I lived in Austin, and when I attended my first Pecha Kucha there, I was beside myself with excitement. There was even glitter thrown into the audience (please, do not do this at Ignite502). When I came back to Louisville, I wanted to organize a Pecha Kucha Louisville, but after doing research found the Ignite format, and felt that it resonated with the Louisville community better than the Pecha Kucha format. 

The decision to go with Ignite Louisville had to do a lot with the existing framework and support. As I interpret, the Pecha Kucha is more art, and the Ignite is more tech. That interpretation further lead me to the Pecha Kucha is about going new and exciting places, and the Ignite format, at the core, is about going the same places in new and exciting ways. Louisville is a very risk adverse community, and even though we are strong in the arts, I feel we are not going new places with the arts. The community is concerned with conventions, conventions with outputs.

In addition, Louisville has a strong ‘brand’ in glass blowing, and I talked to a lot of people here, and even after repeating ‘Pecha Kucha,’ they had problems pronouncing it. A nightmare for word-of-mouth. All these factors lead me to realize Louisville needed an Ignite. So I started putting together an event.

I feel the Ignite format resonates with the community better than the Pecha Kucha, but I’d love to see one of those here, too.

Links:
http://ignite.oreilly.com/502/
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/
https://www.facebook.com/events/59071489942/