Ignite Petaluma Chance to Practice Public Speaking, Share Ideas

Whether it’s making art, playing chess or surviving five days in the wilderness, we all have unique knowledge and skills. But unless we are teachers or have kids, few of us have an opportunity to pass on the knowledge to others. 

This Thursday, 14 people will share their unique know-how, from a speaker who will talk about the joys of skipping to a high school principal who will discuss how to best survive a grizzly bear attack.

Ignite Petaluma, held at , is part of a movement started in 2006 in Seattle and has since then spread throughout the world.

“On the most basic level, it brings people from the community who would not otherwise connect and gives us a chance to be enlightened about a wide variety of topics that might inspire people,” said Jaimey Walking Bear, one of the Ignite organizers.

Speakers will share their passion in five-minute presentations, using 20 slides. The talks cover a smorgasbord of topics including why satire is the best form of news, the long-term effects of wearing skinny jeans to the more serious how to revive the Petaluma River and what living in a healthy community really means.

One of the presenters is Kim Corbin, who calls herself the founder of the skipping movement and who in 1999 founded iskip.com, a website dedicated to skipping.

“I was with a couple of friends in San Francisco, and one of them said ‘Let’s skip,’” the 42-year-old Novato publicist recalls. “And as I was skipping, I had a vision that I could start a skipping craze.”

Corbin was so enthusiastic about skipping that she even quit her job for a while and planned to write a book.

“I believe the world will be a much better place if people skip,” Corbin says. “The main thing is getting beyond what other people think, past that voice that says ‘this is weird’ and expressing joy.”

Last year’s Ignite Petaluma event was held at and drew a sizeable crowd. But this year, there are many more students among the presenters, giving them a tremendous opportunity to practice public speaking skills, said Dr. John Walker, principal of St. Vincent de Paul High School.

“I’m thrilled,” Walker said. “I love the fact that we have experts and beginners, we’ve got some really veteran speakers and then freshmen giving their first talk…It’s one of the things that we like to do is bring generations together, young people and adults at the same event with an equal amount of engagement.”

In addition to hosting the event, Walker will also be one of the speakers. His topic? How to survive a grizzly bear attack, gleaned from tips locals gave him during a summer of travels in Alaska in 1984.

Speakers at Ignite Petaluma include:

• John Walker - How to Survive a Grizzly Bear Attack
• Jake Spurgeon - The Amazing World of Crows
• Hisa Tome - "There's a Hair in My Dirt!"
• Dale Dougherty - The Maker culture and Education
• Kara Flageollet - How Joe Kincheloe Changed My Life
• Drew Hoppe - Why Satire is the Best Form of News
• Susan Starbird - The River: Petaluma's "THERE" There
• Stephen Morris - I Always Wanted to be Big
• Kim Corbin - Skipping the Life Fantastic
• Steve Edmondson - Getting Salmon out'a My Backyard
• Julia Anderson - The Struggle of the World's Largest Creature
• Marilyn Schlitz - Changing Minds, Changing Paradigms
• John Millburn - Living in a Healthy Community - What Does That Mean?
• Chris Braun - The Long Term Effects of Wearing Skinny Jeans
• Matthew Porchivina - The Horrors of Donating Blood

Ignite Petaluma will be held Thursday, February 10 from 7-pm at St. Vincent de Paul High School. The event is free, but pre-registration is encouraged. For more information, click here.