Kevin Hoyt

Last week I got to attend and present at the first annual Ignite Denver. The geek crowd made a strong showing, nearing almost one-hundred (100) at Fado’s Irish Pub. My most memorable moments involve the Irish band who was clueless as to who in their right mind would get so excited about a presentation. As John Wilker noted after the event, clearly they didn’t know the presentation topics included everything from “Ignite a Cigar” to “How to Swear in French.”

The slides are all available from the event. I recorded the audio of most of the presentations, and it sounds like despite the background noise of a pub, some of it may actually be salvageable. I’ll try and get to that in due time, but I thought I’d also post a more comprehensive version of my presentation “Ignite a Cigar.” This deck is the original outline that I eventually slimmed up to a five-minute script, and contains a lot of the information that may not otherwise come out in the final Ignite deck.

It’s true that this was really my coming out as a cigar smoker. It has been a past time of mine for a long time, but I’ve rarely found others in this political climate with whom I can enjoy a fine stogie. Over the past year, I’ve found more and more that Adobe developers and designers are turning to cigars as a luxury item and an opportunity to talk geek with each other. As William Thackeray said:

I vow and believe that the cigar has been one of the greatest creature comforts of my life — a kind companion, a gentle stimulant, an amiable anodyne, a cementer of friendship.

With that in mind, I am very seriously considering hosting a Cigar BOF at MAX. As you probably know, California and indeed San Francisco itself isn’t a particularly friendly environment for smokers. Rather than host this BOF in the Moscone, which would mean no smoking, what I’d really like to do is arrange a specific venue just for us. There are a couple places that are open to cigar smokers in San Francisco, but I can’t commit to reservations if there’s not enough interest.

So … Of the roughly five-thousand of you attending MAX this year in San Francisco, how many would be interested in a Cigar BOF event? Geeks and cigars is sure to be a fantastic event, but I won’t be able to pull it off without your support. So sound off! Leave a comment! Let me know if you’re interested in attending. Knowing just how serious you are would also be helpful. There’s an off chance that I may be able to get a tobacconist to throw in a discount or sponsorship, so throw in a reference to your favorite cigar as well! Of late I’ve been on a big Romeo y Julieta 1875 en Tubo kick myself.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.