I don’t know how many more times I can say this without everyone telling me to shut up, but
I FUCKING LOVE IGNITE WATERLOO.
It IS the best event in KW and if you haven’t been, your life sucks.
Here’s a recap of last nights speakers:
Graham Moogk-Soulis – I’ve mentioned Graham’s work on RQ before, he is the creator of PostScript – awesome local webcomic about what happens after the fairy tale ends. He did a hilarious summary of WHY you should be checking out comics online. My personal fav… Natalie Dee.
Patrick McMahon – this Cinq a Sept friend was talking about soaring… which is flying a plane that does not have an engine. WTF!?! He calls in self-actualizing… sounds like a pretty decent adrenaline rush to me.
Next up, the lovely Jennifer Gough – one of the most passionate talks of the night, she talked about “the ultimate question” – naturally, what would you be/do if you could be/do ANYTHING? A few years ago she asked herself the same question – and she quit her job to be an artist full time. You can check out her stuff here. What I really loved about her talk, was that she mentioned how once you commit yourself to something – and work towards making it happen – all kinds of doors start opening for you to help you make that happen. What an inspiring thought :)
RB was up next! She talked about running the Boston Marathon, and I gotta say, was in love with the history and ritual of the whole thing. Almost makes me want to… nope, it doesn’t, but loved hearing about it.
Natalie Brown talked about the need to talk about things that are Taboo … and the power of talk (talk as in conversation between two or more people, not just talking AT someone else – to make change. Totally agree. Just wish that I was better at listening. Note to self: Be a better listener.
Kate Daley talked about education… and about how it is a bit messed. My words, not hers. She talked about how the education system isn’t neutral (there’s all kinds of things that happen that separate kids from each other when it comes to socio-economic factors) but that the system also has the power and ability to instill the values and create the society that we want to see… if we use it properly. Ok, that was what I took away from her talk, I’m not exactly sure if that was 100% her point, but I think that’s the beauty of ignite ;)
Alisa McLurg was talking about Climate Change and the connections to atheism, buddism, judaism and christianity.
Oh man, the next talk was so great, Raul talked about making Happiness a personal choice. Perhaps the best individual quote of the night “It’s not that my life is all rainbows and ponies and people singing Kumabaya all day long, but i choose to be happy” – this was accompanied by a slide with a my little pony running through a rainbow with hello kitty on it’s back. AMAZING.
Caitie Rosen got me to snort during her talk… which is … unladylike, but funny. Her talk about how laughing is good for you got some serious laughs from the audience. LOLcatz. ahahahaa. Loved how as the slides came up, she laughed, then the audience laughed and then she laughed harder. So authentic. Great line “if anyone ever tells you to stop laughing, just tell them it’s medicinal”.
Evan was up next. Why do we have so many bad bosses? Excellent question. Even more excellent was his final slide which featured both Alec Baldwin AND Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise. CLASSIC. It’s true though – how do we end up so many shit managers? Basically, people are promoted to lead based on how well they do their existing job, which probably has nothing to do with managing people. Maybe someone should look into this? just sayin….
Natalie MacNeil showed how social media actually has a history – facebook wall = cave drawing? sending a tweet via carrier pigeon back in the day? Interesting talk. Natalie is a great speaker and fun – Natalie! come hang out more!
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I missed the next speakers first name, too much talking up in the #kwawesome section on the stairs, whoops, but super interesting talk on social art… one of the examples? have a gazillion people each paint a tiny portion of an American dollar bill, and then combine it together! fun! this makes me want to put together a nu berlin event to do somehting like this! What do you guys think??
Now, by far, the show stopper of the night was Sue Sturdy, artist in residence in Cambridge this year. Her topic was knitting, but she somehow covered off Breasts, Toques for pimped out smartcars, her past life as a Brownie and how Hespeler used to be the Silicon Valley of textiles. It was a total whirlwind that was made even better by the fact that the shawl she was wearing had these little tinkling bells on it and it jingled while she talked. I hope we were able to capture some of her awesomeness for the 100 recoding Brock and I did!
TJ Hatton hit the stage to talk about how all his girlfriends have been Crazy. Oh boy! this got the crowd and the tweets going! I’ve known TJ forever, so i feel like i totally got it – but there was some rumblings out there in the seats! hahaha. They should have put TJ back to back with Natalie Brown’s talk! Cage Match Ignite 4.0!!!!!!
Anshula was talking about how a $10 hamburger could change the world, what the real cost of stuff should be when we calculate the social and environmental repercussions of a consumers choice. Also, 22% of people that eat Big Macs are most likely to eat them 3x per week??? WHAAAA????? Sidenote; i love the word Arithmetic, why does it have to mean something so gross?
And the final talk of the night, do you feel like you were right there with me while you read this? You probably were there, the place was PACKED!!! anyway, final and most intense talk of the night, Anfernee had some crazy brain surgery that left him in hospital for a month to recover, when he got out, he changed his life and stopped deferring from what he really wanted to be doing. awesome. a wicked lesson for everyone… and you should have to have your skull opened up to figure it out.
Such a great night, you can check out the tweet stream HERE.
And let me just say, that it warms my heart every time there’s an Alec Baldwin reference… and there were many.
See you all in November at the next one, and please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts or links to your own blogs with your own reviews. I knew a lot of the speakers this time around, and so maybe that has made my burning love for the event blinding. Did you think it sucked? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me what you thought!
xoxo
H.
PS> Episode of The 100 recorded at Ignite Waterloo will be up Thursday the 15th!
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