Posts from the ‘Ignite #1’ Category

Houston – Oh How I Love Thee!

Even with the Flying Cockroaches, No Mountains, Traffic Jams & Flash Floods – YOU are AMAZING!

Our first Ignite Houston was a FABULOUS success – but we couldn’t have done it without each & every one of you. So here’s a great big thanks and some of the amazing media & coverage from our first event!!!*

PHOTOS (if you have photos from the event, please email brittany@peanutbuttermedia.com and we’ll add them here)

Ed Schipul: Photos from Ignite Houston (Facebook Set)

PRESS

Great write-up by @culturemap’s Joel Luks (who also writes a SNAZZY Vegan Food Blog): TED On Crack

Special thanks also to Fox 26′s @NedHibberd for stopping by!

If you haven’t already – please thank a speaker, advisory board member or volunteer today :) Here’s a list of folks who helped make the first Ignite Houston happen!

Brittany Bluford, Samuel Black, Aimee Woodall, Kelsey Ruger, Brian Block, Adam Stacoviak, Karen Walrond, Josh Tabin, Brad Parler, Matthew Wettergreen, Tim DeSilva, Ed Schipul, Gene McCubbin, Christyna Lewis, Daniel J. Cohen, Kayt Sukel, Gika Rector, Romeo Durscher & Camilla Corona SDO, Katrina Esco, Juston Western, Kristin Baker, Ian Overton, Bryan Guido Hassin, Grace Rodriguez, CJ Romberger, Ryan Jones, Michele Price, Hannah Glass, Yashu Rastogi, David Rubin & the incredible Houston Community!

*PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE gather together for a 2nd event! If you’re interested in more info on how to organize the next Houston Ignite – please contact erica@peanutbuttermedia.com. Oh and check back here often for updates on other media & coverage – including the release of the first Ignite Houston video series.

Who better to MC the first ever Ignite Houston than Brian Block? As many of you know, Brian said he’d do anything for me including marry me (see picture below) so I knew he wouldn’t refuse when we asked him to MC this event. You’re in for one heck of a treat!

BIO: Brian I. Block, Senior Account Executive/Social Media Strategist, has been with Pierpont Communications since 2006. Brian manages social media and civic engagement activities for clients from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. This includes facilitating online and offline community engagement, social media education, corporate volunteerism, sponsorship management and general marketing activities.

Brian is an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America and serves as a member of the Sam Houston Area Council Marketing Committee where he advises on social media activities. Brian serves this function for other organizations including the Houston Area Women’s Center and Jewish Family Service of Houston. He is called upon by other non-profit organizations to serve as social media counsel whenever the need arises.

Brian speaks frequently to various organizations about social media for business, community engagement and for fun throughout the year. This includes guest lecturing at University of Houston classes and teaching an intro to social media class at the University of Houston Small Business Development Center. He will be a panelist at SXSW Interactive 2012 discussing “Building a Jewish Presence Through Social Media.”

Re-surfacing on the dating scene again after a long time away?  CJ will convince you (and herself) that dating is a lot of fun if you don’t get too wound up about how it turns out.  Or she’ll at least give you some things to think about as you ventureinto a world that probably doesn’t look like it did last time you were dating.

BIO: CJ Romberger, CEO of Wildwood Interactive and Chief Vocal Officer of One Voice, is an  entrepreneur with more than 20 years of software and database development, and systems analysis  experience. Her web development and hosting agency’s client base includes Junior Achievement, and the Austin and Houston councils of Boy Scouts.  They serve many small to mid-sized clients in various industries such as legal, consulting, technical, and real estate.

CJ passionately speaks on topics relating to building online community engagement, making ideas stick, web tools.  In January, 2011, she left a 21-year marriage and a 10-year business partnership, and has been writing and speaking about relationship-related topics to help others learn from her experiences.

In just a few months, her one woman show, One Voice, will be premiering.  In One Voice, she will take you on a journey full of music, poetry, essays and humorous stories, down a path where you can see the ups and downs listening to other people’s voices more often than your own.

CJ was Gadget Girl for Austin Woman Magazine, and is a prolific writer, essayist and poet.  She’s in the process of writing a ridiculous number of books about topics like online communities, attention deficit disorder, re-surfacing on the dating scene, what happens when a clothing tag hits the trash can by mistake, and her teddy bear, Go Gordy.  Her first book of poetry will be published this spring.

In her spare time, she takes pictures non-stop and can’t seem to keep her hands off her piano.

You can see her agency website at http://wildwoodinteractive.com

Her personal poems and essays will make you laugh and cry at http://cjromb.com

You can follow her ADD In Action foibles from a distance at http://facebook.com/addinaction

You can fall in love with Go Gordy at http://facebook.com/gogordy

Ed will discuss quadrocopters, one of the hottest geek/tech trends right now.    What began as an expensive hobby for the most technical minded among us,  has become more accessible and mainstream as our technology has evolved.   Ed will demonstrate how he is currently combining his passion for robotics, photography, and all things geeky…and how he anticipates these machines will change our world.

BIO: Ed Schipul, CEO of Schipul – The Web Marketing Company, is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and software programming. His Houston based company developed the Tendenci software which powers more than 400 web sites and has over 1.4 million users. The company’s broad client base includes the Houston Zoo, the Society for International Affairs, YMCA Houston, the National Pharmacy Technician Association and Tony Chachere’s. Schipul has been the recipient of awards such as the Aggie 100 (2005-2009), the Houston Fast 100 (2007-2009) and the Houston Fast Tech 50 (2005).

As a speaker, Ed has engaged audiences all over the country. He has presented at the Bulldog Reporter National Conference, PRSA’s International Conference, the Sarasota International Design Summit, Mom 2.0 and SXSW Interactive. Groups he has spoken to include the Public Relations Society of America, the American Advertising Federation, the Southeast Texas Museum Association, The Houston Technology Center, the International Association of Business Communicators and the American Creativity Association. Ed has also served as a guest lecturer at Texas A&M, the University of Houston and Rice University.

Ed has been published in national journals including The Public Relations Strategist, PR Tactics, Houston Business Journal, Association News and Nonprofit World. He blogs for Hearst Newspaper’s Houston City Brights and has been interviewed on NBC and ABC news as an expert on Social Media and Technology.

Ed blogs on The List on the Chron, has a CNN iReport Profile and has a personal blog at eschipul.com. Ed’s CV is athttp://schipul.com/eschipul/cv/

How could we change the world—or even just our own lives—with a “no pain, no pain” approach? What if we could get stronger without soar muscles, could recover from injury without increasing pain, and could improve without suffering insults.

BIO: A life coach and a student of the Feldenkrais Method®, Gika is passionate about inviting people to come out and play—to be who they were meant to be and do what they were meant to do.

A fiber artist for more than 20 years, Gika Rector combines creativity, an education in psychology, and her role as a personal coach to facilitate transformation in individuals and organizations. Once described as “the quietest storm that ever blew through town,” Gika is known for her nonjudgmental and supportive approach to hearing the truth, eliciting clarity, and opening up new possibilities.

She offers individual and group coaching, teaches Awareness Through Movement® and feltmaking, serves on the boards of directors of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and The Woodlands Waterway Arts Council, and is the former board president of the Dispute Resolution Center of Montgomery County.

People come in myriad colors, shapes, sizes, senses, visions, purposes, abilities and spirits. I will discuss how we are each individual works of art, and how we paint and sculpt ourselves into collective works that achieve amazing depth, breadth and perspective.

BIO: Grace’s mantra is “Live By Design”: creatively and strategically, approaching the world with attention to detail and intention towards the bigger picture, peeling problems down to their roots and solving them through a form+function lens. A cognitive neuroscience enthusiast, she is passionate about driving positive behavior and helping people grow great ideas and great causes (so if you have either, ping her on Twitter – @gracerodriguez – and let her know). Grace “Accelerates Design and Marketing Culture” with Culture Pilot, kickstarts startups at DFJ Mercury, and cultivates creative commerce and community though C2 Creative. Honored with a Texas Statesman Social Media Award and a Prism Award for producing “Destination Houston,” Grace is proudest of her service on the boards of nonprofits like C2 Creative, Youth Leadership Council, OCA Greater Houston and Spacetaker, her adventures in crafting, and helping grow all of the things that no one knows she’s had a hand in…which she won’t bother blathering on about, because sometimes, simply making things happen is its own best reward.

In Christyna’s Words:

I am passionate about choice – you know what matters to you, and yet usually we find it difficult to make choices that are in line with your values. Simple economic principles make succeeding within your own definitions easier.

BIO: My passion is empowerment, especially financial empowerment. I believe that everyone can have peace and ease in their financial life, even- no, especially- creative, vibrant, heart-forward idealists, nurturers, and healers! The amount of money in your bank accounts matters much less than knowing you are using (or saving) your money as an expression of your unique values and principles.

I am a compassionate and intuitive financial coach. I am a gardener, Reiki healer, bicyclist, partner. I culture vegetables. I have studied non-violent communication for 10 years. I ran Houston’s first organic vegetable co-op, growing with it to serve over 260 families per week & seeing it become a quarter of a million dollar business. I am unabashedly optimistic.

Mass extinctions happen roughly every 62 million years. Yet every ecosystem that emerges is qualitatively superior to the one which came before. What does this mean for the way we organize our economy, and choose our political leaders?

BIO: Ian Overton was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he developed a deep appreciation of both the great outdoors, and the importance of science and infrastructure in supporting human life in extreme environments. After finishing interdisciplinary studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2004, he became very active in the political fight over science, in the LaRouche Political Action Committee, where he developed a love for both Mozart and astrophysics. In 2010, he joined the Kesha Rogers congressional campaign to “Save NASA Impeach Obama” and helped her win the Democratic Party nomination. Today, Ian is currently working as the campaign manager and choral director, for the Kesha Rogers 2012 campaign.

Talk description in Daniel’s words:

As a guy who makes his living as a copywriter, I spend my days writing everything you can imagine- blog posts, press releases, short social media messages, PR plans, advertisements, etc.

I also teach kids how to beat the SAT.

This obsession with language has left me with little tolerance for poorly written messaging. It drives me FREAKING CRAZY, and it’s EVERYWHERE! From badly worded slogans to misused language to spelling mistakes, I notice every out of place word, broken clause, bad punctuation and insane statement… and I want to help you do the same.

In five minutes, I show some of the key things to avoid when producing written messages so you can avoid these pitfalls.

Message matters and you have to know how to write… or hire someone who can.

BIO: A King of Copy and Master of Messaging, Daniel J. Cohen serves as the lead copywriter at BrightBox Brand Marketing. Throughout his storied career, Cohen has cultivated copywriting strategies that stir interest, stimulate action and sell products.

Cohen’s copy-writing is based on the following principles:

EMOTION: As the most powerful human motivator, our feelings encourage us to take action. Writing in a way that spurs emotional response is one of the major keys to producing persuasive copy.

KNOWLEDGE: Know how to write. A writer should understand messaging, tone, timing, length, and rhetoric- and how to use linguistic concepts to communicate with clarity and conviction.

DILIGENCE: A writer must never miss a deadline. Writers in the modern digital era should be self-propelled and finish projects to the satisfaction of both client and colleague. If you want to write copy, you should be a sucker for completing projects before their due dates.

And remember: What’s WRITTEN is LAW!

Don’t miss this talk! REGISTER FOR IGNITE HOUSTON TODAY!

Love has the power to both torture and delight us (not to mention turn even the most stoic of us into complete and utter fools).  New research in the field of neurobiology has identified various neurochemicals involved in the complex brain cocktail we call love—and author Kayt Sukel will explain why those loving feelings may be the most potent drugs known to man man.

Here’s a video trailer for her latest book:

Bio:  Kayt Sukel is a passionate travel and science writer whose work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New Scientist and the Washington Post.  Her controversial new book, DIRTY MINDS: HOW OUR BRAINS INFLUENCE LOVE, SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS (Free Press, 2012), explores all the ways our neurons can wreak havoc with our hearts.

Kayt Sukel is an author and freelance writer. She blogs online at: http://kaytsukel.typepad.com/