Q: How much theoretical physics can you condense into a 5-minute Ignite talk?
A: A surprising amount!
Enlighten us, but make it quick!
You know the Ignite format? Five minutes, and 20 slides. That’s not much time, and rather a lot of slides.
Yet it is proving to be a popular evening’s entertainment at Dublin’s Science Gallery, where it is now a monthly attraction.
Most talks that I’ve seen steer clear of attempting to communicate scientific concepts. So I was sceptical when my resident quantum mechanic announced that he would attempt to explain symmetry, antimatter, Dirac’s equation and the LHC’s search for the Higgs particle.
It took a huge amount of work, yet I think he pulled it off.
And the image of the dragonfly missing a wing was, for me, a very effective metaphor for how Dirac discovered the existence of antimatter.
But what do you think?
Other talks that evening included Mark Conguista on death by bullet point, Peter Lynch on his Commodius Vicus walk around Ireland, and a performance by DJ Harry Moschops.
And if you fancy the challenge giving a talk at the next Dublin Ignite event (on April 14), contact Conor Haughton, who keeps his finger on the Ignition switch here.
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I’ve just stumbled upon this Ignite format, and must say it’s very impressive. There’s nothing worse than sitting through a 45-minute presentation when 5 minutes would do.
It would be great to see an event like this spread around the country.
Mark Conguista’s Death By Bullet Point (see original post) is well worth a look.
Eoin,
The Ignite format (and its cousin, Pecha Kucha) is not without its drawbacks, and challenges.
My own preference is for 20-minute talks, that being what most people’s attention span will tolerate. (which is why, if you’re giving a 45 minute presentation, it’s good to structure it in two halves)
For some excellent examples of 20-minute presentations take a look at:
http://www.ted.com/
Mary
Thanks for the write up Mary; I thought Brian was brilliant, all the Ignite Dublin 3 speakers were. The videos are at
http://www.youtube.com/user/IgniteDublin#g/f
I thought I better write to say that we aren’t trying to make Ignite Dublin a monthly event; we are hoping to do about four a year. We are having two close together this time because we decided to do one in cooperation with the Long Room Hub for Trinity Week. That has given us access to some great Arts/Humanities speakers, including the environmental historian Poul Holm, which is exciting.
As for the comparison with TED, we like to think of Ignite as a complementary rather than a rival format.
Conor