On Thursday, Oct. 22, Ignite Baltimore #4 moved from its former home at the Windup Space on North Avenue to the Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon. Though the event had moved to a larger venue, the space was filled with attendees eager to hear from an eclectic collection of speakers. Tracy Gosson, former head of Live Baltimore and now head of marketing firm Sagesse, Inc., delivered a presentation on fear. Adam Meister delivered a fiery speech on “breaking free from the Machine” of consumerism and how Baltimore is a prime place to do just that. Ignite co-founder Mike Subelsky stood in the wings with a smile on his face as his event unfolded.
Ryan Boddy (at right) discusses the synthesis of brewing beer and creativity.
One piece of constructive criticism. At times, the event was in danger of veering off into a podium for forwarding political agendas or indulging personal hobbies. I think it’s great that certain artists are into surprising or unexpected media, or that we’re trying to amend the arcane wine and beer shipping laws in Maryland. But when Baltimore is a city facing monumental social problems like crime, youth violence, and drug abuse, filling a room with the city’s young and creative types to talk about surviving a zombie attack can ring a bit hollow.
That said, I applaud what Mike Subelsky and his co-founder, Patti Chan are doing. I hope that Ignite continues, and that future presenters bring a bit more gravitas to this worthy event. Let’s harness the community brought together by this event to affect change where it’s really needed. Ignite #5 is March 4, 2010.
Hi Jason, thanks for the writeup! We try and pick the widest range of interesting topics we can. We would gladly welcome more socially-relevant and important topics, but making a night ONLY of such talks would be pretty dreary. Also, the talks are intended only as a focal point for the conversations that take place before, during intermission, and after the event.
-Mike
Mike, thanks for reading! I know you guys are limited to the topics submitted to you, and as I remember there were indeed more socially-minded topics in the first Ignite which I attended (and there may have been many at #2 and #3.)
I don’t necessarily think a night dedicated to taking on Baltimore’s most urgent problems would be dreary if it was approached in a spirit of hope and pragmatic optimism, but I also don’t think that that should be Ignite’s role anyway. That’s the beauty of your event – by not adopting a single theme it crosses disciplines and brings together experts who might not necessarily be in the same room.
Maybe I should just start the social change collaborative event that I wished existed?
Thanks again for reading Mike.
Jason