On Wednesday 6th March 2024 I took myself to Leaf on Bold Street in town to see a collection of short 5-minute talks on absolutely anything that people wanted to talk about. These are like TED talks were a presenter gets up and talks for a certain amount of time in front of some slides. Except for Ignite, they are 5 minute talks. You get 20 slides in total which are up on the screen for 15 seconds each then they move on and on till 5 minutes is up. I really had no idea what to expect going into this, I didn’t even know what the layout of the room would be like. The venue was the upstairs of Leaf Cafe.. Except not really as I think Leaf Cafe has it’s own upstairs area now, so there is a possibility this room is above that. Nevertheless, there is a bar up there and toilets etc so everything you need.

The stage was setup with a projection screen and a microphone on a stand. This was the 50th (ish) one of these sessions that Ignite has hosted and so this was called it’s 50th (ish) celebration. There were to be more speakers here than at usual Ignite events – I am not sure how many more, as I’ve not been to one before. However after this one, I think this could become something that I attend myself regularly. It had a relaxed atmosphere and an audience demographic which was wide and far ranging. I would like to go to future events for sure. I don’t know how I’d feel about getting up and giving a presentation / talk, but the environment felt.. friendly and creative in nature.

There was a wide range of talks that were printed on the programme but it seems not all of them had turned up on the night. I will summarise the talks and what I thought of them, and these are just my opinions based upon how I felt they were presented. It’s not intended as criticism of the person presenting, because I think it takes a lot of confidence to get up and present for 5 minutes to an unknown audience.. But more of the topics they presented..

Cath Holland talked about ‘George Michael and Wham!’ and the politics behind the white jeans – The good positive vibes that moved throughout the fanbase.. I guess! Cristina-Steliana Mihailovici talked about ‘A powerful equation: STEM+Poetry+Story = Community’ – A good solid talk about how a multi-skilled, multi-career woman is using STEM learning within children’s books. Impressive wide-ranging career. I’d like to know more. Paul Marrow decide to use his 5 minutes to talk about ‘The Number 50’ – I found this pretty damn stupid to be completely honest. Perhaps I didn’t get it. Perhaps it was supposed to be funny. Meh. David Armstrong talked about his book ‘7 Rules to a good life’ – David had a personal story intertwined with his book which features general rules to live by. I found this quite copy/paste from other self-help books with similar titles. I mean each to their own. Eric Masaba talked about the ‘Fairey Rotodyne’ – An incredible flying machine designed in the 50s, built in the 60s and like all good things we scrapped them all and never built them again. A very interesting area for further research. Ed Gommon talked about ‘Climate Change’ – This talk presented a lot of facts and figures as well as fair dollop of blame but without much in the way of helpful solutions.. I mean what can you present in 5 minutes, but others managed it. Tom Williamson talked about ‘Not having a Stroke’ – Another personal story and topic from a previous presenter but introduced a very interesting topic, medically similar to that of a stroke but very very different. I’d like to know more about this too.

A 20 minute break then followed which allowed us to stretch our legs etc, we got a drink and settled in for the second half. Up first was a selection of ‘One Minute Pitches’, some of which were great, some of which were.. well, yes… Back to the show…

Nikola Higham from Kindred (the sponsor of the event) talked about ‘Investing in stories of your future’ – This talk was about Kindred and what they do. The grants that they offer which are not grants, they are loans which are repayable… Emma Bamber talked about her involvement with ‘An International Welcome from Cafe Laziz’ – This was touted as an ‘inclusive’ venture featuring over 23 different cuisines from around the world.. Yet no English or White cuisine was represented… where’s the inclusivity? Tris Brown talked about his obsession with ‘Bollards’ – Yes, literally those, Bollards. He presented this well which made me think it’s been done before. But he did so in a way which held your attention for the 5 minutes and also actually concluded at some kind of point! Francesca Manca talked about ‘Shaping your Business around Peoples needs’ – She was from a company called Clockwork, this was interesting to me as it had potential WC vibes to it (if you know, you know). This is an area i’ve bookmarked for future research. Norman Piotroski talked about ‘How to do the most good we can’ – This was the presentation of statistics from a stats student. While it presented stats very well and quite clearly, the subject matter was badly judged in relation to the audience imho. Unrealistic and unbelievable. Emma Case used her talk to discuss ‘Celebrating our wins, the RED Archive’ journey and what’s next – Emma doesn’t like applying for funding, that’s what I took out of this talk more than anything. Meh. Finally there was a talk in the programme which was by Nicola Chan and was titled ‘Sarah Everard.. This wasn’t presented at all, it wasn’t even mentioned, I’ve no idea if they ran out of time or the speaker wasn’t in attendance or they just felt it wasn’t right for the evening or what. I wonder what happened to this..?

There are some interesting areas from these talks that have made it to my research & reading list… Overall, I enjoyed this evening and I would go to future Ignite events from this point going forward. It will be interesting to see what a normal – non 50th (ish) Ignite Liverpool is like and how different it could be. They usually take place every month, so watch this space for more.