Keep your eyes on the prize

We thought you might like to know who the people are behind Ignite Wellington. We’re Kirk, Siobhan, Amie and Catherine – 4 crazy volunteers who are passionate about Wellington and who value good ideas.

Here we are surrounded by the fabulous prizes that have been donated by Mojo, Snapper and Tweet4yourtee! They’re all up for grabs on Tuesday night. We think we look pretty choice kitted out in our tees, and you’ll be able to recognise us easily – be sure to say hi!

We'll also be collecting donations for Plunket, so if you have any spare change, please pop it in the bucket.

Speaker Line-up for Ignite Wellington #2

From 'Ernest Rutherford' and 'Martian real estate' to 'Knitting as rebellion', Ignite is set to surprise and entertain everyone.

Make sure you register and arrive early to take part in the contest and enjoy the rich feast of 5 min talks that have been prepared by our fabulous volunteer speakers!

Speakers
Courtney Johnston – 'So, Eric Gill, Ernest Rutherford and a Russian physicist walk into a bar'
Dave ten Have – 'Nothing to fear but fear itself'
Emma McCleary – 'Roll, stick, splat, brush: wallpaper'
Hursh Saha – 'Lunar & Martian real estate'
Jimmy Baird – 'A concept of play'
Joel Wiramu Pauling – 'Couchsurfing: Putting a bit of trust back into the world'
John Bishop – 'Vibrant Wellington: fostering talent and growth'
Lee Bennett – 'Building the dream'
Nathalie Whitaker – 'Another list'
Rochelle Furneaux – 'IP is our friend'
Rowan Simpson – 'Lies'
St John Craner – 'Swimming Kapiti Island & what it taught me about running a business'
Steve Graham – 'Something to do with chAnGE'
Tash Barneveld – 'OutdoorKnit: knitting as rebellion'

Register here for free!

Sponsor aroha

It goes without saying that Ignite Wellington would simply not be possible without the support of our ka rawe sponsors. By supporting our event, Silverstripe (gold sponsor), Catalyst90 (silver sponsor), Meridian (silver sponsor), and Distinct (bronze sponsor) are helping to Ignite Wellington in an evening of inspiration.

We’d like everyone to paki paki and cheer these four companies for their awesomeness. Tēnā rāwā atu koe!

You can support us too – by coming along on Tuesday night, by following us on Twitter at @ignitewelli, or by becoming a fan on Facebook.

We look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday. Ka kite!

* aroha = love
* ka rawe = awesome/choice
* paki paki = clap
* Tēnā rāwā atu koe = thank you!
* Ka kite = see you later

P.S. Make sure you register to secure your seat!

Rowan Simpson - Lies

Rowan Simpson is an experienced software developer and business person.

In 1999 he started a website called Flathunt which he sold the following year in exchange for some shares in a small but promising company called Trade Me. He became employee #3, and the first whose surname wasn't Morgan. It worked out okay.

Since leaving Trade Me in 2007, Rowan has been involved in a number of other tech start-ups - including Xero, Fishpond, Sonar6 and, most recently, Vend.

Rowan is a partner at Southgate Labs and blogs at RowanSimpson.com.

In his five minutes in the Ignite spotlight he will talk about how we teach kids to lie and whether or not it still counts as cheating if you don't get caught.

Video:

Here's the video of Rowan's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.



Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

John Bishop - Vibrant Wellington: fostering talent and growth

John Bishop is a speaker, writer, trainer, facilitator and communications consultant.

He is passionate about prosperity for the nation, the region and the city. He’s been speaking and writing about our economic problems for many years. He’s had a regular column in the National Business Review examining ways to get more economic growth.

He’s been self employed for 15 years, and he’s worked with people who have just started their own businesses - mainly through the Biz Centre on the Terrace.

In his presentation to Ignite he turns his attention to what we can do to keep Wellington creative, vibrant and innovative.

Video:

Here's the video of John's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.



Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Hursh Saha - Lunar and martian real estate

Hursh Saha is a born and bred Wellingtonian, who believes that people should follow their true passion in life. After a rocky stint at university, and starring in the tv series Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Hursh is now a fully-coated real estate agent for Tommys and has developed the site Virtual Karori.

During his last year at university, Hursh began developing websites and also purchased lots of lunar and martian real estate. Now he subdivides and resells it as an ‘Authorised Reseller’ of extra-terrestrial real estate for The Lunar Embassy.

Unsurprisingly, in his 5 minutes of fame on the Ignite stage, Hursh is going to share the fascinating worlds of ‘lunar and martian real estate’.

Video:

Here's the video of Hursh's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.



Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Jimmy Baird - A concept of play

Jimmy Baird has been designing games his entire life. Although professionally for the past seven years. He's Australian and has worked on titles that have sold millions, but he thinks there is nothing terribly interesting about personal histories. These days Jimmy just likes to design interesting experiences, compelling games and drink beer. In his spare time he continues to work on his Australian based record label.

Jimmy currently works in Wellington designing games for iPhone, iTouch and similar devices.

Video:

Here's the video of Jimmy's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.

Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Nathalie Whitaker - Another list

Nathalie is the founder of Givealittle.com - a web application for social good and important stuff. When she is not working directly on beastly web apps that support user generated goodness, she is generally plotting her way through difficult missions referring back to one of hundreds of lists she has created along the way.

In her ignite talk Nathalie will share some of the aspirations on her Day Zero list in the hope of attracting some buddies to join her in ticking a few more tasks off the growing list!

Video:

Here's the video of Nathalie's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.


Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Lee Bennett - Building the dream

Lee likes to keep life interesting. After leaving the British Navy he set up a computer company, thought a lot in a virtual reality ThinkTank, ran an IT team, project managed putting Fell Beasts on the Embassy Theatre, created special effects with Weta, single handedly subdivided his property, became a commercial pilot, built a plane in his conservatory, built WW1 planes (in a proper factory this time) and finally got a bit tired.

So he sold his house. To live on a boat. An old, fishy, fishing boat which he brought back from Aussie to turn into a gin palace for himself, partner and cat so that one day they can live somewhere hot (returning to Wellington a lot of course) and be free(er). The boat project is his opus (he hopes) and has given him ups and downs and sideways movements that have changed his life.

Video:

Here's the video of Lee's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.

Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Rochelle Furneaux - IP is your friend

Rochelle Furneaux is a lawyer with 16 years experience as a litigator and mediator.

Her passion and area of specialty is in Intellectual Property, particularly as it relates to technology and the interwebz.

Rochelle has worked with and advised the Open Source community on various projects. She is perpetually curious, and has been known to crochet the odd iPhone and iPad cover.

Video:

Here's the video of Rochelle's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.



Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

St John Craner - Swimming Kapiti Island & what it taught me about running a business

St John Craner
Chief Marketing Officer
Distinct (http://www.distinct.co.nz/#/home)

St John Craner likes doing things that challenge him like running his own business Distinct, swimming from Kapiti Island, competing for places at University that don’t exist and surviving Wellington’s winters. St John has spent time of both sides of the fence including time as Brand and Sponsorship Manager for Westpac, Contact Energy and NZ Post as well gigs with McCann Erickson & Young & Rubicam so he knows marketing fluff n’ bollocks when he sees it.

St John is a big fan of value outcomes, ideas and thought leadership and loves living in the wide open spaces that are Wellington and New Zealand (plus its Pinot Noir).

Video:

Here's the video of St John's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.


Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Steve Graham - Something to do with chAnGE

Steve Graham: a Californian in search of utopia, his first stop was Japan. After three years eating yakitori and puzzling the norms of Japanese businessmen, he journeyed through Asia and Africa on a three-year, non-working, OE-seeking adventure and was impressed by a wandering tribe called the ‘Kiwis’.

Back in California as a dot-com guy, he remembered the call of the Kiwi tribe and packed up his three under-four year olds, landing an exciting role in Wellington at Microsoft NZ. To broaden his experience, he later served two years at a Telco, before eventually returning to the excitement of software innovation where he was the first to establish Salesforce.com and Google enterprise in New Zealand through IT Company Fronde.

In 2006, although signing Cloud partnerships, his evangelical anti-waterfall beliefs steered him in a new direction, prompting him and his team to set up the Agile Professional Network.

In 2009, he grabbed his backpack to fulfil an old dream and spent six months travelling overland through South America with his family. Returning to the great city of Wellington with a bad, non-corporate haircut, he began a new path to fulfil a new dream: to start an emerging future trends/strategy consultancy....Act On Insight.com.

Video:

Here's the video of Steve's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.


Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Emma McCleary - Roll, stick, splat, brush: wallpaper

Emma McCleary is trained in Fine Arts (Printmaking) and Museum Studies, works fulltime as a PR consultant at Ideas Shop; runs craft empire Emma Makes and is a printmaker.

She gets up at 5am every day, loves the clean, fresh air of the country and hopes she doesn’t snore on the Wairarapa train to work.

At work she writes, uses social media to build campaigns for clients and specialises in creative campaigns and viral marketing.

Emma is always thinking, which is why she often looks concerned. She’s not worried or scowling, she’s probably just thinking how the Wellington bus system could work better or what her next series of prints will be about or what order she’ll need to work in to build a gate to her blackberry patch.

She is also unusually gifted at parallel parking.

In her five minutes of fame on the Ignite stage, Emma will talk about wallpaper.

Video:

Here's the video of Emma's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.

Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Courtney Johnston - So, Eric Gill, Ernest Rutherford and a Russian physicist walk into a bar ...

Earlier this year Courtney Johnston developed a rather serious obsession with New Zealand-born scientist Sir Ernest Rutherford, and turned into the kind of person who wants to discuss the wonders of particle accelerators over breakfast. Her husband is sick of hearing about it - now it's the turn of the Ignite Wellington audience.

When she's not catching up on topics left scandalously uncovered by post-grad study in art history, Courtney works at web company Boost New Media and blogs at Best of 3.

Video:

Here's the video of Courtney's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.

Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Joel Wiramu Pauling - Couchsurfing: Putting a bit of trust back into the world

The trauma of being born in the back of an ambulance between Waverly and his hometown of Patea on the way to W[h]anganui hospital may have been the first indication that Joel wasn't content to sit around. A Social-Psychologist and Network Engineer (ICT), Joel specialises in reputation economies and representations of knowledge and how the processes behind these create human societies and cultures.

Looking at social groups sharing similar ideals of trust and reciprocity as part of his Postgraduate research Joel stumbled upon the Travel and Hospitality Network Couchsurfing.org.

In 2006 CS had just 200,000 members, now an order of magnitude bigger at 2,000,000 members it is one of the largest Social Networking sites on the Internet, and easily the largest hospitality and travel site on the Internet.

One of 4 Ambassadors for Wellington Joel has travelled extensively on nothing more than the hospitality of strangers and regularly hosts. He can also be found on twitter/identi.ca : aenertia

Video:

Here's the video of Joel's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.



Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Dave ten Have - Nothing to fear but fear

Dave ten Have
CEO
Ponoko

From launching a brand new product in a market he helped create in 2007, to appearing on the cover of Inc Magazine in 2009 (audience
reach 1.2 million), founding and running Ponoko has been a roller-coaster ride for CEO Dave ten Have over the past three years.

In his five minutes of fame on the Ignite stage this August, Dave will talk about how there's "Nothing to fear, but fear".

Video:

Here's the video of Dave's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.

Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.

Tash Barneveld - OutdoorKnit: knitting as rebellion

Once upon a time, Tash was taught to knit by a rather talented grandmother. And then she forgot. She was taught again. And then she forgot. A few years later, she was re-taught the needle tango, and then, yes, forgot.

Deciding to rebel against colleagues taking up crochet whilst working at a ski field in 2006, Tash bought a pair of knitting needles for twenty cents and turned to the internet for knitting lessons. With skills firmly established, Tash rejected knitting practical items and started adorning public spaces with knitted cosies as one of the founding members of knit graffiti collective
Outdoor Knit.

At Ignite Wellington, Tash will cover the development of OutdoorKnit from a bit of fun to a form of protest and public reassurance.

Video:

Here's the video of Tash's talk. To view in HD, please go to YouTube.


Many thanks to Veli from @hoccusfoccus for recording and uploading the video.