Many of you already know that I attended and spoke at the first ever Ignite Dallas event on March 3, 2010 at the Granada Theater. My expectations were high, but they were completely blown out of the water. My brief recap is actually posted over at LaunchDFW, the DFW Startup Community.

What I hope to capture with this post is just how moving and/or informative every single speaker managed to be. When you just throw 15 speakers on a stage and let them loose on any topic, you have no idea what you’re going to get. But this box of chocolates had nothing but the good stuff. Here are my quick takeaways from each speaker (in the order in which they spoke):

1. Shyam Patel, The Next American Epidemic – Mind Obesity (@shyampatel): The subject matter was amazing, but Shyam’s delivery, pacing and obvious grasp on what he’s talking about was inspiring. A great speaker with a great message.
2. Brett Duncan (aka me), Move the Box (@bdunc1): When I originally wrote about this topic more than two years ago, I knew it had legs. But I didn’t do anything with it until the Ignite opportunity came up. Also, I had no idea how hard it could be to put together a freakin’ five-minute presentation. Good Lord!
3. Karl Sydow, Tobacco – the Most Interesting Drug in the World (@karlsydow): There was this one slide of Obama smoking in Karl’s presentation and his comment on role models that just cracked me up. Karl’s quirky and dry manner actually fit his presentation perfectly.
4. Michael L. Perry – How Do We Collaborate Through Software? (@michaellperry): OK, Michael could be the smartest guy I’ve ever met. His presentation was way over my head, but you could tell it was important. And that he really knows his stuff. Plus, Michael and I had a great discussion about outsourcing before the event started.
5. Stu Hill, The Birth of a Nickname (@stuhill): Who knew assigning a nickname could be so formulaic. Stu took us step by step how he got his nickname for a snowboarder to be used on ESPN. It was a very funny talk.
6. Laura Vatalaro, Go Green Graphic Design (@lvgraphics): Laura showed five pretty innovative ways to make printing green. She even showed how to turn a cereal box into a business card, and I was one of the few who got one before the night was done. She made a strong case that printing doesn’t have to be as wasteful as we think it is.
7. Sean Scogin, Increasing Emotional Investment in Social Media (@seanscogin): Sean proved the point that you can’t judge a presentation by its rehearsal. I got to see Sean run through his talk a couple times before the doors opened, and I have to admit, I thought it was a little dry. Ends up Sean was saving the good stuff for the real deal, cuz he was smokin’ on stage. Plus, he proved why every good presentation should include a picture of a cocker spaniel. Nice touch.
8. Mike Orren, Stop Thinking and Say “Yes, and ….” (@mikeorren): This was one of my favorite talks of the night. Mike took his experiences from attending an improv class and turned it into a great paradigm shift we should all take in any forum. The idea is that we’re geared to say “No, but….” If we could just switch that mentality, it could change a lot.
9. Travis Blythe, Touring the Country on My Harley – A How-to Guide (@blydawg): Way over the top, but in a good way. It felt right. I still chuckle when I think about how he made us think for a second that a hair dryer and curler were necessary tools for the road. I also thought his powerpoint design was smart – he had his contact info in front of us the entire presentation.
10. Bethany Nelson, Complex Environments: This is not a Bar (@superawesomeBN): First, I have to say I really enjoyed talking to Bethany throughout the night. Very cool girl, and she was proud to be representin’ Denton. She hit the highlights of a project she did in turning a coffee shop into dance performance. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a topic I’d be interested in, but she shared it in a way that made me listen. One thing that stuck out to me was that she mentioned gathering data at the coffee shop and the using that to form the performance. Never have I heard of a dancer gathering data, so that was cool.
11. Jasmin Brande, What Social Media and Ike Turner Have in Common (@brandpointe): Overall, this was probably my favorite talk of the night. First, you could tell Jasmin knows her stuff. Second, the analogy of using Ike and Tina Turner to represent social media and education was perfect. Third, Jasmin was wise in not using my corny line “What’s abuse got to do with it?,” which I pitched at her prior to her talk. Fourth, she really brought it home when she ended her talk (and I paraphrase) with “Social media will never be able to replace great teachers.” The crowd went crazy over that.
12. John Lehmann, Changing the Way the World Looks at Information (@jplehmann): John is a really smart guy. One of the biggest a-ha moments I had of the night was when he said it’s most likely that I have consumed more information than all my previous generations combined. That’s crazy.
13. Liz Broderick, The Importance of Killer Heels (@passingthemic): Of all the talks, Liz’s definitely had the most pre-show buzz. Between quotes in the Morning News and I saw someone filming her in her heels outside of the Granada, everyone knew about this talk. If you thought the talk was gonna be about fashion, though, you quickly learned you were way off. Liz weaved the idea of heels into job searches, climbing the corporate ladder and the power and influence of today’s woman.
14. Salah Boukadoum, One Billion Dollars to End Poverty (@soaphope): Salah got screwed. The mic at the Granada was iffy all night, and it pretty much just crapped out when Salah got up to talk. But he did what pros do and just said “Screw it,” and gave his speech the old fashioned way, sans microphone. Salah took the principle of getting a lot of people (or in this case, businesses) to do a little, which results in big things. In this case, a billion dollars.
15. Mike D. Merrill, For the Love of Bacon – America’s Cult Meme (@mikedmerrill): Could you wrap a night like this any better than with a passionate history of bacon? While this talk was chock-full of very useful information, the image that is stained in my mind is of the girl using bacon for her own frontal support. Not sure if that makes Mike the one with the sick mind or me.

I think it’s clear that the night was amazing. Attendance for future Ignite events are definitely in my future, with the next one being on June 2.

Also, I have to give HUGE props to the folks who organized this, starting with Chris Walters. The idea struck him about 4 weeks prior to the event, and he and his team (Mike Merrill, Joey Pomerenke, Danica Mathes, Cone Johnson, Andy Hickl and Chris Bond) pulled it off and then some. Thanks to you guys.

Also, big thanks to the sponsors:

Scott & Scott, Facebook, hck2, Greenlight, Dave Curlee Media, Granada Theater, Sprint, Campaign Monitor, Big (D)esign Conference, swingly, Content Solutions, Social Media Club of Dallas, CoHabitat, Yelp, Level Ten Interactive.

Were you there? What were your favorite moments?

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