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!

Ignite is a series of presentations in which the slides move every 15 seconds, and the presenter has only so many slides available — it makes for a crazy, fast-paced evening of technology, humor, and all-around fun. This was my second Ignite.

Ben Roberts presenting about the Zombie Apocalypse at Ignite Boulder 3

Ben (whose online moniker is “Ace Harmon,” though I’m not sure Andrew Hyde has picked up on that yet) gave us all the gory details of what humans should do in the event of a zombie apolocalypse. It might’ve taken the audience a little longer than usual to process his brand of humor, but all the better as some of the delayed “duh!” laughs just made the presentation funnier and funnier. “A gentleman does not eat brains and tell!”

It wasn’t long before dearest Ef (whom I’ve nicknamed Puggles) presented “How to Sing Your Way Out of Danger.” I had actually never heard Efrem sing before, though we are the best of friends and have been through plenty of adventures together (especially situations in which he probably should’ve tried singing us out of danger). If it isn’t already self-explanatory, Ef was teaching us how notes and music and lyrics could be combined into a life-saving tool. He brought along his guitar and some nifty tunes, made especially for the Ignite presentation. I must say that I am very happy to have finally heard my Puggles sing, and I hope I get to hear more of it (hopefully outside the context of danger, however).

Ef Rodriguez swoons the crowd with his singing!

The rest of the presentations were indeed wonderful. I’d have to say that Most Original goes to Tim Poindexter‘s “The History of the Mustache,” for which he groomed the most amazing mustache. Tara Anderson and Jeremy Tanner, as the stand-up champions of the Boulder tech community, broke the crowd down to tears of laughter with, respectively, “How to Piss Off People and Lose Friends in Boulder” and “What Business Development Can Learn from the Seduction Community” (oh yes, you’d better believe it!). I met some awesome new people like Brian Shaler (“How to use Twitter for Marketing and PR”) and Vikas Reddy (“Award Rules”). On top of that, I was able to see some of the coolest people I’ve met in Boulder present on things that relate closely to their fields or interests: Jo White used some of her media research to present “Breasts and Media’s Obsession With Them,” Brandon Whalen brought down the house with “How to Make a Rap Song,” and Ingrid Alongi — with the help of some of our friends and acquaintances — showed how the Boulder tech crowd can be resourceful in the face of a bad economy. Jen Mayer‘s presentation about healthy eating (she is just so cute!) opened some eyes and motivated us to create new eating habits while Grant Blakeman and Reid Phillips (of The Autumn Film) asked us “What Would a Crack Dealer Do?” (just check it out, you’ll get it!). If you want to check out some of the other presentations, you can find them at the Ignite Boulder webpage, which includes links to the presentation videos and will include info about the next Ignite.

I’m hoping to submit a topic again this next time, and although I’ve hinted at it with friends, it’s staying on the down-low for now. Needless to say, I’ve been inspired by this incredible crowd and I would be humbled to get to join the ranks of these guys in the next Ignite. Boulder has truly set the bar for Ignite, and I dare anyone else to beat it!

The look of doubt. Ought I consume the attractively frosty margarita?

Ah, what a night. I’m certainly out of practice when it comes to hitting up the bars. There is some incriminating evidence in the form of film out there somewhere.

I also treated myself to some shoes for my birthday. I just couldn’t help it. Puggles and I had cruised by the Puma store on Saturday and I caught a glimpse of the absolute perfect set of Pumas. I was going to hold off a few weeks, but I just gave in and got ‘em, and a pair of ballet flats while I was at it. Why not?

Those are some cute new ballet flats on the left. On the right, my killer new Pumas. Meow. (The background says a lot about my life: laptop, coffee in a bottle, a dirty bowl, a highlighted syllabus…)

Birthdays are always a lot of fun in my family and we take them more seriously than Christmas. We also tend to milk the whole week as much as possible; getting out of chores all week, having an excuse to go shopping, etc. with “but it’s my birthday!” So I didn’t do a damn thing (well, besides study…) for a good portion of the weekend.

I’m pretty satisfied with my birthday week.