Ignite Guidelines

Dear Ignite Presenters:

Thanks very much for expressing your interest in making an Ignite presentation at the upcoming NCD Quarterly Meeting in Oakland, CA. In order to secure your spot, please submit your 20-slide presentation or a similar-sized outline for your five-minute talk to me at jkuniholm-at-ncd.gov by Friday, May 2, and if you haven't already done so, indicate your intent to do so immediately to the same address. Don't worry about the auto transitions; I will take care of that. Also, please do not use any extraneous info on every slide, such as institution, etc. I will use PowerPoint, but feel free to use whatever you use (OpenOffice?) and I'll figure it out.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Ignite format, it is a 20 slide, five minute format, with 15 second transitions between slides. In keeping with the overall goal of participation at our meeting this quarter, the purpose of the format is to offer a maximum number of participants the chance to entertain and inform people by speaking on something that they are passionate about or interested in without boring anyone, and while satisfying our short attention spans. While I've said to some who asked that you will not be forced to use slides if you'd rather not, they will help you stick to the tight timeline, and if you choose not to use them there will be placeholder slides that show how much time is left. If you need any accommodation, such as a beep at slide transitions, please let me know. Also, please be assured that we have considered the accessibility of the presentations, and will be offering a real-time audio feed to attendees with print disability, so that any images or text that you use will be described to these users, while at the same time not limiting the richness that these tools offer. The voice description of the slides is another reason that I will need them from you by the deadline (or earlier if possible).

While you can, if you choose, give a canned presentation on your issue, advocacy group or organization, this choice would be more like the fare that we often receive during the public comment period at our meetings. I challenge you instead to think about this differently, as we have for the format of this entire meeting, and treat this as you might a TED talk or other "edutainment." Wine will be served at the reception prior to the Ignite session, and the audience is sure to appreciate humor, passion, or any other spark that you can provide over and above the standard reading of pre-prepared statements. Please try not to be the person who has not rehearsed at all, and who makes everyone cringe like it's open mike night while they read bullet points off of the screen slower than the audience could have read it themselves. Even the best talks can be ruined this way: http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm.

Once I have received the slides or outlines, I will order the presentations and send the schedule out on Saturday. On Sunday, please meet me by the projector before your section of the ignite (there will be a brief intermission), and be prepared to present as the slides roll and your presentation begins. Please check out some examples of Ignite presentations below, or search for your own here: http://igniteshow.com/browse/popular. I've included some examples below, and as you will discover, the quality varies. The pickings for disability-related presentations are slim, and I hope to change that with the ones that you will do on the 5th!

http://igniteshow.com/videos/fighting-dirty-scrabble-0

http://igniteshow.com/videos/22-minute-meeting

http://igniteshow.com/videos/hack-your-electric-meter-and-save-world-david-glover

http://igniteshow.com/videos/ignite-asu-ability-counts-tempe

http://igniteshow.com/videos/ignite-phoenix-9-day-life-multiple-sclerosis

http://igniteshow.com/videos/learn-how-walk-dude-wheelchair-reals-time

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what kind of magic we can create together on the 5th!