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Author: Bridget B. Sullivan

Ignite: Fueled by Volunteer Power!

With over 100 cities worldwide producing an Ignite, there are thousands of volunteers who commit their time, energy, talents and even money (if they opt to be a sponsor) to making this series of 5-minute talks come to life.  Here in Charlotte we pulled together a team of people from the technology industry, medical field, social media, marketing and public relations to make Ignite Charlotte 1 a reality.

We first introduced Andrew Gertig back in May as the first person who joined our team.  He has focused his talents primarily as our webmaster but will soon take the stage to deliver his talk: What Your Phone Can Do For You.  Andrew is also working feverishly as one of our Speaker Coordinators.  The next person to join the start-up team was Adam Travers.  Adam has been a great help to us primarily in the area of editing our website content while providing valuable input on our marketing and communications efforts. 

Next, we reached out to Lyell Petersen of 93octane who was instrumental in securing several of the speakers in the technology and social media sectors within the Charlotte community.  Our most recent volunteer team member is Jason Wheatley who jumped on board to assist with speaker coordination as well.

Without these key team members and other volunteers who will join us on August 4 at the Neighborhood Theatre, this event would never happen.  It is the volunteers who serve as the fuel that we will need to Ignite Charlotte.

Why Ignite Charlotte?

Why Ignite Charlotte?

It was February 15th when I emailed ignite@oreilly.com to inquire about a contact for Ignite Charlotte. On April 13th Sam Fagan and I set the wheels in motion to launch Ignite here in the Queen City.

We first sought out key community leaders to literally get their blessing and one question came up more than once: Why Ignite in Charlotte? Our response was obvious at first – why not? Reflecting back on that response, I realize that “why not?” was indeed the right answer. Think about it; this community is filled with talent from every corner of the nation and there are many ways in which the technology, arts and communications professionals can come together. Pecha Kucha for instance, which will hold their sixth event on July 16th, received the distinction of “Best Creative Gathering.” Then there’s TEDxCharlotte, set to host their first event on September 24th. Ignite Charlotte is poised as a new creative gathering event in the Queen City that can add support to the growth of city-wide collaborative efforts, ultimately leading to a stronger economic and collective consciousness.

Ignite is about ideas. Ideas can change the world. In our case, it only takes five minutes so join us on August 4th at the Neighborhood Theatre as we Ignite Charlotte.

– Bridget B. Sullivan @sullybridgetb