And the speakers for this year's Ignite Tampa Bay are....

Ashley Ray

The team had a really hard time selecting this year's speakers! There was an overwhelming amount of great submissions and speakers! We made some tough decisions, and have come up with a great line-up of passionate speakers with interesting topics! Without further ado, we present the speakers of Ignite Tampa Bay 2012!

Guiding Teens to Take Big Ideas to Market

David Harris

Kids are cool. Even teens with their attitudes and psychic funk. Inside their shroud of random synaptic firings and hormonal chaos are the ideas that we need to evolve our society. We need to let teens know that their ideas are valid, better than their parents because they are closer to the source and unfiltered, and that with planning and hard work, they can ride their big ideas to market, a better society and profit. A youth entrepreneurship program for teens engages their natural creativity, insatiable need for self-expression and harnesses their potential to benefit their growth and our world with fresh, new perspectives essential for progress. A curriculum of "Think it. Plan it. Do it." includes creative thinking skills, business model generation and Lean Startup execution.

The Art of Persistence

James Geiger

MANY people have told me NO throughout life. Find out what determination and perseverance can do for anyone.

Iconology: How Symbols Make us Think, Feel and Act

Aris

Icons, or images that contain symbolic meaning, have long been a part of the tools of human communication. We'll take a look at how icons are created, how and why meaning is attached and how things can go awry when icons are misinterpreted.

The Human-Computer Connection

Wayne Rasanen

Humans over time have developed incredible machines that enhance our abilities and expand our capabilities. Most have been complex additions that have little correlation to the human element other than the knobs & switches used to interact. Lately there has been an effort to simplify technology and hide the complex behind shiny screens that one can look at and use. One issue is how to use the interface if you can't or shouldn't look at the screen? Should there be a simple way to interact or press the right button without seeing it? That has been the basis of our research and the topic I would like to share with the Ignite Tampa crowd. We have found an interesting way to move all of the buttons on a keyboard directly onto your fingertips so that you can touch-type or interact without looking. This could lead to safer texting or open doors of opportunity for those who can't see. I would like to explain the system to the Ignite crowd & show how we can humanize computer technology.

3D Printing: The New Manufacturing Mantra

Stratton Smith

3D "Printing" has become small scale manufacturing. From curiosity to duplicating a Stradivarius, or a blood vessel from a patient's own tissue. Want a left handed model in pink? Easy. Design your new gizmo and prototype to scale in hours. Where can we go? What changes are in store? Oh, and talk about reverese engineering?

HTML in 5 Minutes

James Brown

HTML5 is here and isn't just hype any longer. The major browsers are already supporting it and if you don't start learning and using it, you could be left behind. We will review many of the features and learn how you can use the functionality today!

The Rising Tide of Design

Dan Denney

There is a shift in focus in the world and its gaze is on design. Entire nations are putting an emphasis on people-driven design and there are effects visible down to the small business. Tampa Bay could (and should) ride this wave, for the benefits that it provides in commerce and growth of a talent pool.

Matter & Anti-Matter

Sean Davis

There are two forces pulling at you every day - things that matter and things that don't. Tampa Bay needs experienced people working on things that matter; community building, product development, entrepreneurship and more.

The Importance of Goal Setting

Elissa Nauful

After a life changing experience, I became inspired to make a bucket list and check it off as often as I could so that I could truly live life to its fullest! This incredible change in the way I live my life has taught me the importance of writing goals down and the avenues of life that open up when you start accomplishing those goals. This is the story of my bucket list and how you can start living your dreams by simply setting goals, writing them down and checking them off one by one.

My Plan to Hijack America

Shawna Vercher

America used to be the country of ideals; the land of opportunity. Now our headlines are dominated with struggle and tragedy while our future leaders - our youth - now believe that they will grow up with less of a chance to succeed than their parents did. If we keep going in this direction we will continue to fail. The situation is becoming drastic, but we are an entrepreneurial people. Surely the answers to even our most difficult questions would be right in front of us if we actually stopped long enough to search for them? If Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that A) the most desperate times call for the most outrageous plans and B) heroes never give up. I haven't given up on America and I want to share my outrageous plan for how we can save the day.

No One Gives a Crap!

Frankie Lane

No one gives a crap about your product or what it can do and how many times it can do what no other product can. No one cares how much money you have invested in your business or how long you have been doing it for. No one really gives a rip if your an expert or not or that you hold degrees in your profession. Who the heck cares about how many fancy ways you can say you do what you do best in a ad or commercial. No one gives to 2 seconds of a thought to the fact that your on every social media site know to man on the web and you got all the avatars on your website to prove it. (Sample of my topic) What people care about is do you care???

Socializing Transportation

Aubrey Goodman

You won't own a vehicle in fifty years. You won't want to. It won't make sense. Instead, vehicles will be collectively owned, operated, and maintained. This will create jobs, reduce transportation-related fatalities, eliminate traffic, and improve the lives of every passenger, all without sacrificing freedom or security. The same system that will take people where they need to go will also form the backbone for a wireless telecommunications network that scales with demand and never leaves anyone stranded without a phone.

How the Hell did I Just do that? User Experience Design Lessons from the Airport

Justin Davis

I got off the plane in Madrid, after a grueling 8-hour redeye flight featuring only winks of occasional sleep. With a 45 minute layover to my connection for Lisbon, Portugal and one of the longest terminals in the world waiting for me, I dreaded what was about to happen. As people peeled off the plane slowly, all I could think about was how in the hell I'd actually make my next flight. But I did. And, without knowing a lick of Spanish. Imagine my surprise when I showed up at my gate, on time, in a completely foreign airport - let alone country. My only thought: "How in the hell did I just do that?" In this quick talk, we'll find out how. We'll look at the UX secrets that airports use to make it possible for you to find your flight, the bathroom and the duty-free shop. The best part - these techniques aren't just for airports. You'll learn how to use the same tricks to make your product experience just as remarkable. You'll never look at flying - or your product - the same way again.

The Art of RE-Think Tanking as Soul-Storming

Dr. Carla Goddard

Questions are a very powerful tool to change your perspective, scope, or objective, as you know. It is hard to get to a great answer / idea / solution, but it's easy to ask good questions which could guide you there. But how can we come up with them? Making a question is not an Art. RE-Thinking the questions, the definitions, and answers is ART! The RE-Think Tank experience will help with: New ideas for products, marketing and team building Create innovative solutions in your services Shift the tempo of brain-storming to soul-storming.

Five Steps to Create Change

Joe Scarfone

So you want to make a difference, but don't know where to start? Wish someone could break down such a complicated process into an easy to digest to-do list? In this Ignite Talk, Joe will do just that by sharing five essential steps to help you start creating change. Whether your goal is big or small, these steps will help guide you down the path to impacting your community.

Kite Surfing the Latest Craze

Courtney Cress

Kitesurfing is a sport with origins in wakeboarding, paragliding, and surfing. Although athletes have experimented with kites for over a hundred years, kitesurfing as we know it emerged in Hawaii in the mid-1990s. This presentation will cover the birthplace of the sport along with its essentials, safety considerations, popular Kitesurfing destinations and Where to Get Kitesurfing Gear.

Building a Sustainable Technology Ecosystem - the Myths, the Methods and the Madness!

Ken Evans

Many regions are looking for the silver bullet for how they can transform their community from high unemployment and crippled industries to a more evolved environment ripe with breakout technologies and the promise of launching the next Google. In this Ignite session, I will recap what I have observed from living and working in recognized tech cities and compare what has helped make some communities thrive while other regions struggle to break out of their traditional economic rut.

Conscious Capitalism

Victor Vulovic

My topic focuses on the evolution of capitalism. I believe that many of the problems that we are facing today can be solved by social enterprises that create shared community value. In years past, businesses have focused solely on profit maximization, but we are beginning to realize the ramifications of blindly pursuing monetary goals. Conscious capitalism utilizes the technological power of the industrial revolution and creates business that solve major social and environmental concerns. I would like to share the incredible potential of social entrepreneurship and how it can change the world.

Come join us Thursday, January 19th at the Glazer Children's Museum! Purchase your ticket today and tell a friend!

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