Ignite Boulder has become one of the most entertaining and popular tech events here in town. But it’s no longer the big tech-scene secret it was the first few times around; I actually heard people talking about it on Pearl Street the night before (“See you tomorrow! Goin’ to Ignite?” Hells yeah!”).

After attending Ignite Boulder 2 and Ignite Boulder 3, I had submitted a topic that was accepted for  presentation: “Confessions of a NiteRide Driver” (name altered just slightly to protect the innocent). By the end of the voting, I’d made it to 3rd place. All this talk about wanting to present and thinking I could present would finally be challenged — could I present in front of almost two hundred people?

On top of that, it ended up being far more than two hundred people. Despite the inability to bring beer into the venue, organizer Andrew Hyde decided that a large venue where we could include more people was more important than being able to have beer. Instead, we had a pre-party at The b.side Lounge and secured some sweet deals for sushi afterwards, and held Ignite at the 475 (more or less)-capacity Chem 140 lecture hall on the CU campus. Suddenly it really became a test of my nerves.

You see, I’m not really a public speaker. I get pretty nervous in front of that many people. I’m much better at interacting with people in small groups or separately. I rush a lot in front of too many people (as it started out when I presented at Ignite).

Before the presentation, I took some hints from my friend Ben, who had himself presented in the previous Ignite. He advised me to practice with a stopwatch, allow time for laughter, and follow a script. I kept to those guidelines for the most part; I decided to work on a script from an open-ended viewpoint, that is, to have a general list of things to say but figure out the best way to fit it into five minutes by using a script. I went over my script a few times, at least hitting some of the most important parts, but not adhering to it perfectly — my goal was to just know the material well enough to spout it off without hesitation.

The pre-party at the b-side was fun. I had a beer to loosen up a bit, though it didn’t seem to work as well. I got to Chem 140 rather early and paced about, stopping once in a while to practice in an empty classroom. It was hard to be sociable when all I could think about was my presentation.

Chris Reinhard at Ignite Boulder 4

I went on after Nicole Glaros and before Chris Reinhard, a tough spot to be in; Nicole pumped up the crowd with “How to Be a Dance Ninja” and Chris rocked the audience with “How to be a successful musician knowing that you’re never going to make money selling music.” However, I wasn’t as concerned about succeeding with a good presentation as I was concerned about not making it bad — other presentations in the night had encouraged a lot of heckling. It was also helpful that Andrew had turned off the brightkite wall in which many audience members had distracted the audience from the presentation by putting up snarky (and in some cases, absolutely hilarious) comments. It turned out to be a really good idea to remove the wall, and the decision certainly helped out the rest of us — it seemed like people were more focused on the presentations without it. (There’s a good criticism of the brightkite wall by Jon of maperture.net.)

When it came time for me to present, I was still rather nervous. Even my parents were in the room. But it was time to step up, and step up I did — I actually had a great time up there! Although I’m glad it’s over now, I got a kick out of presenting. I felt like I made quite a few mistakes (and was kind of disappointed in forgetting to use the word “sorostitute,” which, as much as I can apologize for it and its foul nature, is really just a good word to describe some of the people I’ve given rides to at work — other college students, particularly from my generation, could probably understand the word quite well). I also felt like the crowd was kind of quiet.

After watching the video of Ignite Boulder 4 on the Ustream channel, I decided that I actually did a lot better than I thought I did (although some of my not-horribly-noticeable mistakes made me cringe), and that the practice I had done was well worthwhile. The crowd wasn’t as quiet as I thought it was. They seemed to be paying attention and not dozing off, and they laughed appropriately (that is, when I figured they would and wanted them to).

As for the other presentations, I definitely don’t think mine was the best. My favorites were Ryan Wanger‘s “My Mom Just Joined Facebook, Now What?” and David Mason‘s “Ye Olde Prince of Bel-Air,” which was a medieval translation of the lyrics from the theme song to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Aimee Giese‘s “Why Mommybloggers Suck and What We Can Learn From Them” was informative and funny — since mommybloggers are pretty important in social media, I was excited to hear her presentation. Lilly Justman rounded it out with a more serious presentation; she made some excellent, informative points about energy usage in “Peak Oil: Does This Mean There Won’t Be iPhones?” while Brett Greene went the complete opposite direction and pushed the audience’s limits while demonstrating influence.

Would I do it again? Certainly. Probably not for a while, but I’d be up for it. If you’ve ever wondered how well you could do speaking in front of hundreds of people, Ignite Boulder is your chance to test it. I’m glad I went for it!

I will post video as soon as it is up on the web so you can enjoy the presentation the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

I also couldn’t possibly write about this without thanking Andrew for his great community organization skills, Jeremy Tanner for doing whatever he does so awesomely, Kath for handling the mic and cheering on presenters, and Rande Kamolz for rocking the hell out of venue operation. Rande does this kind of stuff all the time, literally every week (at least once!), and he doesn’t often get the credit he deserves. As always, thanks to Stepan for his great photographs! It was also really neat after the big production to enjoy the company of Brian, Dave, Ryan & his wife Jane, David & his girlfriend and Charles at Hapa and the Southern Sun.