faygate

Ignited

This week has been a busy one in the faygate household and at work. Mrs faygate has started her Sing and Sign teaching again for the term, my new team leader started at work and the small boy’s after school clubs restarted. Top that off with the Bristol 10k which I ran this Sunday.

The highlight of the week though was heading into town to Spike Island to attend my, well our, first Ignite Bristol event. Now I have to admit I’m what you might class a ‘safe’ person. I’d love to take more risks and be a bit more spontaneous but I think about things too much! So anyway to avoid become boring to my wife of 9 years I bagged us some free tickets for this event and headed down after work on Thursday.

First off you have to be mighty impressed with the venue. What looks like an old warehouse and offices from the 1960’s they have transformed the place into fantastic contemporary space, there was even a nice cafe/bar.

When we arrived the place was already buzzing. For those who have not heard about Ignite then all I need to tell you is the tag line from their web site:

enlighten us, but make it quick

Basically, they get together about 10 presenters who have volunteered themselves and then give them only five minutes to talk about their chosen subject and with the use of only 20 slides which automatically change every 15 seconds.

This Pecha Kucha concept makes things quite interesting! Mrs faygate and I weren’t sure what to expect. Was it going to be geeky? Or was it going to be a bit arty fartsy?

Actually neither! It was a great mix of science, art and social interaction. We had a great time and enjoyed some really interesting talks, from the circle of life to dancing with robots, from being happy because we laugh to wondering if we are all an illusion! All the talks are recorded and then posted on YouTube when editing is complete. So watch out for the one about cycle paths and also the mini laughter workshop when they are available.

So if you get the chance I’d thoroughly recommend the next Bristol Ignite event if you can, or if you live somewhere else in the world, see if you can find an city near you. I learned some new interesting facts from the evening and somehow came away felt ignited (if you pardon the pun!) and inspired.