Joomla! Ignite is coming to the Joomla! World Conference stage in November! Here is your opportunity to inspire, educate, enlighten and entertain your colleagues!

I recently sat down with Duke Speer to talk about his idea for a Joomla! World Conference session. He was pretty fired up about it and the JWC team is excited to include it on Friday, November 8!

Duke, please tell us, what is Joomla! Ignite?

Joomla! Ignite is a break from the usual code-centric content you might expect at a JoomlaDay, and it will be happening at the Joomla! World Conference. It is a chance for creativity to explode into our community; to inspire and be inspired. At the Joomla! World Conference, ten speakers will each have five minutes on the main stage to share something new, different, enlightening, humorous, inspiring, or just plain fun. For an added challenge, they get to use only 20 slides which will be set to auto-advance every 15 seconds, ready or not! It is a fast-paced and exciting format that will be full of surprises.

Where did you get the idea?

My first Ignite experience was Kevin Kubota’s Photographer’s Ignite last year in New York City. The Ignite format was first developed for an event in Seattle in 2006 sponsored by O’Reilly Media. Ignite is fairly well known in the technology community and there have been Ignite events in over 100 cities around the world. Similar to TED Talks, I found the short, focused presentations and competition between speakers to be enlightening, refreshing and a very pleasant break from the usual conference keynote or session. Several examples are liked on JoomlaIgnite.com

I have a great idea, when is the deadline and how do I submit?

Follow the link to the Joomla! Ignite! page for topic ideas, suggestions, example videos, and the steps to submit. In short, you will create a brief one-minute video of you describing your idea and showing us your enthusiasm and presentation style. Production quality is not important - go ahead and use the video camera in your iPad or laptop. Post your video on YouTube or Vimeo and tweet the link to @JooomlaIgnite by October 18. It’s that easy!

What is the audience?

This isn’t a breakout session; we’re talking the full Joomla! World Conference audience! All 300 or so attendees from novice to expert, plus the global audience that will be watching the video broadcast. Also, those attending the full event will be voting for best presentation!

If I can’t attend the Joomla World Conference, can I still participate?

The Joomla Ignite! sessions will be recorded and posted online to further spread the ideas that are worth sharing. As for speakers, we’re not as likely to select anyone who can only participate via Skype or pre-recorded video, though an impressive enough concept will not be dismissed out of hand by the selection committee.

If some JAB-ites or others want to collaborate on creating a 5-minute presentation from the EC, downunder or elsewhere, Game On! The point is to educate and entertain the JWC audience, stimulate creative thinking, and even inspire change, and so being present at JWC to present live and participate in post-session conversations will be a plus, but not required. (Beware that self-promotion of products you sell will not make the cut.)

Do the presentations have to be about Joomla?

Not necessarily; that’s the point! The presentations need to be relevant to a diverse audience of Joomla Developers and Users. “Energize your Coding using Cerebral Electrical Stimulation,” “Get Ahead by Becoming a Quitter,” or “Marketing your Business by Building Websites for Causes” would all be as relevant and entertaining to the JWC audience as more Joomla-specific topics. We’re open to anything that will inspire and entertain (as long as it does not self-promote an extension or product that you develop or sell) and I know the Joomla community will not disappoint us on this score!

Do I have to have experience speaking at a JoomlaDay?

Absolutely not! In fact this is a great opportunity for someone who has not felt skilled enough to present a session on a Joomla topic, but has a passion and wants to share it with our community, to have their 5 minutes on the stage.

Submit your video today!

If you want to take the stage and impress the Joomla Community, get your video submission posted by October 18th. Go to JoomlaIgnite.com for more details and to view some videos from prior Ignite! events. See you in Boston!