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Interesting Portland happens Thursday and looks like a fun event (donut eating contest…yes!). I asked Emily (founder/organizer) what the difference is between Interesting Portland and Ignite Portland, a similar and highly successful event here in PDX.

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Here is her answer:
First of all -the basic idea is the same ie a bunch of short speeches. Just as Ignite is modeled after Pecha Kucha, we're loosely modeled after TED.

The main differences are:

* Ignite and PK both have the speakers talk for 20 slides that rotate automatically after 15 seconds while ours are open. Some have no slides/just talk and others are  audience participation. This time we have a donut eating contest.

*We don't allow any selling of any sort on stage during the talks or via the sponsorships-just stuff donated that makes it more interesting (like a woman who gave out cheese). This time we'll have soup, organic cocktail mixes and a couple of other surprises. This means we charge for tickets to cover the cost.

*Ignite caters to the tech crowd and PK to the design crowd while ours is geared towards a wider audience (from artists, to science guys to my Aunt Lani)

So basically, it's like TED with locals for $16 vs $4000

Or like Ignite for the non-tech crowd.

Press Release after the break…

The idea behind Interesting is simple: an evening of 20 interesting people each talking about something they love/hate/do/did/know/care about/obsess over.

We want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging haphazardly across culture, sciences, arts, crafts, whatever.

But with the added benefit of direct contact in a relaxed, conversational setting. The only requirement is that each presentation be either 3 or 10 minutes long.

This time topics include:

* How to Pick Out Fruit * A Contemporary Idea of Justice * One Day Robert Duncan Went Insane * Doughnut Eating Contest by Voodoo Doughnuts * 1927: The Real Birth of Cool And more. (Almost) full list under the The Line Up section.

The evening starts at 6pm with mingling and nattering at the bar. Speaker will kick off around 6:30 and will go to 9:30 (with a break in the middle to rest the brain and talk). More mingling and nattering will continue at the bar afterwards. Of course.

visit interesting Portland for more info.

Interesting people. Interesting ideas. An evening of interestingness.

April 9th 2009 6pm
Norse Hall, 111 N.E. 11th
Portland, OR