Ignite Boulder. Oh, how it has grown.

From less than two hundred people in a smart room on the CU campus to a nearly sold-out show at the Boulder Theater (only 12 tickets were left when the sales ended), Ignite Boulder has become one hell of an event.

After Ignite Boulder 5 and its exceptional performances, I knew I had to try to submit another topic. I had gotten lots of suggestions from friends and plenty of reassurance that I couldn’t go wrong with another submission. This time, it was Ben‘s suggestion to try some Swedish in my presentation that really got me going. Thus it was born: “Bork Bork Bork: Swedish 101 for Foreigners.”

I was beyond excited but nervous. Last time I spoke in front of no more than 500 people, and this time it could’ve topped 800. Thankfully, it went as well (if not better) than I had hoped for — people laughed where I wanted them to (and at some times, in places I didn’t expect), the crowd learned a little bit of Swedish, even my father came to watch, and I didn’t screw up!

I have to say that this was probably my favorite Ignite, and it was not because I felt like I succeeded — that’s just the icing on the cake. There were some fantastic presentations that exceeded my expectations and absolutely blew my mind. I laughed, learned, and overall, I really enjoyed myself.

It’s so hard to pick favorites, highs or lows, surprises, etc., from Ignite Boulder. I loved Ef Rodriguez‘s Sacrificial Deck in which he showed the crowd that you can forget a line or two and still pull off an amazing presentation. Plus, he sang!

Ef wasn’t alone in entertaining the crowd with music. Mountain Standard Time played a few sets, and we were all happy to help them out a bit — turns out their equipment got jacked a few weeks ago. I hope we raised some cash for them.

It was nice to finally meet Jen Yu, who presented on “Food Porn: Behind the Lens,” but it’s too bad I didn’t get to talk to Sari Levi more because I thought her presentation on “The Alternative, Alternative Energy: My Million-Dollar Idea” — capitalizing on America’s obesity — was brilliant.

I laughed a lot thanks to Ryan Wanger (“Our Princess is In Another Castle”), Vanessa Schneider (“The Things They Don’t Tell You About a DUI”), Luke Tilsley (“Have You Kissed Like a Trobiand Native?”), Heather Clisby (“Screw Logic: An Unbelievable Look at Bizarre Beliefs”), George Smith (“How to Master Debate”), and Dave Burdick (“Everything I Need to Know About Journalism I Learned From Ghostbusters”).  From Blowseph and crude jokes involving Australia to video game nerds and how many people believe the sun revolves around the earth, I got my fair share of laughter from these presentations.

But we all learned a lot from Naomi Meredith (“Making Friends and Insulting People – The Shakespearean Way”), Cristina Sagray (“Classic Literature Through The Eyes of a Teenage Chick Flick”), Todd Berger (“Business Earth”), Kaley Sutton (who presented on Burning Man), and Michael Brown (“Reward and Risk”). It was dead silent as Michael Brown described life and death on Mt. Everest through his experiences as an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker — we closed with some clips of his work, a perfect way to end the best Ignite Boulder yet.

Oh yeah… and I almost forgot! The volunteers were great as always. They handled the huge line really well, and there were no technical problems. The whole thing went so smoothly!

“Sätter eld på Boulder” is how you would say “set Boulder on fire” in Swedish. And that’s just what happened at Ignite Boulder 6!