Ignite Boulder 6: Bringing in Down(town)

Ignite Boulder 6: Bringing in Downtown from Downtown Boulder on Vimeo.

Ignite Boulder was back at the Boulder Theater last night, selling out the venerable establishment and packing its 850 Art Deco seats. With the beer a flowing and a damn good looking crowd, local blog/startup impresario Andrew Hyde kicked off the now sixth incarnation of the self-professed Geek-fest, noting for the first time that the gals outnumbered the guys. Then Ef Rodriguez (@pugofwar) took the stage, a red guitar in had, and led us through heartbreak in the age of twitter to get the flaming ball rolling.

From Jen Wu's ignite on Food Porn (check out her awesome blog userealbutter.com) through Ryan Wagner's exploration of life through video games the speakers and the crowd bonded over brews and the soft lights of their PDAs. Sari Levy brought down the house with an alternative energy idea that mines the jackpot of Alabama's wealth(umm..fat), Naomi Meredith tried to keep up with her own slides though insults and friendship with old Willie S, and then Jen Newell's interactive Swedish lesson twisted our tongues. Christina Sagray's classy look at Classic literature through the eyes of modern chick flicks, folks were rolling in the aisles and shouts of encouragements rang out through the night.

Mountain Standard Time entertained the crowd at intermission, while parts of the funds from the night were going to be donated their way to offset their loss of equipment from theft in Eastern Colorado.

After the break, a sober Vennessa Scheinder regaled us with her DUI experiences (blow then hum...); Luke Tilsley taught us kissing; H. Clisbey gave us her look at bizarre beliefs and crazy people; George G. Smith, dressed in argyle for the ladies, taught us how to Master Debate; and Robot, fresh off the playa at Burning Man, taught us the ins and outs and fire appreciation that is 40,000 drug-crazed freaks in the desert. Huffington Post refugee and current Camera correspondent Dave Burdick used Ghostbusters to show what he learned about his craft, and the night ended with poignant take on Risk and reward from Emmy-winning mountain filmmaker Michael Brown, with film clips of his trips to high altitude locales like Everest with blind man and documenting tragedy and camaraderie of climbing the worlds toughest peaks.

Leaving the packed house, Hyde reminded all of his upcoming BoCo Conference in October so be sure to check it out for more music, conversation and community. A big thank you to all who made it the night happen, it was awesome to it see it in our vibrant Downtown and especially the amazing people that make it what it is.

Viva Ignite.

- Eli