Gail Boyle – Making Collection Connections

Posted on 25 March, 2013 by Dan

People are different, and a whole lot less likely to think like professional museum curators than they would like you to believe. Gail Boyle of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery explains how she tries to combine items in the City’s vast collection so that we are free to find connections that are meaningful to us.

The collection includes Roman, Victorian, Eygptian and Inuit artefacts – items from all points in history and geography  But sadly, nothing there remains of the giants who founded our city, Goram and Vincent. Their name lives on, however, in the name of our enduring sponsor Goram & Vincent, a creative agency designing beautiful things right here in Bristol, who have supported Ignite Bristol from the very first meeting.

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8, Talks | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nigel Howe – Timber House

Posted on 18 March, 2013 by Dan

Never mind that no-one has built in timber on such a scale in the city for close on a century, Nigel Howe’s plan is to no less than to rebuild “the finest building in England” and a Bristol landmark that, despite having disappeared decades ago, is still fondly remembered by some Bristolians.

Nigel and his colleagues are putting together career pathways the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Middle Ages – how many professions can say that? To find out more check out the Oak Frame Training Forum, or the Carpenters’ Fellowship.

Building something of this scale needs solid foundations. But if you are engineering something for the internet, you’re better off building on something more substantial – cloud. A big thanks goes to our sponsors Agilebase, who have the perfect tools to help you store your data the way you need to.

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8, Talks | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Belinda Kirk – Rowing Around The UK

Posted on 5 March, 2013 by Dan

While down the pub with friends, Belinda Kirk decided it would be a lark to row around Great Britain. Nobody would have noticed if she had quietly forgotten her promise the next morning. Except she didn’t. So accompanied by the only three people interested in joining her, and racing against the SAS, off she went. This is her story.

Bristol seems to have more than its fair share of daring ladies – three years ago at our first event Margaret Bowling told us all about her experience of rowing the Atlantic! If you have a story of something you did after making rash promises in the pub, tell Bristol about it at our next event.

Running out of things to talk about must have been a constant threat on that boat. One way to fill long silences while you travel is to listen to a good book. Bardowl help you do just that. They also helped us put on our event. Thanks Bardowl.

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8, Talks | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tomas Rawlings – Building News-Games

Posted on 3 March, 2013 by Dan

When people heard about Endgame: Syria, a video game created by Tomas Rawlings and his Auroch Digital team, they naturally assumed it would be another crass shooter, tastelessly exploiting the misery of people still enduring the civil war. But that’s far from the goal. For Tomas and people like him, gaming is his primary media for interpreting the world, in the way poetry, painting or photography may have been for people in previous generations and in his talk at Ignite Bristol #8 he explains his point of view.

Tomas’ talk was a first for us; we scooped Sky by a day with the story of Endgame: Syria.  The game is a great example of the ground breaking thinking that takes place everyday here in Bristol and you should check out some of the other games produced as part of the Game The News project.

If you are breaking new ground yourself, then come and tell us about it at Ignite Bristol #9 –  Propose a talk now.

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8, Talks | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Stephen Clarke – The Bristol Pound

Posted on 1 March, 2013 by Dan

Stephen Clarke likes to keep himself amused by walking into local shops and asking if they accept the Bristol Pound, the local currency of which he is a passionate advocate. If the shopkeeper does, then great, they conduct business. If he gets a “no”, Stephen turns on his heels and walks out the door.

In the current climate anything that keeps money in the city is good for all of us here and so far it’s going well. The Bristol Pound may already be the largest local currency scheme in Europe and is showing other parts of the UK the way with its digital payment options – a national first.

If you are interested, you can sign up for your own Bristol pounds or register your business at bristolpound.org.

A few people were grumbling about the late start before Stephen took to the stage. That was nothing compared to the choice language flying moments earlier when our projector died. But thanks to Mick and the team from Riot Events, no-one in the audience noticed…

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8, Talks | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

We got there before Sky!

Posted on 20 January, 2013 by Damian

The day after Ignite Bristol had Tomas Rawlings on its stage to tell us about the game his company Auroch Digital had created, we spotted this on the Sky News website:

Endgame: Syria Allows Gamers To Fight As Rebels

A British video game allows players to send jihadist fighters after figures in Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime.

A new video game based on Syria’s civil war allows players to choose whether to negotiate with President Bashar al Assad or send jihadist fighters to target his regime.

The British designer of Endgame: Syria said he hopes the game will inform people who might otherwise be ignorant about the conflict.

So we managed to beat one of the best funded news agencies in the world to this one! Read it in full here.

Posted in Ignite Bristol #8 | Tagged , | Leave a comment