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Tag: Charlotte

Where Are They Now: Lawrence Shaheen, Jr., Ignite Charlotte 2

We caught up with past Ignite Charlotte speaker, Lawrence Shaheen, Jr. (y’all know him as Larry) to find out the latest and greatest in the world of politics.

Lawrence (Larry) Shaheen Jr
Photo Credit: Robert Christopher

If you recall his talk at Ignite Charlotte 2 on Bringing Charlotte Together by Bridging the Gap he said (quite boldly, in fact) that “We have to find a way to bring our leaders together… and help them understand that we all stand and work together.”

He continues working towards collaboration by bringing people of common interests together to get things done for the people of Charlotte. Since his involvement with Ignite Charlotte, business has been booming and he has begun teaching at UNCC.

Ah, how the budding ‘poly sci’ pupils of Charlotte will be ignited like we once were.

Follow Larry on Twitter @lawshaheenjr or check out his consulting firm at www.carolinapoliticalconsulting.com

Written by: Biray (@befitt), Ignite Charlotte 5 Volunteer

1st Charitable Gift – The Sandbox

Ignite Charlotte, in partnership with eval.me, offers its first charitable gift to a local charity that was chosen by Ignite Charlotte 4 attendees.

Ignite Charlotte Facebook fans were the first to recommend their favorite charities and the top three were showcased during Ignite Charlotte 4, held at the Neighborhood Theatre on March 20th. Attendees placed a checkmark, an element used in eval.me’s logo design, on a large post-it that corresponded with their favorite charity. Votes were tallied after intermission and The Sandbox was announced as the winning recipient of Ignite Charlotte’s first charitable gift.

About The Sandbox

An Authorized Partner of Levine Children’s Hospital, The Sandbox helps patients and their families through a wide spectrum of offerings and services, so they can focus on the two most important factors – Believing and Healing! They restore belief and positivity, and walk alongside the families to give them support, both emotionally and financially, during the most tumultuous times of their lives. Find them on Facebook and Twitter.

“Everything we do as Ignite Charlotte is designed to provide a platform for ideas to take flight while supporting other community members. With the generous sponsorship support of eval.me, we were able to turn survey responses into dollars that served as our first charitable gift,” said Bridget B. Sullivan, founder and executive producer of Ignite Charlotte. 118 surveys were completed and that dollar amount will be donated to The Sandbox.

About eval.me

After creating and administering surveys for University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Flaviu Simihaian started eval.me to add a humanitarian face to the online survey industry. eval.me provides an online tool that allows you to create a survey, email it to your customers, collect the responses, and make the charity contribution.

Companies need their customers’ opinion, but customers are often bothered by survey emails. eval.me has partnered with charities around the world to allow companies to donate $1 to charity for every customer that completes their survey. This charitable act improves response rates, quality of responses, and the company’s image in their customers’ eyes.

As a former Ignite Charlotte 2 speaker, Flaviu said, “I too share the same passion in regards to awareness, involvement and the development of new and fresh ideas that benefit our community. Ignite Charlotte is one of the best “Critical Thinking” events in Charlotte and this charitable giving partnership was an obvious choice.”

About Ignite Charlotte

Ignite Charlotte is an evening of networking with the main feature being a series of 5 minute talks by community members who have the guts to get on stage to tell those in attendance about their personal or professional passion. Talks are selected from a large pool of submissions and each selected speaker uses 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds making the rapid delivery of ideas more exciting to attendees while challenging the presentation skills of the speaker.

Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Makerbot.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine, started Ignite inSeattle,WAcirca 2006. The Charlotte edition of Ignite was co-founded by Bridget B. Sullivan in 2010 and joins 150 other cities around the world.

“Enlighten us, but make it quick,” is the mantra and key to Ignite talks. This truly fun, exciting, and unique presentation format brings together community members involved in technology, arts, communications, education, non-profit, the government sector, and more.

Admission to Ignite Charlotte is FREE due to sponsorship support. Ignite Charlotte 5 will be held in six months at the Neighborhood Theatre in the North Davidson neighborhood of Charlotte. Follow Ignite Charlotte on Facebook and Twitter to receive the latest information.