Why call it the party bus? Apparently there will be alcohol. And geeks + alcohol almost always = party. So there you go. Oh, and free wifi, too. Which is what we geeks *really* care about, anyway.

The bus departs the Nines hotel in downtown Portland at 3PM on Thursday 11/5. You can RSVP and get all the details on the bus here, and read Dawn Foster’s blog post for a look at the lineup, and who’s going to be there (hint: some Ignite Portland veterans, like Adam Duvander, will be presenting, and Dawn herself is giving the opening “What is Ignite?” talk).

We wish our fellow Igniters in Corvallis a wonderful evening, and we can’t wait to see the talks. Light it up!

I’ll spare you the details on the agonizing deliberations undertaken by your humble Ignite Portland organizers in narrowing down the field of great talk ideas for IP7. We love our “jobs”.

Here’s what you *really* want to know - what are the talks you’re going to see on stage on November 19? Wait no longer - here’s the talk lineup for Ignite Portland 7 (not in final speaking order):

• Rick Huddle - Why we love DB Cooper
• Mike McClure - Roasting Coffee at Home: It’s easier than you think!
• Clifton B - Why Highway Communication Sucks and How We Can Make It Suck Less
• Michael Weinberg - Thanksgiving 2.0
• Jason Duerr - Pump Up Your Volume: Building a Pirate Radio Station
• Crystal Beasley - Ecstatics, Zealots & Mass Hysteria : How we collectively lose our minds
• Douglas Wolk - Kant’s “Critique of Aesthetic Judgement”: Drastically Condensed Awesome Version
• Adam DuVander - The Donkey Man is not on Facebook
• Colleen Wainwright - My bloody epiphany
• Phil Earnhardt - Robots Growing Up: The Future of Robotic Movement
• Marcus Miller - How to cultivate a wisdom of craft.
• Lou Alvis - Human Systems Analysis. What Are People Doing?
• Curtis C. Chen - How to Solve Any Puzzle in Less Than 47 Minutes
• Kelly Jo Horton - Confessions of a Dating Ninja
• Brett Stern - Rural mailboxes
• Elena Moon - How to Capture and Eat Your First Roadkill Deer
• Ward Cunningham - Becoming Bike Oriented
• Randal Schwartz - Karaoke for fun and profit
• Christian Howes - Inappropriate terms to use in an American business meeting if you are a brit!
• Kent Bye - The Resurgence of Hula Hooping

Notice anything different this time around? No, we didn’t change the font we use for the blog. We threw in some bonus talks! You’ll get 20 awesome Ignite talks for the price of the usual 18 (17, if you count the traditional “What is Ignite?” talk, which we’re skipping this time, because frankly, if you don’t know what Ignite is by then, you’ll pick it up *really* quickly :-). And by “price”, of course we mean “free”.

Excited? We are. Talk-wise, this is the biggest Ignite Portland we’ve ever done. And no “quantity over quality” here! These are some of the finest burning ideas we’ve seen. All in all, it’s going to be a great night.

So mark your calendars, make your plans, and come on down to the Bagdad on November 19 (free admission, doors open at 5:30PM) so we can Ignite Portland for the seventh time!

Did you know that you (as in, anyone) can leave a private comment (that only the selection committee can see) on the proposed talk ideas? It’s a tremendous help to us selecting talks when we have some comments from the community about what you’d like to see. We didn’t to a Town Hall meeting this time, but we still want your feedback! Peruse the talk ideas, and jot down some thoughts, won’t you?

Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to submit an idea (that takes guts!). If you submitted a talk idea, you should hear from us by email regarding your status by this Friday, 10/16.

The best Ignite talks (and we’ve had a ton of great ones - check out some of the videos from past Ignite Portland events to find inspiration!) are the ones that bring out your “burning ideas”. The stuff that keeps you awake at night. The stuff you can’t stop talking about when you’re around your friends. The stuff that you’d do for free, even if it wasn’t a paying job. That’s the kind of talk idea we’re looking for.

That being said, please remember that Ignite Portland is *NOT* the place to be all self promotional or spammy. Talk ideas that seem too spammy will be rejected, in favor of those that show more passion, interestingness, and spark. So be sparky, not spammy!

The clock is ticking, and we need your brilliant talk ideas. So look inside you, dig deep, and find that awesome thing that you’d love to share on stage with a few hundred of your closest Portland friends. Then write it up in a paragraph or so, include any links that’ll help us know how awesome a speaker you are, and get your talk proposal in before midnight on Sunday. Do eet!

Update your calendar - Ignite Portland 7 will take place on Thursday November 19, 2009 (one week later than we had originally announced, November 12). Same time (doors open at 5:30PM, event starts at 7PM), same place (the Bagdad Theater on SE 37th and Hawthorne). Just one week later. Sorry for making you rearrange your calendar.

The good news? We’ve also moved the talk idea submission deadline out by one week, too, so now you have until 11:59PM on Sunday October 11 to give us your pitch for a 5 minute, 20 slide burning talk idea that you want to share on stage at IP7. Put it to good use.

It’s getting closer - get your talk ideas in, make your plans, and we’ll see you at IP7 on November 19!

Hit the Proposals page to see what ideas others have submitted so far, get inspired, then submit your own talk idea. To be honest, the volume of ideas is a bit down compared to past Ignites. But that’s good news for you! Better odds that your talk idea will be selected to dazzle us with your 20 slides/5 minutes of wit and wisdom on stage at the Bagdad on November 19.

We’ll wade through all the great ideas and pick the talks for IP7 the following week, and announce them here on the blog on Monday October 19. So get crackin’!

First up, the videos. I created a playlist of all the videos that Blaze Streaming Media captured for us, straight from the direct feed. Here is the playlist of all the IP6 talk videos on YouTube (minus one - we’re trying to locate “10 Vegetables That Can Improve Your Sex Life” they’re all there now!). And here’s an embedded player, so you can watch right here:

Note that we’ll be making high quality downloads of the videos available soon - those files are a bit big, and we’re still working on getting them somewhere you can grab them. In the meantime, though, don’t miss the videos from our long time unofficial videographer, A.J. a.k.a. @linuxaid.

Next, there were a ton of great photos taken at this Ignite, including many by our Chief Photographer Guy this time around, Aaron Hockley. You can see all of the photos tagged for Ignite Portland 6 on Flickr, or simply enjoy this slideshow:

Twitter has become the de facto backchannel for events like Ignite, and it was a blast following along with a Twitter Search query to see what people were saying about Ignite Portland 6 before, during, and after the event. We never broke into Twitter Trends (which is a first for us!), but there were a LOT of tweets flying with the #ip6 tag. Here’s a cool little widget you can use to scroll back through time to see what people were saying.

Finally, we usually do a separate post for this, but since I’m here, I’ll just ask. After every Ignite Portland, we want to hear from YOU about what we did well, and what could have gone smoother. The elimination of the ticket system was a big change this time, as was the live video stream and overflow at Back Stage next door. How did it work out? Leave us a comment on this post, and let us know what you thought of IP6, and what we could change to make IP7 even better.

We owe a HUGE thanks to all of you who spoke, volunteered, sponsored, attended, and otherwise made Ignite Portland kick ass for the sixth time. This is an amazing community event, and we’re having the time of our lives lighting up Portland with your burning ideas.

Of course, we can’t have an Ignite without *your* burning ideas, and if you attended Ignite Portland 6 in person or vicariously, you probably have lots of great “I should do a talk about *insert topic on which you have passion and authority*” ideas floating around in your head. Now is the perfect time to submit your talk idea - you could get 20 slides and 5 minutes to share your thoughts at Ignite Portland 7!

• Doors Open at 5:00PM - No Ticket Needed. We’ve done away with the ticketing system this time, and we’re just going to open the doors at 5PM, and let people in until we’re full. We haven’t filled the Bagdad since Ignite Portland 2, and the summer Ignites are a little more sparsely attended, so there should be plenty of room for everyone (if you’re worried about getting in, keep reading).

• Overflow at Back Stage. Just in case we do reach capacity at the Bagdad, and for people who want to hang out and watch in a more, um, bar-like atmosphere, we have overflow seating at Back Stage Bar, literally right next door to the Bagdad, which can hold about 150 people. You’ll be able to watch the show and avail yourself of all the services Back Stage offers. Back Stage opens at 5PM. Some people are so excited about this option, they’ve said “I’m going straight to Backstage.” They’ll have a head start on the after party…
• Please, No Seat Saving. We know you’re excited to watch the show with all your friends. And maybe they couldn’t make it down as early as you did. But it’s not fair for one person to squat on a whole bunch of seats with coats, etc. so their friends can saunter in late. Please don’t be a jerk about this. We’ll have ushers milling about to help you remember. We want everyone to have a fair chance at getting a good seat. It’s fine to hold a seat for yourself, so you can get up and order drinks/food, but if your friends come a little later, there’s plenty of room in the balcony, and next door at Backstage. Thanks for understanding.
• Live Video Stream. We experimented with a live video stream at the last Ignite Portland, courtesy of Joe at Blaze Streaming Media, and it worked great. So well, in fact, that we’re doing it again. Come back to this site, IgnitePortland.com, on the day of the show, and you’ll see a streaming player where you can watch LIVE and hang out in the chat with the other cool kids who are watching. This is for our friends who couldn’t make it in person to the Bagdad, and for any Ignite Portland fans outside of Portland.
• Keep the Beer/Food Lines Moving. One of the awesome things about the Badgad Theater is ordering your favorite beverage with a slice of pizza, a burger, or some tots in the lobby, and having them bring it right to your seat inside the theater. Please do order as much food and drink as you’d like. Just try to keep the lines moving smoothly. Doors open at 5PM, but the show doesn’t start until 7PM. The smart cookies will get their victuals squared away with time to spare (hint hint).

• After Party at Back Stage. Everyone loves a good after party. And you’re all invited to Back Stage Bar, right next door to the Bagdad Theater to compare notes with your friends about your favorite IP6 talk, and start rustling up ideas for the killer talk idea you’re going to submit for IP7. Or, just come hang out and have a drink. Back Stage closes at 12AM. Also, odds are that a few folks will make their way for a fried pie nightcap down at @Whiffies on 12th and Hawthorne…
• Follow @IgnitePortland and Tag Your Stuff “ip6″ or “igniteportland”. Make sure you’re following the @IgnitePortland account on Twitter - we’ll be using it for real time updates on things like how much seating is left, etc. And tag your tweets, pics, videos, and whatever else with ip6 or igniteportland to make it easier for everyone to follow the backchannel, and find the bits that you generate.

The time is almost upon us! The organizers are stoked, volunteers are ready, and the speakers are probably nervous. But we know it’s going to be great. So come join us at the Bagdad Thursday night, and let’s Ignite Portland for the sixth time!