Are you passionate about something you want to teach, show, explain, or share with other creative people in the Asheville community?

Take five minutes to tell us about you and your topic and we’ll put you in consideration for the upcoming Ignite Asheville!

If this is a pitch about a product or service you sell – STOP!

If this is a personal hobby, obsession, interest, or fascination – CARRY ON!

We’re sure your product/service is great, but that’s not what Ignite Asheville is about. We are looking for very real, tangible things people do (Building Miniature Giant Robots), they know (Taiko Drumming), they’ve tried (Paragliding), they’re starting (Year of Music) or they’ve studied (Thinly Slicing Brains). Share the things you really love, no matter how strange or obscure you think it might be!

Submission Tips

For tips on making a great submission, check out this blog post from Ignite Phoenix or get your creativity flowing by checking out the list of submissions for Ignite Phoenix #11. Any topic is fair game, as long as it’s PG-13 and isn’t a sales pitch.

If you’ve never done a lightning talk, check out this post on preparing for a lightning talk to get tips for your talk and an idea of the effort required. Keep in mind though that Ignite talks are only 5 minutes with 20 slides.

Now, on to the submission process! If you submit an idea, you agree that you:

• are able to speak on this topic in 5 minutes, not a second more.
• can create a 20-slide presentation to support your talk.
• allow your submission, presentation and a video of your talk to be posted online (your email address and phone number will be kept private).
• will not pitch or advertise for a product or business, even your own.
• will adhere to the Rules & Guidelines for Ignite Asheville!

Submissions are open until Friday, February 3rd at 5:00pm. The final list of speakers will be notified by Tuesday, February 7th. If selected, you will then have two weeks to prepare your talk.

Ignite Asheville arrives on February 21st, 2012, so make sure to get those ideas flowing! Share with us, and our community, what you’re passionate about!

Speaker List

The final list of speakers for Ignite Asheville 2012 is below. Thank you to everyone who submitted a talk.

	How To Challenge Your Assumptions Trevor Lohrbeer  Assumptions often limit what we can achieve in our personal and professional lives. Learn techniques for challenging assumptions and fostering creative solutions to problems.
	What is the Opposite of War? Sara Bensman If war is not the answer, what is? The same tools that are used to mediate divorces and union negotiations are effectively applied to mega-issues (think the environment, racism, terrorism) and micro-issues (a fight with a partner.) It’s about giving voice, listening for beliefs, looking for common interests, weighing the cost, and patience.
	Rock Songwriters on the Creative Process Bill Kopp How to describe the creative process in music? Songwriters well-known and relatively obscure are sometimes equally eloquent on the subject. Drawing from his personal archive of one-on-one interviews with musicians in the rock idiom, music journalist Bill Kopp presents some of the most fascinating and thought-provoking quotes on songwriting.
	What Could You Do With $20,000 Blake Boles The average college family spends about $20,000 per year to put a kid through school. What could you do with that money-instead of spending it on tuition and dorms-while still giving yourself a higher education? This thought experiment reveals how self-directed learning offers a cheap, effective, and highly rewarding alternative to 4-year college.
	New Center for Tech Learning in Asheville Ian Riddell As an educator specializing in robotics, programming and electronics, I want to create a center for tech learning in AVL where students of ALL ages can explore the creative possibilities in technology and foster the next generation of ideas/businesses. We create opportunity by removing barriers to technology, providing access to equip and knowledge
	What Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 Can Teach Us About Life, Love, and Business Laura Hope-Gill There’s a reason these poems have lasted lifetimes. I’ll break it down, highlight the techniques and reveal why poetry is alchemy, the ancient science of transformation and creativity, and how this poem holds secrets to success and happiness. NOT your average high school teacher’s approach to poetry at all.
	How and Where to Learn about the Law…For Free Melissa English We all get into a little hot water sometimes. Or just need the answer to a vexing question like “can I pave my driveway using Powell Bill funds?” (no, but nice try). There are lots of places to learn about the law, for no money down. Write these down and put it in your wallet for those tight spots and rainy days.
	Life Is A Banquet – Lessons I Learned From Movie Characters Played By Rosalind Russell Jennifer Perry Patrick Dennis wrote of his beloved Auntie Mame, who was portrayed in the movie by Rosalind Russell. From wealth to financial ruin and back, she taught that “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” This and characters Russell played in other films are a source of great inspiration to me daily.
	How We Learn Now David Lindrum What best-selling non-fiction, Google, documentaries, Wikipedia, TED lectures, Good Eats, reality TV and NPR teach us about how we learn now, where we find credible information and what it means to be informed.
	My Life in 20 Slides Brett McCall Is five minutes enough time to tell the story of a whole life? Mardi Gras birthday boy Brett McCall wants to prove that with enough King Cake and sufficient morning workouts, he can tell a life story using only time, technology–and 20 slides.