Ignite is coming to Minneapolis on April 22: http://www.ignitempls.org/

I've read about these in places like NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, SXSW and ETech and other such centers of geek culture and hoped that someday I would live in a community that would put on these types of things. Now I do and I didn't even have to move.

From the website: "Ignite is a community-driven event comprising a series of speed presentations. Ignite events skew toward the geeky and wonkish, are usually innovative and fresh, and always involve drinking."

"Basically, a person prepares a brief presentation on any topic. They get exactly 20 slides to tell their story, and each slide displays onscreen for exactly 15 seconds. So that's 5 minutes per presenter."

"We hold the event at a bar or auditorium. There may be ten to twenty different presenters any given night. There is always free beer."

Here's a link to a video of a recent Ignite talk that's created some buzz in the blogosphere:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/its-really-just-a-series-of-tu.html

Toorcamp: http://toorcamp.org/

The first public US hacker camp is being hosted at a decommissioned Titan-1 missile silo in Washington state. Just check out this photo:
http://www.nycresistor.com/2009/04/06/who-can-resist-toorcamp/

From the web site:
"ToorCamp is slated to happen on 4th of July weekend 2009 starting on Thursday, July 2nd and going until Sunday, July 5th. 2 days of talks, 2 days of workshops, and 4 nights of music, art, technology, and good times."

"ToorCamp is the United State's first ever full-scale hacker camp. Modelled after the camps in Holland and Germany, ToorCamp will focus on all of the technology topics that ToorCon has become famous for but will expand out into other areas of society. ToorCamp will offer 2 days of talks on many different topics -- Security, Internet, Emerging Technologies, Hardware Hacking, and Privacy are just some of the areas we will be covering. ToorCamp will also feature 2 days of hands-on workshops on a multitude of different skills that you may have never found yourself interested in learning about before. Blacksmithing, Lock Picking, Orienteering, Logic Design, Archery -- these are just a few of the topics you can expect."

yep.
i'm registered and ready for Ignite.

bring on the beer! and i'll see you there?

Ignite Minneapolis was brought to my attention earlier, but it also happens to fall on the 4th Wednesday which would be a business meeting here at CR if i'm not mistaken. I'm really interested in checking out ignite.

It would also be cool for a smooth talking person from tcmaker to put in as a speaker as a future event about hackerspaces.

Scratch Day is May 16 at the Science Museum of Minnesota



I've been having a lot of fun with Scratch - making games with my Kindergartener, volunteering with Jr. High kids & making controllers for the Scratch Board/PicoBoard.

From the event website:

This event is open to everybody including kids and their parents, teens, and teachers. Workshops will be appropriate for anyone of any age interested in Scratch.

There will be workshop sessions and activities for everyone, including sessions for those new to Scratch, Scratchrs, and Scratch Masters.

Here is a glimpse at some of the sessions we are planning.

* Intro to Scratch
* Scratch n’ Beats
* Scratch Photo Face
* Sponge Music PICOboard
* Educator Sessions
* Interactive Scratch Exhibits
* Plus More!

Cost is $5.