I attended the Ignite Salt Lake 2 last night and overall I was a interesting event. There were a few things that bugged me and turned me off from it, but granted, it was probably more of my own issues than the event itself. One of my biggest issues is when events don’t start on time. If there is an agenda, I expect it to be followed.
After the “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock” tournement ended (going way to long) the speakers begun. It started out really well with Josh Awtry speaking on “Critical Hit: How to host your own role playing game”. He really did a good job and was a great start to the night. Unfortunelly all the speakers didn’t have the same energy, which I’m not complaining because I couldn’t do any better. Another entertaining speaker was Jarond Suman who spoke about “Film is not dead…yet”. This speaker was really doing well and holding the audiences attention until there was technical issues and they decided to have the intermission. Then there was a speaker that seemed like he could be outside the rules of the game and demanded a little more attention than he should have gotten.
Other than the speakers, this biggest purpose of the event is the networking opportunities. It is a great place to meet new people and expand your areas of interest. I met some people who came with the intent to find good people to help build a business and some that just wanted to have an enjoyable evening. It is great that anyone from any business or personal aspects can come and have a good time. I’m used to attending the AIGA events that focus on design related themes, which I really enjoy, but the Ignite event is not limited on who can come and enjoy themselves, plus, it’s free.
Be sure to go to the next one so you can judge for yourself, but for myself, I probably wont be going back—unless I decide to speak at it or know someone who is.
