Ignite Waterloo Rocked My Socks
Last week, I attended the first Ignite Waterloo event, and was completely blown away. It was my first time attending any Ignite event, and I’m amazed by how well the format works — 5 minutes and 20 slides per presentation, and no notes! The most invigorating part of it was the sheer variety of presentations. Although I wasn’t interested in all of the presentations (maybe 2 or 3?), I was exposed to much more than I would have at any other event.
It was extremely refreshing to be in a wholly different group than the usual suspects. Because of the variety of topics, it wasn’t just people from the local geek community. I met Angela Pause, a freelance writer, and her friend (whose name escapes me, but I believe starts with an M), who used to be a scenic painter. I met Saravana Rajan, who works in the health industry and is doing some really cool consulting work to improve long-term care & monitoring of chronic diseases.
But, more importantly, I was overwhelmingly proved wrong in my earlier feeling that Waterloo lacks the coolness that I had formerly found in Toronto. It seems the vibe and richness has always been here, but took Ignite Waterloo to really bring to the surface and hit me over the head. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to an event anywhere with the electricity and excitement I felt at Ignite Waterloo. I can hardly wait for the next one!
Want more? Look at the slides, pictures, tweets & other blog posts from IgniteWaterloo.ca, the recap at Red Canary, or read my long Twitter stream:
| at #ignitewaterloo. Exhibit Cafe wifi. EeePC. #geekheaven |
| #ignitewaterloo Jesse Rodgers up first! |
| .@jrodgers reminds us @ unconferences, participants more important than speakers #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jrodgers slide of gorilla high-fiving a shark is a hit #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jrodgers hat-tipping changecamp.ca @remarkk #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up at #ignitewaterloo: Jayne Thompson |
| lol. Warning to followers: I’m livetweeting #ignitewaterloo for the next few hours. Unfollow and refollow as required. (thanks @catbear) |
| flood forecasting warning time shrinking – not 48hrs to 2hrs #ignitewaterloo |
| flood forecasting hitting mobile devices and instant alerts #ignitewaterloo |
| Aden Seaman is going to teach us how to solve a Rubik’s cube in 90 seconds! #ignitewaterloo |
| Rubik’s methods: corner first or bottom first #ignitewaterloo |
| Rubik’s…… and there’s a number on the screen I can’t understand because it has too many numbers #ignitewaterloo |
| .@remarkk we miss you, but get better soon!! #ignitewaterloo |
| Rubik’s cube method….you really need to watch the video that Philip Bast is taking. #ignitewaterloo |
| :O watching Aden solve the Rubik’s cube is truly mindboggling #ignitewaterloo |
| Aden is faster than the slides #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Brent Curry & bicycles #ignitewaterloo |
| Brent’s couch bike looks much more relaxing than Aden solving the cube #ignitewaterloo |
| Brent says it seems silly to drive to the gym to walk on a treadmill. #ignitewaterloo |
| Wooflin’s awards Brent’s treadmill bike one of the coolest toys for hip hop culture. Whoa! #ignitewaterloo |
| Brent plays with a spammer! AWESOME! Must get him on bogusartfair.info (selfplug) #ignitewaterloo |
| bikeforus.com – Brent’s website #ignitewaterloo |
| David Swart talks about how to photograph in 3-D (@catbear) #ignitewaterloo |
| David Swart talks about panaramas & “peel and squash” – must see in video! cool! #ignitewaterloo |
| (wondering if i can handle photoblogging and livetweeting at the same time) #ignitewaterloo |
| Dick Termes work – AWESOME #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Darin White – hackerspace in 17 simple steps! #ignitewaterloo |
| hackerspace 5. setup comms.; 6. survey, talk, travel; 7. define what you’re building; 8. elect a board and choose a name #ignitewaterloo |
| hackerspace 9. keep making while metamaking; 10. prop each other up; 11. incorporate, insure, ante up; 12 engage the experts #ignitewaterloo |
| hackerspace 13. persevere despite distractors; 14. space search, lease, sign; 15. celebrate incremental successes #ignitewaterloo |
| hackerspace 16. renovate; 17. tell your story. make. pay it forward #ignitewaterloo |
| @seyDoggy dude, we miss you but it’s being taped #ignitewaterloo |
| Next at #ignitewaterloo – Staff Sergeant Kevin Thaler |
| (please, wifi, stay strong!) #ignitewaterloo |
| cops now going from radios to blackberries #ignitewaterloo |
| cops decreasing tech in cars because of distractions #ignitewaterloo |
| night vision for cops to chase ppl down! #ignitewaterloo |
| this guy is hilarious! #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jooliah Philip Bast is recording it, so it should rock your socks #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: David Estill and solar power for Canada #ignitewaterloo |
| OMG. David has memorized a poem #ignitewaterloo |
| solar power – make 11% on your investment #ignitewaterloo |
| Germany has 40,000 jobs in solar manufacturing as of May #ignitewaterloo |
| solar power enables us to be more mobile #ignitewaterloo |
| @Pica_A really cool pattern too… don’t know my literature well enough to identify it #ignitewaterloo |
| estillenergy.com David Estill #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Simon Clark – hacking the ‘hood –> turn neighbourhood into community #ignitewaterloo |
| Simon: every community needs a focus #ignitewaterloo |
| Simon: too many ideas –> listserve –> narrowed down ideas #ignitewaterloo |
| loving Simon’s posters! #ignitewaterloo |
| Simon bought 10lbs of crystals/rocks and hid them in the sand for kids to discover and fall in love with #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim talking about love, internet and marriage – woot #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim: does “i love you” mean any less if it is over the phone, over the internet, in a letter? #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim: what’s the point of Second Life? what’s the point of real life? #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim walking us through a SL wedding – they built their own church #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim talks about wedding going crazy because the server crashed – moved wedding to air strip #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim: is SL wedding legally binding? who cares? it’s an expression of love #ignitewaterloo |
| .@jasonshim – game online versus living life as a game? #ignitewaterloo |
| Damn you, @jasonshim … I’m all teary-eyed. :P #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Levi McCulloch – frat (sic) road trip! #ignitewaterloo |
| RT @daejin_v2: Hacking the community “Fucking awesome!” No kidding. #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Mark Connolly – are you sure that’s an album? : metaphor in product design #ignitewaterloo |
| Mark: UI metaphor (slide is of icons) #ignitewaterloo |
| Mark: Graphical user interfaces on computers = metaphors #ignitewaterloo |
| Mark: iTunes albums = real photo albums = CD albums = vinyl albums #ignitewaterloo |
| Awesome music media (e.g. albums, cds, vinyl) history from Mark! #ignitewaterloo |
| Mark: record album was a collection of vinyls bound together in a “book” #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: Dr. Matthew Renaud: high altitude medicine #ignitewaterloo |
| Matthew taking us through illnesses at different altitude #ignitewaterloo |
| Sounds like high altitude are not brain friendly #ignitewaterloo |
| Next up: @noddson & how theatre helped his [tech] career #ignitewaterloo |
| .@noddson on theatre: sharing, relearning childhood #ignitewaterloo |
| .@noddson: get off the bench, listen and engage, share focus, don’t stop other’s ideas – use “yes, and” #ignitewaterloo |
| .@noddson: show, don’t tell; when you do talk, say something important; make others look good #ignitewaterloo |
| .@noddson on improv: there is no wrong answer! #ignitewaterloo |
| .@noddson on improv & life & work: take a risk, challenge yourself; failure is inevitable #ignitewaterloo |
| Last speaker! Jonathan Fishbein (Engineers w/o Borders): The Real Africa #ignitewaterloo |
| JF: yes, there’s poverty & dispair in Africa, but Canada too; AND there is also hope #ignitewaterloo |
| JF: Esquy (sp???) started a radio show where he talks about animal farming practices to help other farmers #ignitewaterloo |
| #ignitewaterloo rocks my socks |
Tags: awesome, ignite, networking, social, waterloo
