Last night I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Ignite San Diego. Hosted at Hive Co-Working Space and sponsored by Airdale Brewery, the event was standing room only in the chic, warehouse style digs. If you’re not familiar with Ignite, it’s a specific presentation format limited to 5 minutes and 20 slides.

While I am very familiar with the enthusiastic tech community within Austin, I was curious to check out the culture in my own hometown. Needless to say, I was blown away by the vision and passion behind each presentation.

Three presentations specifically interested me:

1. “Reverse Engineering the Brain, Online” by Stephen Larson

Larson is a Ph.D candidate in Neuroscience at UCSD and discussed the potential of combining both neuroscience and computer science to provide the academic and public communities with more information and a better understanding of the human brain. As soon as he mentioned developing a “Google Map of the Brain,” I was sold.

UPDATE: Stephen’s project is now live! Check it out: http://wholebraincatalog.org

2. “F*ck the Recession: 20 People Doing 20 Great Things” by Dave Brown

Brown’s presentation drove energy through the crowd as he walked to the front of the room and exclaimed, “I don’t know about you, but I’m f*cking tired of hearing about this recession!” As cheers subsided, Brown proceeded to highlight 20 people and products that are working through the turbulent economy  and making a positive impact within their own lives as well as the lives of those around them. One great example was the “Do Good” iPhone App.

3. “Classifying Twitter Engagement” by David Horn

As if reading my own mental frustrations with Twitter measurement, Horn discussed metrics for determining the overall impact of a Twitter user when calculated against his/her input and output. Horn’s metrics (complete with unqiue variables) suggested a more realistic and practical measure of influence. This analysis, based on “engagement,” gave me further hope that users’ “follower” counts will diminish in importance.

Overall the evening was engaging and lighthearted. I am excited to have had the opportunity to experience the culture of San Diego’s tech scene and I look forward to future collaborations with wonderful businesses, entrepreneurs, and students in the area.

Want more? Check out the complete list of last night’s Ignite San Diego speakers here.