First Global Ignite Week sparks discussion at pubs around the world

(2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.)

In March innovative speakers and inventive minds will be sharing their ideas and creations during Global Ignite Week, from March 1 to 5.

Global Ignite Week is comprised of an unconventional series of conferences held in pubs, theaters and clubs around the world. Speakers at the events showcase new ideas in bite-sized pieces. The community-minded events are run by local event organizers who volunteer their time.

In 2010 there will be approximately 65 Ignite events taking place in various locations around the world. While the event forms an idea "launch pad" reminiscent of TED's famous talks, Ignite speakers must work to a stopwatch.

The Ignite motto is "enlighten us, but make it quick." As such, each participant is given five minutes on stage and can present only 20 slides. The clock is constantly ticking and the slides are set to advance automatically with a very strict time constraint of 15 seconds each.

"Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global-Ignite is all of these and more. It's a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea-and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd," organizers outline on the Ignite website.

The events, which have been taking place since 2006, can be summed up as a "hectic night of geek contests, five-minute talks, and beer."

"Anyone can throw an ignite," wrote Brady Forrest, Ignite co-founder and O'Reilly Media Technical Evangelist, "they just need a laptop, a stage, ideas and a community. To be successful they will also need the backing of that community and in most cases the community has come together to make the event happen."

If there is not an Ignite event taking place in your area you can watch the more than 500 five-minute talks streamed live on the internet. A dedicated video-hosting website will be launched in conjunction with the first-ever Global Ignite Week in March 2010. The website will enable interested consumers across the world to watch the talks from the comfort of their own homes in real time as well as on demand.

Selected Ignite events will be held in the following cities:
Ann Arbor, MI; Atlanta, GA; Auckland, NZ; Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Bangalore, India; Bay Area, CA; Boston, MA; Boulder, CO; Brussels, Belgium; Cardiff, UK; Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; Fort Collins, CO; Lansing, MI; London, UK; Los Angeles, CA; Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Missoula, MT; Montreal, Canada; Nashville, TN; New Haven, CT; New York, NY; Paris, France; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; Pune, India; Raleigh, NC; Salt Lake, UT; San Diego, CA; Sault Ste. Marie, Canada; Seattle, WA; Sebastopol, CA; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; Waterloo, Canada; 502/Louisville, KY.

A complete schedule of events can be found here: http://ignite.oreilly.com/go.html
To watch videos of the talks visit: http://igniteshow.com/