April 24, 2013, by Alexis Muellner, editor, Tampa Bay Business Journal—
I’m grateful to be asked to emcee the third edition of Ignite Tampa Bay, coming Thursday night at the Tampa Theatre.
So far, with already twice the crowd of last year, more than 800 seats have been sold. As many as 32 presenters are slated to present for five minutes each and with a maximum of 20 slides only allowed up for 15 seconds or less.
The event is not about startups pitching for funding.
“We have presenters talking about everything from rescue dogs to arts to entrepreneurial programs,” Joy Randels said. “There are politicians and the CEO of M2Gen – so there’s pretty big diversity there.”
A mobile version of the agenda will be available for scanning as guests arrive.
Randels has been working to make the event happen with Bar Camp Tampa co-founder and technology evangelist Joel Lopez, and many other all-volunteer organizers. Lopez, along with Ken Evans and Peter Radizeski, organized the first event in 2011.
Ignite is modeled after a concept created years ago by the Boston consulting firm O’Reilly. Dubbed as a “high-energy evening designed to inspire, educate, entertain and spark new ideas” across cultures and disciplines of the Tampa Bay community, the mantra of the event is: “Enlighten us, but make it quick.”
Participants are involved in technology, arts, communication, education, nonprofit, the government sector and more. Chuck Papageorgiou of Odessa-based Ideasphere isn’t using his five minutes to talk about the usual things he talks about. He’s philosophizing about life and how that philosophy has evolved over 50 years – all in five minutes.
“I didn’t look at it like it was a business opportunity, and in fact quite the opposite,” he said. “My biggest objective is to have some fun.
“I raised the point to Chuck that while that may be true, he is building his brand in a social media era where that carries a lot of weight.
“There is no question that the idea that people can see people like me as a multidimensional human being is always good for business,” he said. “I’m not just an engineer or a entrepreneur, I have a different point of view in general.
For Sarasota’s Boost Studio, it wants to connect with Tampa people. Fritz Chalef, head of strategic communications, plans to talk about the success aspects of business and politics, and not for profits’ goals, strategies and tactics, he said. “It’s about how people work together as well as what holds each other back,” he said.