is funny. DUIs are not a laughing matter, but Vanessa, however, is.
Other funny ladies that I did not get pictures of include Sara Levi, with her brilliant idea for alternative energy, Heather Clisby with her presentaion on screwed-up logic, and Christina Sagray's thesis on the modern teen chick flick. (Christina gets extra points for including a John Hughes memorial slide in her presentation.)
The gentleman of the evening did not disappoint either. Ryan Wanger gave another outstanding presentation about the princess being in another castle...
and provided us with the event's obligatory Mario reference. The always-entertaining George G. Smith Jr. offered up tips to become a master debater, including volume control, remaining topical and how to avoid being Kanye a sore loser. And in his Ignite debut, my buddy from back in the stand-up days, Dave Burdick did a wonderful job of proving that he really did learn a lot from Ghostbusters.
If you haven't attended an Ignite yet, I strongly suggest you do. Ignite 6 proved to be yet another in (hopefully) a long line of fantastically entertaining and educational evenings. A big thank you to all of the speakers, the volunteers and most especially to Andrew Hyde, for continuing to share his community-building talents with all of us in Boulder.
