Ignite Sheffield #2 Applications

Hello Everyone,

We're going to open applications for giving a talk at Ignite Sheffield #2 today.  Hopefully we can set the program quite early and give us lots of time to advertise!

The plan is to have 9 talks in total, preference will be given to those who apply early and then to those who haven't spoken before.

The date hasn't been finalised yet, but it will be a Wednesday in February, if there is a specific date that you can't do, email me (postdocbeth@gmail.com) after you fill out the application form and we'll try and set the date for one of the other options.

The application form for speaking can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dDhydXp2aVduYzdneU9wMXJUX0xuWUE6MQ#gid=0

Please point anyone else that you think might be interested to the form as well.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Ignite Sheffield

Ignite Sheffield #1 roundup

Hi All,

So Ignite Sheffield #1 was last night.  As the dust settles this morning I wanted to write down a few of my thoughts to help make next time even better.

To start with I'd like to say that I think it was a great success.  For our first event I was going to be happy if we got more than 20 people in the audience.  The count was 29, so that's great.

All the talks were really great, there was a slight issue with some of the slides not advancing correctly, which I will have to check more carefully next time.  It was a shame that we didn't have a few reserve talks to give us one to slot in for the speaker we lost due to illness.  We had a great idea suggested to us to vote on a video from another Ignite event to watch instead.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring any speakers so that went out the window!!

I think blocks of 4 speakers was definitely long enough.  If we'd had some more speakers I would have been happy to go down to block of 3 with more breaks.

The venue was excellent, and I would definitely encourage people to use Coffee Revolution as venue.  They were very helpful and really friendly.

Singsoc gave a great performance, we knew it wouldn't be polished, but it was highly successful. A different group who were sitting around the corner even joined in the applause!

We've already got some volunteers for the next session, which I think will probably be Jan/Feb 2013.  Watch this space for more details.

In the meantime, we have a twitter account @IgniteSheffield, and a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/IgniteSheffield, so come and see us there.

A few days to go!

Hi all,

We're down to only a few days until Ignite Sheffield #1 (17/10/2012 - 7.30pm).  I'm very excited and more than a little bit nervous!  Really hoping it goes well.  We've got some fantastic speakers and a great venue so it should be great.

However it would be really good if anyone reading this blog would go and tell a couple of other people about the event, even if you can't come yourself.  It'd be fantastic to have a big audience to give some love to all our excellent speakers.

Here's the facebook event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/191055761028848/

And the current speaker list is:

Kate Montague : Spinal Injuries
Cat Taylor : The top 10 ways to help your child succeed at school
Charlotte French : China and Chairman Mao
Beth Hellen : Seeing the world through different eyes (mainly those of bees)
Chris Ward : The Innate Immune System
Kate Hellen : The quilts of Gee's Bend 
Peter Hellen : Satellite navigation systems
Tash Reynolds: TBC (probably archaeological)

Ignite poster

I'm rather a fan of intriguing your audience rather than spoon feeding them.  So here's the poster for Ignite Sheffield...

Ignite Sheffield #1

Last week I posted the details for Ignite Sheffield #1, this is just a few updates.

The time is now 7.30pm! We will be setting up from 7pm (come early if you'd like to help ;p).

There is now Facebook event.  Please sign up if you would like to come to give us an idea of numbers.
https://www.facebook.com/events/191055761028848/

Final note, we are hopefully going to have a performance from the University of Sheffield Singers Society as some light entertainment between talks! Very exciting stuff!

The Event is a GO!

Hi all,

After a few logistical problems with venues, I'm glad to say that I have heard back from Coffee Revolution in  the University of Sheffield Students Union, and they will be hosting the first ever Ignite Sheffield.

Ignite Sheffield #1 - Coffee Revolution, 17th October 7pm.

Tickets will be £2 on the door, but if you contact me on postdocbeth@gmail.com, you can get them in advance for £1.

There will be a raffle (you ticket gives you 1 raffle ticket, you can buy more!) and the remaining funds will be going to an educational charity (not finally decided on).

The Coffee bar will be open throughout the event.

We hope to see you there!

Ignite Sheffield Update

Hello All,

I've been away due to holidays / paralympics watching / summer conference season, but I thought I'd just do a quick post to update you on the speakers we've got so far.

In the next week or so I'm also hoping to have a venue and therefore be able to properly confirm the date (although we'd like the 17th October if the best venue can't do this date it could be subject to change).

Confirmed speakers so far:

1. Beth Hellen - How Bee's See Colour
2. Cat Taylor - The top 10 ways to help your child succeed at school.
3. Peter Hellen - Satellite Navigation Systems
4. Christos Floros - Being European
5. Charlotte French - Communist China & Chairman Mao
6. Kate Hellen - The Quilts of Gee's Bend

We've got a great range of topics now.  If you'd like to speak though, we can still make room for more speakers.  Get in touch if you're interested - postdocbeth@gmail.com

Plug from Ignite LEGO

You may have seen some of the Ignite LEGO photos on our facebook page.

If not, here are a couple of them:

At the end of Ignite LEGO, they very kindly did a plug for Ignite Sheffield.  Here it is:

Supporting charity

So with the idea of charging a small fee for Ignite Sheffield float around, our thoughts moved on to what we would do with the money made from the door sales.  We are absolutely not about making money, so we weren't going to keep it (maybe a small amount to help with costs for Ignite #2).

One suggestion was to have a ticket raffle and give back the money to one of the attendees.  I really like this idea and I think we will hold a raffle, but if we're raising all this money, I'd quite like to do something worthwhile with it.  Which brings us to the main point of this post.

If Ignite Sheffield were to give their proceeds to charity, which charity should it be?

I've narrowed it down to a few Educational/Scientific Charities which seem suitable:

1. MarineLife

Conserving Marine Wildlife through Research and Education

MARINElife is a UK based charity that conducts scientific research on whales, dolphins and seabirds in the oceans of North-West Europe through a core team of professional staff, trained volunteers and a network of supporters. Our core work since 1995 has been in researching the distribution, abundance and population trends for whales, dolphins and seabirds from commercial and small vessels in the Channel, Bay of Biscay, North Sea, Irish Sea and beyond. 

We use our research to inform decision makers on the status of the marine environment and conservation measures required.

2. Spacelink Learning Foundation

Spacelink Learning Foundation is dedicated to improving education through space. Space and space activities represent the modern world for students and forms part of their vision for the future. The Spacelink Initiative brings this vision into science education and other subjects. 

Students are fascinated by space and space technology. Spacelink provides lessons and space incentives to help secondary school teachers motivate their students to study science, technology, engineering & mathematics. And, as well as a wealth of information and news about space for teachers, our free access website will offer exciting activities and opportunities to stimulate young people in their own time.

3. Sheffield Astronomical Society

Our society's objective is to encourage astronomical observation, perform public education and promote interest in the science of astronomy. 
The major project for which we require substantial funding is the building of a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly astronomy and space education centre for use by all the citizens of South Yorkshire and neighbouring counties.

4. International Centre for Life Trust

The Centre for Life exists to:

Inspire curiosity in science through an imaginative programme of exhibitions and events, to raise standards in science education for young people and to engage everyone in contemporary science issues, such as climate change and stem cell technology

Provide substantial annual funding and state-of-the art facilities on site, so that world class scientific research in medicine can flourish.


5. International Polar Foundation UK

The International Polar Foundation UK communicates, educates and demonstrates scientific research in the polar regions and its contribution to understanding climate change and sustainability using exhibitions, workshops, schools talks, public lectures and websites

6. Field Studies Council

The Field Studies Council (FSC) is a pioneering educational charity committed to bringing environmental understanding to all. 

Established in 1943, the FSC has become internationally respected for its national network of 17 education centres, international outreach training projects, research programmes, information and publication services and wide range of fascinating professional training and leisure courses. We provide informative and enjoyable opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to discover, explore, be inspired by, and understand the natural environment. 

The FSC believes the more we know about the environment, the more we can appreciate its needs and protect its diversity and beauty for future generations.


7. Science Alive

Science Alive exists to promote the excitement of Science Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Our target age-group is from 4-104 years of age, but we have a particular appeal for children and young people, who enjoy our hands-on approach to activities and to learning. 

We provide outreach activities for schools and community groups and run workshops and exhibitions at our learning gallery (opened June 2010). 
Our staffing includes volunteers, work-experience students, pro bono management and a small team of presenters. The gallery was purpose-built within a leisure complex with the support of countless individuals, generous company donations and grant funding, totaling over £1m in fundraising over the last decade. 

We aim to involve up to 50,000 people a year in experiences that change their view of science and engineering: our strapline is simply "Bringing Learning to Life! "


If you would like to vote on which charity we should support, please answer our facebook poll.

To charge or not to charge

There has been some talk among Ignite organisers this week about how to deal with the problem of audience no shows.

We at Ignite Sheffield have been thinking about this problem as well.  Ideally Ignite would be free.  We don't really want to charge people to come.

Registration seems to be one way people have tried to predict and restrict audience numbers for the event.  But without any money changing hands, it appears that many people are happy to not turn up, despite registering.  Then you get the problem of whether to stop allowing registration at capacity.  If you stop allowing registration, what happens if half the audience fails to turn up?  If you over-subscribe, what if they all come!

A few Ignites have started to sell tickets and then give the proceeds to a charity.  I'm starting to lean this way.  There are a lot of educational charities which could use the help in this climate.  You wouldn't have to charge much (£2 maybe) to make people much more likely to come if they said they would, but would you loose some of your 'its a free event' audience?

Students Wanted

Ignite Sheffield are currently looking for University of Sheffield Students who would like to be involved in organisation of the event.

In particular, we are looking for a VENUE LIAISON.  Lots of the good possible venues for Ignite Sheffield are Sheffield University or union owned, which means to get the best deals, we need a student to be the contact.

It will be minimal work, contacting the venues will be your only chore, unless you want to get further involved.  You don't have to speak at Ignite to be on the committee.

Also, it will look awesome on your CV.  No matter what field you're in, or what job you'd like when you finish university, I can guarantee that having Ignite Committee on your CV will help you out!

Ignite Sheffield, starting it's momentum

Despite only being up and running for a few days, we've started to get a few people wanting to come on board as speakers.

But we want lots of you! It would be better to have too many, so that we could be already halfway to Ignite Sheffield #2 before we've even run Ignite Sheffield #1.

So why not get involved?  You can talk on any topic that takes your fancy. I suspect I'm going to talk about the differences between how humans see colour and how bees see colour.

To give you a bit of an idea of what people have talked about before, here's a selection of talks from other Ignite events:

Africa is not a country

How a bicycle saved my life

How to buy a new car

Flashmob gone very wrong

Hack your electric meter and save the world

Saving a 6000 year old culture from extinction

But, your talk can be totally different if you want.  The only criteria is that you have to use 20 slides which auto-advance every 15 seconds, giving you 5 minutes in total.

Give it a go!

(Fill out the form)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhydXp2aVduYzdneU9wMXJUX0xuWUE6MQ 

Giving a Talk

Would you like to speak at Ignite Sheffield?

We're currently recruiting speakers for our very first event.  If you'd like to be involved, fill out this form.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhydXp2aVduYzdneU9wMXJUX0xuWUE6MQ 

This week Sheffield Ignite has come into being!

We're hoping to hold the first event on the 17th October 2012, but there's a lot to do before then.

If you would like to help bring this event about, or like to talk (Ignite is a really friendly, supportive atmosphere even if you don't like public speaking), please get in touch.

Providing all goes reasonably to plan it should be a fantastic event, what have you got to lose? Get involved!