Ignite Seattle is a live community storytelling event held at The Great Hall at Town Hall Seattle several times a year. We believe in the power of bringing the people of Seattle together through stories.
We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit run almost entirely by volunteers. The majority of proceeds from tickets sales and sponsorships go directly into our events and related programming.
Our mission:
- Provide a fun and supportive forum for sharing diverse ideas, hearing challenging stories, and building a community of curious and open minded people.
- Use the power of storytelling as a tool for entertainment, education and to bring people together.
- Teach our speakers and our audience the skills of storytelling and public speaking. All our speakers are offered professional speaker coaching and we teach public workshops open to all.
We are the 2nd largest open submission public speaking event in the Pacific Northwest, and 3 times a year we gather in the Great Hall at Town Hall Seattle, forming one of the livliest and most supportive audiences in the world to hear interesting people tell interesting stories.
The Ignite format: each speaker gets 20 slides, for 15 seconds each (for a total of 5 minutes), to share a story, teach a lesson or share a passion. It’s an evening of curated discovery and our format helps speakers to be concise, focused and engaged.
Social Media
Organizers
We are mostly volunteers (join us), and many of us have spoken on the Ignite Seattle stage.
- Zac Cohn, Speaker/Slide Wrangler
- Kent Whipple, Speaker Coach
- Scott Berkun, Speaker Coach Coach, Emcee Liason, & Blog
- Tyler Menezes, PM & Producer
- Nicole Dansereau, Preshow & Tickets
- Randy Stewart, Photography
- Marice Sy, Design
- Bryan Zug, Special Projects
- Daniel Baird, Podcast
- Leigh Momii, Video Marketing
- Emily Martin, Social Media Marketing
- Nicole Steinbok, Marketing & Open Mic Producer
- Susan Fee, ReelGirls Liason & Workshop Producer
- Henry Evans, Student Workshop Producer
- Franzi Seeger, WOC Workshop Producer
- Jenny Bambara, Alumni Event Producer
History
First held in Seattle in 2006. There have been 35+ Ignite Seattle events and they are currently held at the wonderful Town Hall Seattle. Many other cities also run Ignite events.
The first event was organized by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis, inspired in part by a desire to simplify presentations into a 5 minute format.
Partners
In addition to the fantastic volunteers and organizers, Ignite Seattle couldn’t happen without our amazing partners: WeWork, Town Hall Seattle, Mindhatch, Brady Harvey, and The Evergrey.
Ignite Seattle 