I was wrong about the frequency of these events last time I wrote about this, I said these run every Month. They don’t it seems, it’s every three Months, and so it was time for another one. This one, number #53 took placed on the 26th March 2025 in the space above Leaf on Bold Street. We arrived just after 6pm and found a seat after not many were left available. I asked if they had a menu (noting that there was menus on the tables), and was rudely told “Yes there are, downstairs. You’ve got to order your food downstairs too”. Taken aback, I replied “oh, that’s not what happened last time” and I knew at that point, I’d not be spending a penny at the bar with that attitude in attendance.
Regardless, we went downstairs in the lift and ordered some food. It came to about £40 for the three of us and I dispatched a friend to the bar for drinks. The food arrived.. It wasn’t as good as last time. Why change stuff? If things are working, why do companies come along and change things when there’s no need to do so. Shame. Anyway, we ate, then the start of Ignite rolled around.
There were a total of 13 speakers at the event this time around, I think 3-4 had pulled out from the original list of speakers. But there was quite a few of the 1 minute pitches that they have at the start of the second half. So first up this time around was Cath Holland (again) this time out with a talk entitled “That patriarchy hates middle-aged women with the heat of a thousand suns.” – Ok… woop.. It was entertaining at least. Next up was Eric John Woodcock who did a talk called “The best route to change is a project.” This was about ‘Projects’ and why you might want to do a project. How doing a Project can essentially focus the mind. Output > Outcome. The theory is there at least. Next was Paul Marrow who decided to make his talk about “Looking back at the Cold War: links with Liverpool?“. The links to Liverpool were.. tangible at best here. The best thing I got out of this was one of my guests telling me that this is where a relative was stationed… Next up was Marc McDermott who was talking about “The Hypnotic State“. That this is a ‘normal’ state that we all go in and out of thousands of times a day. The power of suggestion.. and what Hypnosis can do. This was quite refreshing to be honest. Next on stage was Kindah Ali who was giving a talk titled “The meaning of a single mum and a phd student“. Now, English was not Kindah’s first language and public speaking is not something that she excels at however she did a stunning job of getting up there and talking in the first place. Her talk lasted more than 5 minutes and well outlasted her slides, but she didn’t care, she kept going till she’d finished, and good on her too. Manging a PHD while being a single Mum! From PHD Student to Dr Martin Graff who decided to use his five minutes on “Preparing for a First Romantic Date“, which was talked about from an academic point of view, no it was not just dating advice. – How much you buy in to it is up to you. Finally for the first half was Jonathan (Jab) Butters who titled his talk “WTF is an Innovation Ecosystem?“. – Yeh, I couldn’t tell you either, but it was at least entertaining!
Break time. Loo time…
Back to it with the 1 minute pitches, of which there were at least as many as there were speakers!
First up in the second half was Eamon Magdoubi who gave an interesting talk called “The most efficient path to find Waldo on a page and how a computer would do it faster“. This was all about using a computer, or teaching a computer to complete a ‘where’s wally’ search… This was interesting to me at least. This guy made use of DoES Liverpool and their MakerSpace equipment. It was about DataSets, Genetic Algorithms and so on… – I found this interesting at least… Next up was Jon Daley who I’ve seen speak before, his talk was titled “Housing and Health: The Missing Link“. Yes.. good topic, but didn’t offer a solution at all… When the solution is so simple, one wonders if politicians will ever find it. Next was Roz Howarth who’s talk was titled “What is imposter syndrome?“. I thought this one would be interesting, and it started that way for sure, but it did seem to wander off in to personal experience towards the end. – Nothing wrong with that but it was less about Imposter Syndrome and more about the speakers experience with it. Next was Lucy Charnock who was talking about “Net Zero 2050 vs Net Zero growth“. Again.. affordable housing, the economy.. We need less talkers and more doers.. but this is perhaps not the place to say that! Next up was Kate Calderbank who’s talk asked “Are we ok?“. – Ug! The key to a happier life is.. Be positive.. *sigh*. Finally was a guy named Tom Williamson who gave a talk called “Agile Sucks!” (which got a big round of applause). Agile is a project management methodology (which sucks.. ask a Developer). This was interesting to me, mostly because I knew what the flip he was talking about.
A decent night out with some interesting talks, bring on the next one, despite the rude Leaf staff!