March 1st kicked off the beginning of the first Global Ignite Week which is taking place in over 60 cities on 6 continents.
Ignite is a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers who are connected through the global Ignite network, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city. And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world. While Ignite has been around since 2006, this year’s coordinated Global Ignite Week initiative is a first of its kind — with more than 12,000 people slated to attend 72 events spanning six continents — that’s bound to become the talk of the Web over the week, and perhaps after.
Ignite got its start in Seattle in December, 2006, as a personal project of Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. They dreamed up an event where people could share their ideas over beer, and sent word out through their network. From there, it exploded. After the first Ignite, word got out and other communities wanted Ignite in their cities. A little more than 3 years later, we have come to the first Global Ignite Week.
Ignites will be held all over the world, one of these being in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Ignite Ann Arbor has many topics on the menu for the night but one in particular has a major impact on the area. Derek Mehraban will be promoting A2Fiber, which is the city of Ann Arbor’s movement to be chosen by Google as one of the cities they plan to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in. A Google Fiber-Optic network would be a big win for one of the technological hubs of Michigan.
Go to the Ignite website to find a Global Ignite Week event near you.
