It’s that time of year again, where next free Ignite Bend event—the ninth one—is a bit over a month away! Ignite Bend 9 will be taking place at the Tower Theatre on Wednesday, October 17th, so mark your calendars now.

You know the routine: speakers get 5 minutes on stage, and 20 slides in a presentation with slides automatically rotating every 20 seconds. Presentations can be on anything (within reason and good taste, of course!) and overall it’s an incredibly fun, energetic, lively evening that should not be missed.

And of course now is the perfect time to submit a proposal if you’ve ever wanted to get on a stage and do an Ignite presentation—we’re soliciting those proposals now! There are only 10 presentations that will be selected from the submissions, and a large part of which of those get selected comes down to community vote, so the more proposals are received, the more choices you have to vote on which ones you’d really like to see.

Speaking from experience, I can say that while it’s incredibly nerve-wracking to get up on stage and give a five-minute presentation, it’s also an amazingly fun time. Can you think of something to talk about for five minutes? Then submit a proposal today!

Also, there is also a general call out for sponsorships and donations: the main reason Ignite Bend can continue to be a completely free community event is due to the generosity of people and business that support it with sponsorships and donations (both in cash and trade). If you’d like to help out, even a little bit, visit the sponsorship page or email sponsors@ignitebend.com directly.

Disclosure: I’m a member of the Ignite Bend planning committee so I’m helping to make this as fun and great an event as possible. It’s also a volunteer position so I don’t benefit directly other than goodwill and having a good time!