Ignite Philly gives organizations a chance to share ideas, and spark a flame of inspiration in all who attend.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

As Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown began to fill up with people last night, an excited buzz filtered through the venue.

The eighth Ignite Philly event was set to start just minutes later, and the amount of energy and enthusiasm shared by the more than 200 attendees was already at a high.

It’s something we’ve seen there before. Seven times before.

Just after 7 p.m., emcees Dana Vachon, David Clayton and co-founder of the Philadelphia Ignite branch Geoff Di Masi took the stage to kick off the event and set the mood with their lighthearted, quirky attitudes.

“We’re here to celebrate everything that’s good in Philadelphia,” DiMasi said.

As has become our tradition, we hand out some playful awards below and offer the full set list.

Simon Hauger accepts the "big check" on behalf of the EVX Team. The organization teaches high school students how to build hybrid cars.

Ignite is the nationwide event that started in 2006 in Seattle, WA and was brought to Philadelphia in 2008, as one of the first branch offs of the original Ignite. Now in its eighth installment, Ignite Philly is a way for local organizations, mostly nonprofits, to get their word out.

Keeping with the Ignite tradition, each of the 12 speakers were given five minutes to present a talk, accompanied by a 20 image slideshow, 15 seconds per slide. The slideshows are designed to be just long enough for the speaker to touch on a topic, but short enough to keep it simple and concise.

The eight women speakers were the most Ignite Philly has ever had, said Vachon.

One by one, speakers took the stage for their five minutes of fame. The first six topics presented included a movement for people to be nicer to each other, an organization encouraging high school students to pursue entrepreneurship,promotion for boating on the tidal Schuylkill River and a boat parade, a group that holds events similar to Ignite Philly, a free hotel for artists to stay while they work, and co-housing space for residents to live as a community.

During an intermission halfway through the presentations, Ignite Philly presented a check for $1,000 to the West Philly HybridX Team, an after school program that teaches high school students how to build hybrid cars and was recently highlighted as an Ignite speaker.

“We want to give back to the community,” Di Masi said. At each Ignite Philly event, almost all of the money collected at the door goes to fund a check given to a former Ignite Philly speaker. This year, EVX Team Director Simon Hauger accepted the check on behalf of the organization.

After the intermission, the next six speakers presented their talks. These included locally sourced dinners to raise money for creative projects, a seed exchange, dinners and events devoted to getting tech savvy women together to share ideas, transforming part of Sansom Street into a pedestrian thoroughfare, a laundry business serviced entirely by bikes, and reinventing the Reading Viaduct into a social space.

At the end of the night, attendees were left teeming with inspiration, and excited about the new projects that were presented.

As always, Technically Philly has some awards to hand out, in addition to sharing  the full set list.

Greg Hoy presents his talk "Less Garbage Juice, More With Love Xoxo," and explains the benefits of shutting down part of Sansom St. to automobile traffic. How explained that "grabage juice" is all the waste that falls out the back of a moving trash truck into the street. Photo by Theresa Regan.

Best Overall: “Less Garbage Juice, More With Love Xoxo” by Greg Hoy.

Not only did Hoy’s presentation cause a huge roar from the crowd, but it outlined what should be done to make Sansom Street from Broad Street to 20th Street a pedestrian thoroughfare. Hoy said the streets should be resurfaced with cobblestone, all traffic aside from foot traffic and bikes should be blocked off, and stores should be revitalized and rehabbed. The whole place exploded with cheers when Hoy introduced the idea, and they had a good reason to.

Geoff DiMasi and Alex Hillman present "K-House," a co-housing project that encourages social living.

Best Impromptu Presentation: “K-House” by Geoff DiMasi and Alex Hillman of Indi Hall.

The Indy Hall coworking co-founding duo was scheduled to present only hours before their talk because another group dropped out of the event. Cleverly, Di Masi and Hillman outlined their idea of a cohousing space, Technically Philly has told you about, now called K-House (pronounced ‘ka-house!’ mimicking the interjection ‘ka-pow!’) on napkins graciously provided by Johnny Brenda’s. K-House takes the idea of a social living space, and puts it into a solid plan. It would allow residents to interact as a community, and learn common good.

Melissa Morris Ivone, the first speaker at Ignite Philly 8, encourages everyone to go out of their way every once in a while to be nicer to people.

Nicest: “Operation Nice” by Melissa Morris Ivone.

How could anyone disagree with the fact that being nice to people is easy? Ivone gave a list of suggestions for things to do to be nicer to everyone, including bringing baked goods to work, giving blood, and stopping to give someone directions. Now that’s nice.

Theresa Rose speaks as her partner Brett Mapp watches. The two presented "Philly Stake," a dinner held to raise money to fund projects for local artists.

Best Deal: “Philly Stake” by Theresa Rose and Brett Mapp.

What can $10-$20 get you these days? Dinner made from locally grown ingredients, dessert and free beer. During the dinner, artists make presentations that viewers vote on. The ballots are counted, and the winner receives money funded by the admission price to work on whatever creative project they wish to pursue. Good food and a good cause.

Gabriel Mandujano and Joel Hommes of Wash Cycle Laundry show the audience how they load laundry into plastic bins attached to bicycles. Photo by Theresa Regan.

Best Recovery from Worst Introduction: (Nominated by Geoff Di Masi) “Wash Cycle Laundry” by Gabriel Mandujano and Joel Hommes.

As a for-profit business in a predominantly nonprofit event, Wash Cycle Laundry had it tough from the get go, when DiMasi declared that Ignite Philly does not usually like to have for profit organizations give talks. However, The guys of Wash Cycle Laundry totally redeemed themselves when they presented their “green” laundry service. These guys haul around 800 lbs of laundry a day in containers attached to their bikes. They ride through the city, no matter what Mother Nature brings. They service hotels, gyms and University of Pennsylvania students. Not only do they keep their service green by traveling via bike, but their dryers are energy efficient as well.

Full Set List:

1.Melissa Morris Ivone – “Operation Nice”
2. Christian Kunkel – “Startup Corps.”
3. Danielle Redden – “Boating the Tidal Schuylkill”
4. Michelle Bland – “Ig(nerd)nite Philly”
5. Krista Peel and Zak Starter – “Philly Art Hotel”
6. Alex Hillman and Geoff DiMasi – “K-House”
7. Theresa Rose and Brett Mapp – “Philly Stake”
8. Mira Adornetto and Joel Fath – “Garden Variety”
9. Tristin Hightower and Nicole Kline – “Philly Girl Geek Dinners”
10. Greg Hoy – “Less Garbage Juice, More With Love Xoxo”
11. Gabriel Mandujano and Joel Hommes – “Wash Cycle Laundry”
12. Sarah McEneany – “Reading Viaduct”

All the signs of the changing season are here: Cool, crisp weather, the Phillies winning the NL East, Ignite Philly and a late-game collapse by the Eagles defense.

This week: get enlightened over beer, get demoed before beer and just drink beer.

Ignite Philly 8 – We can hardly believe Ignite Philly is in its eighth iteration, as we’ve (almost) been there from the very start. If you’ve never been to Ignite, a handful of speakers are given five minutes to talk about their one great idea. Presentations in the past have ranged from abolishing I-95 to urban farming. Thursday. 7:00 p.m. Fishtown. RSVP.

Philly Tech Meetup – At Philly Tech Meetup, local entrepreneurs demo their projects and startups. Shortly after everyone grabs a beer. What’s not to like? This week: see three demos including a company made of up ex-Venmo employees. More coverage later this week. Wednesday. 7:00 p.m. University City. RSVP.

Joomla Meetup – Lately, Philadelphia has been a Drupal and WordPress kind of town. The Joomla folks strike back with a casual happy hour at Triumph Brewery. Wednesday. 6:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP.

Danny Gerber and a volunteer make a fruit smoothie onstage using a bicycle (click for video).

The seventh edition of Ignite Philly featured a few firsts: it was the first time the event accepted sponsors, it marked the most charitable Ignite ever and it was the first time somebody made an alcoholic beverage onstage using a bike (see above).

Part of Global Ignite Week, Ignite Philly 7 gave speakers five minutes and 15 slides that lasted 20 seconds each to share an idea that is changing Philadelphia for the better. Unlike past Ignites, the latest rendition was light on technology-related talks and packed with folks trying to make Philadelphia a better place to live through urban planning, soda pop, art and saving celebrities.

During intermission, organizers Geoff DiMasi, David Clayton and others presented the South Philly Co-Op with a $1,000 check and also handed out 125 cards containing $10 of Microsoft’s money to be donated to the cause of the card holder’s choice on donorschoose.org.

As part of Global Ignite Week, multiple Ignite events were taking place across the world and each city holding an Ignite was given the $10 cards. The city with the most total money donated is placed on an international leader board and at intermission, Alex Hillman, co-founder of Independents Hall and Ignite Philly sponsor promised to throw a party if Philly tops the leader board. As of publishing, Philadelphia is ranked first.

Below we give out a few awards, including the “Oh Snap” award, best overall talk and best pipes.

BEST OVERALL

Sarah Thorp (left) and Joe Forkin of the Delaware River Waterfront Corp.

Our vote is for “Evil Planning for the Delaware Waterfront.”

At Ignite Philly 6, organizer DiMasi proposed that the section of I-95 between the Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman bridges be torn down to make way for green space. While the city is not about fire up the bulldozers, Sarah Thorp and Joe Forkin showed that there is hope. Rather than wait for a perfectly minted plan, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation has already got to work, adding green space at the intersection of the major arterials and the waterfront from Oregon to Allegheny and connected them with bike and pedestrian trails. So what’s so evil about DRWC’s plan?

“To infiltrate our children and brainwash them at a young age” to enjoy parks and trails on the waterfront, said Farkin.

Something tells us that won’t be too hard. We’re already giddy for the Race Street Pier, due open in May.

Honorable Mention: “The Dumbest Guy in the Room” – Pete Fecteau of Code for America.

BEST PIPES

Del Conner, manager of the Physick House on South 4th Street.

While standing at Ignite, it’s hard to ignore the punk rock vibe that permeates the entire affair. The viewers stand, nearly everyone has a beer in their hand and the crowd will go crazy if you poor your heart out on stage.

Del Conner, site manager at the historic Physick House, spent the majority of his talk retracing the steps of his ancestors which include Dr. Physick, pioneer of modern American Surgery and inventor of soda and Phillip Syng, lifelong friend of Ben Franklin and renowned silversmith.

But what really payed homage to the venue was Del Conner breaking out into a jingle for Dr. Physick soda which he held in his hand during much of his presentation.

FUNNIEST

Nick Darling has a plan, you see. When you become a celebrity, he has just the way of making sure you don’t get arrested. Or go bankrupt. Or look uncool. His (almost) complete talk below:

THE “OH SNAP” AWARD

Chris Satullo of Newsworks and WHYY pulled no punches.

Chris Satullo of WHYY presented Newsworks, the station’s new news site that is a mix of WHYY personalities, reader-submissions and hyperlocal journalism.

Satullo wasted no time saying that NewsWorks wouldn’t try and bury the news under “soft-core porn” like some other news sites. He said he wouldn’t name any names, but even someone in the back row could spot the Philly.com screenshot on the slide behind him.

Disclosure: Technically Philly is friendly with Satullo and the Newsworks staff.

LOUDEST APPLUASE

John Kromer smiles during his ovation

For a politician, John Kromer knows that it’s not all about him. In an Ignite first, an individual running for office took the stage. But Kromer’s isn’t your average politician.

Kromer spent nearly his entire presentation speaking about the inefficiencies of the Sheriff’s department. For example, at the current rate, it would take the department 14 years to auction off all 14,000 of Philadelphia’s foreclosed properties.

However, Kromer does not think he is the best man for the job. If elected, he plans to immediately dismantle the department and resign, an idea that had the Ignite crowd cheering loudly for nearly ten seconds.

THE COMPLETE SETLIST

1. “Who Shot Lorem Ipsum?” – Steve Berry
2. “Evil Planning for the Delaware Riverfront” – Joe Forkin, Sarah Thorp
3. “Suckless” – Nic Darling
4. “Urban Nutrition Common Sense” – Danny Gerber
5. “Dr. Physick Soda Pop” – Del Conner
6. “The Philadelphia Science Festival” – Gerri Trooskin
7. Intermission
8. “Preserving a Family Collection” – Lee Price
9. “Weathervane Incubator” – Brian McTear
10. “The Dumbest Guy in the Room” – Pete Fecteau
11. “Little Berlin and Emerald Street Urban Farm: a new collaboration” – Kristen Taylor, Patrick Dunn
12. “Newsworks: For you, with you, by you” – Chris Satullo
13. “Toward a World Class Greater Philadelphia” – Nick Frontino
14. “The Last Sheriff” – John Kromer

From left: Johnny Bilotta, Joe Walsh and Jake O'Brien of The Ship It Society

Sustainability was the name of the game in every sense of the word at Ignite Philly 6. Most presenters spoke of modest but long-term goals for their projects and the city, and many presentations involved environmentalism, though most were just looking to improve our fair city.

Now on its sixth edition, the Ignite process is familiar to most of us: presenters get five minutes and 20 slides to present on any idea they’d like. The event raised $1,000 for former presenter West Philly Tool Library (printed on a giant wooden check) thanks to the ticket proceeds of a sold out Johnny Brendas.

Below, we give out some awards including Best Entrance, Best Dressed and Best Overall:

Best Overall

When Azeem Hill took the stage he did so with a huge black “X” marked on his hand. The high schooler may be too young drink, but he’s old enough to want to reform the way our schools operate.

“We need schools that develop leaders and problem solvers, not test takers,” said Hill.

Ignite Philly was full of inspirational stories about the great things happening in Philadelphia, but none more inspiring than the West Philly Hybrid X Team, a group of West Philadelphia high school students who competed for the automotive X Prize: a $10 million award granted to the team that could make a car that could be mass-produced will getting over 100 MPG.

The students beat teams from MIT and large corporations to make it deep into the competition. While they didn’t win, the project helped inspire an entire school to rethink the way we educate our youth and the group even earned praise from President Obama. Plus, the sports car they built was damn cool.

“It’s a teenager’s dream come true, and a middle-aged man’s dream come true,” said student presenter Azeem Hill with a glance to his teacher, Simon Hauger.

Honorable Mention: Organizer Geoff DiMasi’s “ tweeted:

Best dressed

Eric Berley

Ryan Berley

Though Lord Whimsy gave the Eric and Ryan Berley a run for their money during his presentation about the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the old-school ice cream makers were the best dressed speakers of the night. The brothers and owners of the Franklin Fountain showed off Early 20th century photographs from ice cream shops around the country and they looked good while doing it. We’re told that the duo plans on opening an ice cream museum above their beloved shop on Front and Market.

Best transition

From the “I wish we would have thought of that department:” Mary Beth Hertz and Julie Haynes of the South Philly Food Co-op talked about their efforts to get a co-op in their ‘hood. But what made the presentation shine was the way Haynes marked each new slide by tapping the wind chime at her hip.

Quote of the night

The Ship It Society, created by Independence Hall members Johnny Bilotta, Andy Mroczkowski, Jake O’Brien and Joe Walsh to, well, ship apps told the audience how collaboration and their special meeting style are helping the creatives there crank out applications under the IndyHall Labs brand.

Everyone involved has a stake in the project, an idea masterfully summed up by O’Brein:

“Employees play solitaire, partners bust their ass.”

Best chance to make fun of Technically Philly

Last night.

Best Entrance

The West Philly Hybrid X  Team knows a little something about getting things right. So when their slideshow sputtered and turned off about 30 seconds in, teacher Simon Hauger and student Azeem Hill didn’t even blink. The two left the stage and restarted their presentation like nothing happened, garnering a second round of applause and making them the only Ignite Philly presenters ever to get two entrances.

Slideshow

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The complete Ignite Philly 6 lineup:

1. Dan Gasiewski- First Person Arts
2. Simon Hauger and Azeem Hill – West Philly Hybrid X Team
3. Lindsey Baron, Mike Zaleski, Andy Sharpe – Philly Transit
4. Geoff Dimasi- I-95 proposal
5. Johnny Bilotta, Andy Mroczkowski, Jake O’Brien, Joe Walsh- The Ship It Society
6. Paul Blore- Power Up Gambia
7. Eric and Ryan Berley – Franklin Fountain
8. Ken Fink – Intermission- Wondergy
9. Stuart Kennedy – Knight Arts Challenge
10. Chris Wink, Brian James Kirk, Sean Blanda – Threesomes
11. Allen Crawford aka Lord Whimsy – protecting the Pine Barrens
12. Mary Beth Hertz, Julie Haynes – South Philly Food Co-op
13. Toby Altman- Sustainable 19125

Organizer Geoff DiMasi hands a check to Girls Rock Philly for $1175

Last November, we asked if the Philadelphia technology community was ready to take the next step. Tonight, at a trimmed-down Ignite Philly, we got a glimpse of what those next steps may look like. The event, which forces speakers to cram a presentation into a fast-moving five-minute speech was better attended and was better at holding the attention of attendees than its predecessor (see our humble slideshow).

Fresh on the heels of new technology-based tax incentives, City Councilman Bill Green and Philadelphia CTO Allan Frank kicked off the event by announcing the city’s effort to lure Google’s new Fiber project to the city, an effort that began earlier this week using a #phillyfiber hashtag campaign (much more about the effort here).

Shortly after the rushed Google announcement and after Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman‘s subtle rebuttal, the night was characterized by a string of presentations focusing on social entrepreneurship.

The event was one of over 60 Ignites taking place on six continents as part of Global Ignite Week. As part of the Philadelphia event, the organizers were able to donate the event’s 235 five dollar ticket sales to raise $1,175 for Girls Rock Philly, a summer camp that helps young girls become musicians.

After the jump we hand out some awards for the event including best quote, best presentation and the “Kids Table” award.

BEST OVERALL AWARD

Raymond Weitekamp of Princeton's Laptop Orchestra

Unlike the Oscar’s we won’t make you wait until the end to hear our best of show: Raymond Weitekamp of Princeton’s Laptop Orchestra.

Weitekamp demoed the group’s new software that uses the tilt of your Apple laptop to manipulate the music software of your choice. Therefore using a combination of tapping on the laptop, moving it around and pressing keys, the laptop can become its own spatially-aware musical instrument.

REVERSE SALESMAN AWARD

Although it strives to avoid sales pitches, the average Ignite presentation typically includes a plug for a business on the final slide. Septa Watch‘s Colin Weir, however, just had one goal: to tell us all how he became “Wikipedia Brown” through his knowledge of random facts.

The presentation had no motive (that we know of) and just served as a vehicle for Weir to express his love of history, trains and radios and offer some advice on how others might become as knowledgeable.

TECHNICALLY NOT TECH AWARD

Named after our weekly Monday feature, Jamie Salm of Mio Design‘s presentation about sustainable industrial design purposefully avoided anything technical to instead focus on the goals of their product designs. The result? Lot’s of cool projects that we’d like to use to deck out our future Technically Philly offices.

COLLEGE ROOMMATE AWARD

Michael Highland presents about dreaming and video games. The slide behind him (a screen shot from Zelda: A Link to the Past) reads: "You are the hero in this dream"

Anyone who has ever gone to college had a friend who, in a “moment of clarity,” often shared a long-held and often long-winded idea that bordered between brilliant and bizarre. Phrases like “have you ever just looked at the stars, man?” come to mind.

We had flash backs to our days at Temple when Michael Highland spoke about connecting lucid dreams with his work as a video game designer. The presentation was a strange exercise in self-analysis that will have us looking at Call of Duty differently for the rest of our lives.

KIDS TABLE AWARD

Garrett Melby of Good Company Ventures

Largely addressing a crowd of 20 and 30-somethings, Philly venture capital veteran Garrett Melby described the work of GoodCompany Ventures, a nonprofit focusing on incubating businesses for social good. Decked out in the sleek white dockers of a yacht captain, Melby did what a good Ignite presenter should, he helped unveil a whole new industry. And, it turns out, Philadelphia has a leading role in the socially conscience venture capital community.

BEST QUOTE

Asheesh Laroia from OpenHatch

We’ll agree with tweeted:

Laroia, of course, was talking about using common experiences to help motivate each other to become better people. In this context, he was referring to helping a friend learn how to cook by sending her all a recipe along with all of the food required.

Technically Philly staff writer Christopher Wink contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Alex Hillman is a monthly sponsor of Technically Philly.

Videogame Growth Initiative’s Mike Worth gives an energetic presentation at Ignite Philly 4 | Credit: Sean Blanda

‘Let’s continue these great conversations,’ he said in so many words.

Before an intermission of Ignite Philly 4 that could have been easily overlooked, Make:Philly‘s Harris Romanoff made a modest call to presenters that the Ignite series has sorely lacked: an opportunity to keep the conversations and inspiration flowing and perhaps create truly definable, actionable steps.

“Make is extending an invitation to speakers past and present to speak and to answer more questions,” Romanoff said to a crowd of more than 250 gathered in the upstairs of Johnny Brenda’s bar in Fishtown.

Though it was apparent that no one was yet booked for Make’s monthly DIY tech/hack meetings, it was a notable recommendation for Ignite, having now surpassed four sold out events since 2007.

Seats have gone so fast in the past that this time around, organizers put a premium on guaranteed access – a $5 donation to the Food Trust. An oversized check made out to the local nutrition nonprofit for $750 was presented during the festivities.

After a half dozen presenters gave five minute presentations on topics ranging from quantum physics to design, food canning to mentorship, members of Philly’s chiptunes scene played songs using vintage gaming equipment during an intermission.

But the momentum – along with the attendance – dipped noticeably in the second half of the show. Whether that was the result of the easy flow of Brenda’s beer taps or the fault of a bloated nearly-two-hour event bill is for attendees to decide.

Still, the event wasn’t without its shining moments. Our favorites are below.

Best of Show
Mike Worth of Videogame Growth Initiative wants to create the “Liberty Bell of Death” a visible and economy-boosting gaming industry in Philadelphia, as we covered in August. “Hollywood comes to the city, rapes, pillages and leaves after three months,” the energetic and passionate game designer said. Worth was adamant about staying in Philadelphia over moving to cities where game design is perhaps more established.

“We’re a bunch of stubborn 35-year-old men who have three-year-old daughters who do not want to pack up and move to San Francisco,” he said to shouts of support and a round of applause.

Worth was quick and effective, citing global gaming statistics, like the fact that World of Warcraft’s quarterly revenue of $1 billion is only a fraction of the $41 billion industry, comparing them with Philly numbers; Like how 80 game developers graduate from Penn and Drexel each year, taking with them more than $5.6 million in taxable revenue, he said.

Watch Worth’s invigorating lecture below.

Best Idea
Twitter frequenter and gay rights activist Chris Bartlet shared his new Gay History Wiki, what he calls the “social network for the dead.” On it he shares stories of those 4,600 who have passed away from HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia. He envisions a time when Facebook could include a “Dead people you may know” feature and everyone’s story lives on.

Funniest Presentation
Shmitten Kitten‘s sarcastic Anna Goldfarb got laughs with her sketches of suitors, her 0-47 track record with the “human male” and the site’s Mix Tape Speed Dating events with a photoshopped image of two unlikely reptiles smittenly face-to-face inside a heart. “If a T-Rex and a Shark can find love in this city, anyone can,” she ended.

Fast Talker
Free Library President Siobhan Reardon hit the stage to loud applause before firing off more than a dozen bullet points illustrating a “different library,” one that embraces Twitter, offers the power and reach of the Internet and is hopeful for a new facility. It was a refreshing change of pace from the oft-cited library activism that arose from Philly’s summer budget crisis, what she called an “awkward visibility,” but it left us wondering about the stories behind the scenes of the library system, some of which have been stalled for years.

Tough Crowd
We’re trying not to fault City of Philadelphia Chief Cultural Officer Gary Steuer for mentioning that he was a Mets fan, before he moved to Philly, of course. But the crowd didn’t hide their emotion, booing the mayoral cabinet member — and his early mention of the 67th ward — as Ignite Philly crew members fumbled to load his slideshow. But Steuer backs a public art policy that he hopes could rival Chicago’s Millennium Park, or something like it, he says. One might suspect the idea that a member of the mayor’s cabinet presented at Ignite was lost on most of the audience altogether.

Honorable Mention
Architect Greg La Vardera slammed the suburban McMansion and offered hope to potential builders with accessible and modern new home designs.

Others:
Audra Wolfe, Carrie Collins of Fabric Hors, Sarah Feidt of TerraMar, Nathan Solomon & Branimir Vasilic with their DIY money presentation, Amanda Dillon stepped in for Drew Olanoff of Blame Drew’s Cancer, Jason Marziani, Brian D. McTear of Weathervane Music, Jonny Goldstein, Shannon Pelcher of Music & Mentorship, and Justin Witman & Fraser Marshall, Masters of Industrial Design Students, UArts. More information is available at the Ignite Philly site.

Our slideshow from the evening is below.
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Turns out, the Ignite Philly guys actually have day jobs too.

Ignite Philly 3 was over three weeks ago but the videos have yet to be published online. To top it off, earlier this week, the official site was down for a short bit, displaying a database error. There was a camera crew present at Ignite Philly, and past events eventually posted individual presentations.

Organizer Far McKon said that the reason for the delay is academia.

“The video was done by some UArts students, and they are in finals crunch right now,” he said in an email.

Ignite plans on releasing raw video first, and then more polished versions in a month or so. We know organizing the Ignite events is a volunteer position and we’ve been in that finals crunch before, so we’re here to do our part and help. After the jump, check out a handful of videos we gathered up from around the web to hold you over.

Unbreaded. By Dave Martorana

Two Guys on Beer By Dave Martorana

Rock Paper Scissors championship by Geoff DiMasi

Photos by staff writers Sean Blanda and Christopher Wink.

Ignite Philly 3 packed Johnny Brenda's to near-capacity.

Edit: Added and edited links.

On a beautiful clear night in May, listening to a lecture is the last place many people would want to be.

Tell that to the 250 people crammed into Fishtown bar Johnny Brenda’s for the third Ignite Philly. The kinda-sorta biannual event featured sixteen presenters lecturing on topics ranging from making our power grid smarter to music made by laptops to a camp that teaches young women how to form a rock band. And that’s without mentioning Viddler’s proposed cure for male-pattern baldness.

The Ignite format gives speakers five minute slots where their twenty PowerPoint slides must rotate every fifteen seconds. The result makes it hard for any presenter to belabor a single point, and audience members get a taste of a vast array of topics in a short time span.

After the jump we hand out some awards, give a small hint of the 45,276 pictures we took and tell you how comedian Mitch Hedberg was involved.

Best Overall: Unbreaded by Ben Kessler and Jeff Vogel. For one, we respect any presenter that can enjoy a sandwich on stage and still not miss a beat. But it was the right mix of entertainment, information and charisma that makes Unbreaded our top pick. The two presenters expressed their love of sandwiches and mused over the finer points of sandwich critiquing, with such ground-breaking judgments as, yes, the burrito is a sandwich.

Kessler and Vogel also went through the history of a few of the more popular sandwich styles and even threw in a good “that’s what she said” joke for good measure. See our coverage of the growing blog.

Most interesting presentation: Pneumatic Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson. Wait, you’re telling me that before the telegraph we were way on our way to those Futurama-like tubes? Steenson blew our minds with a detailed history of the information transportation system that wasn’t. Although, Chris Jurney of Relic Games was a close second.

Johnny Bilotta and Dave Martorana of Two Guys on Beer

Funniest Moment: Two Guys on Beer by Johnny Bilotta and Dave Martorana. As Technically Philly readers probably know, Martorana and Billotta love beer so much they dedicate a weekly video podcast to the stuff. When it came to the portion of their presentation where they had to demonstrate their love for beer, the duo showed a clip of a handful of women screaming about shoes and then cut to a shot of them in a liquor aisle mimicking their high pitched yelping while jumping up and down like a Price is Right winner.

Two grown men acting like 14-year-old girls? Gold.

Robert Sandie, president of Viddler

Cleverest sales pitch: Cure male pattern baldness by Rober Sandie. The Viddler owner spent 75 percent of his presentation detailing the social harms that male pattern baldness presents. For example, according to Sandie, roughly 30 million children are not born every year because bald men have a hard time with the ladies. Sandie then went into his own personal plight about how working at Viddler has caused him so much stress that he is shedding follicles by the day.

So how to best cure Sandies “illness?” Use Viddler.com, of course. A successful Sandie is a Sandie with hair. Clever, sir.

Kendra Gaeta of Kids Money

Best performance: Kendra Gaeta of Kids Money. Gaeta’s speaking style was the best mix of hilarity and information. She had the timing� and unique speaking style of a female Mitch Hedberg, often mixing simple declarative statements with tiny fits of rage as she battled with the fifteen second timing of her slides winning over the audience along the way.

Boiling down the complex process of her KidsMoney digital allowance theory in five short minutes may have proven frustrating for Gaeta, but her chosen topic was noble, and her authentic delivery kept us watching and rooting for her.

Most academic: Pneumatic Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson. Not that there is anything wrong with good old-fashioned capitalism, but as much as Ignite is not supposed to be about selling something, most of the presentations involved … selling something. While “selling” could mean literally hawking a product or asking the audience to believe in a particular piece of research, Steenson was simply presenting about a topic that she just thought was cool.� And who would have known that the first pneumatic tube system in the U.S. started here in Philadelphia?

Of course there were notables who we failed to mention, however it was the five above that had us talking after we left. All presentations should be available online shortly for your own private award ceremony.

Tell us what you think below.

It must be said that there were a handful of presentation such as “4-D computing” and �You got your studio in my lab!� that either contained concepts too heavy for the Ignite format, or the speakers had a hard time trimming the fat of their ideas. That is not to say the topics were not worthy, however they seemed to be much more fitting for a slow-paced academic setting where statements can be elaborated on and expanded. Two hundred people crammed into a bar is a hard audience to go all metaphysical on.

Technically Philly will release all of our photos in a day or so as we battle the Flickr uploading and captioning gods.

Below is the complete list of presentations.

The “set list”

1. �Getting Happier and happier.com� (Andrew Rosenthal of Happier)
2. �Girls Rock Philly�� (Beth Warshaw-Duncan of Girls Rock Philly)
3. �Who are these Viddler Guys anyway?� (Rob Sandie, co-founder of Viddler)
4. �The Rest is Noise:� Intelligent Machines Will Transform The Music Industry� (Dr. Greg Wilder, CTO & Co-Founder of Orpheus)
5. �Pictures of every single block� (Andrea K. Gingerich & Bob Cocozza of Philadelphia Grid Project)
6. �Something juicy between two buns� (Jeff Vogel and Ben Kessler of Unbreaded)
7. �Smarter Power is better power� (Jonathan Adams & Jen Doebler)
8. �Beer. And Beer. And more Beer� (Johnny Bilotta & Dave Martorana of Two Guys on Beer)
9. �You got your studio in my lab!� (Jenny Sabin & Peter Lloyd Jones LabStudio at Penn)
10. �DIY instructions for a tool library� (Michael Froehlich of� West Philly Tool Library)
11. Intermission with performance by 8Static
12. �The original Tubes� (Molly Wright Steenson of Girl Wonder fame)
13. �We want� Braveheart, not Renfest� (Chris Jurney of Relic Games)
14. KidsMoney by Kendra Gaeta
15. �Future Weather: The Future of Independent Film� (Jenny Deller, Director of Future Weather)
16. �Better than strings and brass�� (Rebecca Fiebrink of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra)
17. “4-D Computing� (Joe Raimondo)
18. �How to Rock Karaoke� (Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City)

Two presentations that were originally announced were dropped; Gaeta and KidsMoney filled on slot.

• �Social Venture Ecosystems�� (Jacob Gray of Good Company Ventures)
• �Move to Philly� (Kendra Gaeta of Move to Philly)

Staff writer Christopher Wink contributed to this report.

Included are several people who should be familiar to Technically Philly readers, including Andrew Rosenthal of Happier, Ben Kessler of Unbreaded, and Johnny Bilotta & David Martorana of Two Guys on Beer. All of the speakers have five minutes to present their topic of choice, and each presentation will have 20 slides that rotate every 15 seconds. The idea is to get a sampling of all of the great things happening in our fair city.

TP’s Brian James Kirk talked with organizer Geoff DiMasi, earlier this last month.

Ignite Philly starts at 7 p.m. this Saturday at Johnny Brendas. Admission is free.