This was for all intents and purposes, Ignite Denver 1, a complete reboot of Ignite Denver.

We had a new venue, that as far as we know was a huge success, and we’ll likely be there a while, since there’s room for us to grow.

So as always this post is a review of the night/event.

What was Awesome.

• Awesome venue. Theaters are a great place for ignites. I see why so many Ignites hold them there
• The committee – we’ve got a truly awesome group of people dedicated to making Ignite Denver awesome, and that makes me super happy!
• Gastro cart – Since we’re not at a bar, we need food to be available from outside vendors. Gastro Cart ROCKED it! Glad they were with us! Can’t wait to have them back next time!
• The presenters. Not a dud in the bunch, and the process of submitting and voting went AWESOME.
• The turnout. We pretty much filled the main level of the Oriental, another 10 or so folks and we’d have had to open the balcony. That’s incredible!
• Next time we’ll have a full balcony!

What was less than Awesome.

• Obviously the HVAC was on a fritz. It was working for a bit earlier in the day, but clearly had some bugs. Just imagine Ignite Denver 8, it’ll be much cooler out, and the heat will be nice But hopefully it’ll be fixed by then!
• The House Restaurant. Sadly they didn’t communicate well internally and when we showed up on Tuesday night, they had nothing planned. They weren’t ready for Ignite Denver, and hadn’t planned on being open afterward, etc. WEAK SAUCE. We won’t be working with them again.
• One bartender. That’s probably just the way it is. We got an awesome deal on the theatre and unless you’re willing to pay more, we probably will have one bartender each time.

See you around October/November for Ignite Denver 8!!!

You’re not gonna see much until we get started and open the doors around 6, but just head over here and come back at 7. It’s the almost next best thing to being with us live tonight

WATCH THE LIVE STREAM HERE

Join us before and then after Ignite Denver for happy hour awesomeness at The House! They’ve agreed to offer up pre and post Ignite Denver happy hour deals and even some great appetizer deals!

Don’t miss out on Ignite Denver 7, it’s gonna be great! In case you haven’t been paying attention, we’ve got a new venue (NOT A BAR!!), Guest emcee, an awesome presenters! Don’t miss it! Ignite Denver is aimed at bringing Denver Geeks, techies and more together!!

Spread the word! See you tomorrow!

Instead of having to watch me up on stage all night, we’re gonna have a guest MC. Maybe this will be a trent, I dunno. Maybe every Ignite Denver now will have a guest MC to keep us going. Who knows, but Ignite Denver 7, will be MC’ed by.

Ryan Geiger!

During the day Ryan is the digital creative director at Location3, and at night a connoisseur of irish whiskey and all things Apple.

He’s spent a good chunk of his adult life working in-house for some cool (and not so cool) ad agencies.  During this time he’s produced creative solutions for Anheuser-Busch, Toyota, IBM, SeaWorld, GNC, Outback Steakhouse, US Airways, and Honda to name a few.

At Location3, Ryan oversees the creative development process from initial strategy to delivery, including web and mobile site creation, display advertising, CMS, eCommerce and other interactive solutions.

He presently resides in downtown Denver with this girl and this dog.  Then there’s also Joe, the fancy pigeon that lives on his rooftop.

There are few things Ryan really likes – straight lines, helvetica, moleskine, all things Apple, Mr. Jameson, jazz, his vinyl collection, silent movies with the volume turned all the way up, and simplicity.

To learn more, visit http://www.howdyryan.com.

Make sure you get your Ignite Denver 7 Tickets! They’re moving fast! Register now!

The committee (Such an awesome group!) met last night and we worked out the line up. And here it is!

Intermission. The Compilers.

The Compilers will play a little after Ignite as well, so no need to rush out at the end.

We’re also working on a great pre and post Ignite Happy hour deal with a local bar on Tennyson, w00t! Stay tuned!

Voting for Ignite Denver 7 sparks begins now! Go Vote!

Voting is a popularity contest, we all know that Voting for Ignite Denver 7 Sparks mainly helps guide the committee. It guides us in selecting the 14-16 sparks that will be presented and it guides us in selecting the line up of sparks.

Make sure you vote, and tell your friends to vote too!

ANd make sure you pick up your ticket too! Space is limited to 250 people, so don’t mess around and dilly dally, you’ll be sad, and we can’t promise we’ll be able to open up any overflow (real or imagined). Go register now for what will be the best Ignite Denver yet!

I can’t understate how awesome I think Ignite Denver 7 is gonna be.

We’ve got a real theatre venue. We’re working on getting a local restaurant to hook us up with before and after happy hour prices so we can hang out on Tennyson, and did I mention a real theatre. That means the bar isn’t next to the presenter. That means the only people in the place, are there for Ignite! We’ve got the compilers back, with Version 2 of their set More twitter backed up awesomeness!

We’ve got Influxis onboard as a sponsor to help make Ignite Denver 7 stream across the intertubes like nobodies business!

This is a huge step for Ignite Denver. We’ve explored the city looking for venues that worked, and frankly this is looking like it’s a good place to hang for a bit!

Space is limited to about 250, so make sure you get your ticket! See you July 27th

Check out the youtube page for Ignite Denver if you’re thinking of submitting and want some inspiration. We’ve had some truly awesome people do presentations in Denver!

I’m really excited about the Oriental Theatre! This is the first time Ignite Denver will be up on a big stage, with big screen, and no bar right next to the stage to make too much noise

Submit a topic, show Denver how awesome and creative you are. Heck inform and enlighten Denver on a topic of interest to you!

The submission window closes next week! Don’t miss out!

Oh yeah! Also, some news

1. The compilers are coming back to perform intermission, and at the end of Ignite. They’ve performed a few times, and are a great local band, comprised of software developers!

Also, Influxis is sponsoring the live streaming of Ignite Denver 7! While I think you need to be there in person, if you’re not able to, or too far away! You’ll be able to watch live! Stay tuned for more!

The submission window is now OPEN! It closes in two weeks (July 2nd) so don’t mess around and waste time. You don’t have a lot of it! Go submit your spark idea now

Spark submission form.

remember, ignite denver 7 is July 27th! see you there

Looking back on Ignite Denver, a lot went well. A lot more needs improvement.

What went NOT awesome.

• We didn’t insist on Rackhouse closing to the public, so we had to compete with people there to drink.
• Rackhouse didn’t believe we’d bring in well over 250 (A new record for Ignite Denver), so we had seating issues.
• For some it wasn’t clear, the beer you got with donation was Flying Dog. Apparently a free beer is still game for bitching and complaining. We’ll be more clear.
• A comedian, while hilarious, is a bad idea for an Ignite intermission. Jill Tasei is very funny, but that wasn’t the right environment. My bad
• Slide deck roulette. I tried to be slick and have a slide deck only machine, and while that worked well, getting slides from speakers up until 1 hour before Ignite, was a huge fail. I was off my game in getting the master deck put together.
• From now on. Slides in 2 days before, or we select an alternate.

What went awesome

• We successfully live streamed Ignite Denver 6. That was the second time we’ve streamed, and the first was more a “well let’s just whip something up”. This time we planned on streaming from the beginning.
• We sold out, and then some. Not only did we break our previous attendance records, but we sold the place out.
• We raised money for charity. We gave a $200 check to the Bridge Project. Once we paid the bar tab for the speaker beers, and beers that came with donations, we cleared just a smidge over $200. It was great. The more you give us, the more we give to charity.
• Presentation selection. For the first time we had more submissions that we could actually use, which meant voting was a huge help in guiding our selection. It’s awesome to finally see more people getting interested in Ignite Denver.
• The Speed round. The only trouble was the aforementioned slide deck roulette troubles. But the speed round presentations themselves went really well. A good first run for sure.

So, with Ignite Denver now OFFICIALLY wrapped, LOL… Ignite Denver 7!

Taking what we’ve learned from the past 6, we’re going to hold Ignite Denver 7 at the Oriental Theatre on July 27th. Make sure to mark your calendar now! July 27th! If you haven’t already subscribe to the Denwhere calendar, ID7 is already on it!

That means: Huge screen, no bar noise, no trouble seeing the presenter!

Max attendance is again 250, let’s sell out ID7 faster than we did ID6!

We’re still working on charity selection, but we will definitely be donating to a charity. We’re gonna need a lot more donations too! Dig deep folks. Moving to a more awesome venue includes costs.

Donating is still optional. I strongly feel Ignite should not be a pay to play event. If you don’t want to donate, but want to be a part of something awesome, highlighting how kick ass Denver is, that’s totally cool. Charging, IMO is weak sauce.

The time table for ID7 is as follows!

June 21st we start accepting submissions.

July 2nd we STOP accepting submissions.

Voting is open July 5th thru 16th

See you there!