Asheville is an epicenter for entrepreneurs with big ideas that enhance our quality of life and transform the ways we live, work, and play. Speakers from early stage ventures will share insights during five-minute lightning rounds about their big ideas and how they embrace challenges through ingenuity and collaboration. Cultivate your next big idea with inspiration from these success stories in technology, outdoor apparel, natural performance foods and other Asheville innovations.

Join other big thinkers on Thursday, May 15 at 3 p.m. at The Orange Peel for a fast-paced, high-energy afternoon at the Ignite Asheville Big Idea Competition, presented by the Asheville Citizen-Times. Learn more and reserve your tickets at www.IgniteAvl.org.

This star-studded lineup of high-impact, early stage start-ups includes:

• Mariano deGuzman of Appalatch, an outdoor apparel company utilizing technology similar to 3D printing to create custom fit clothing.
• Michael Shore of BarberWindTurbines, which is inventing groundbreaking wind technology to build more cost-effective, productive, and transportable commercial-scale wind turbines.
• Jackson Anderson of Blue Blaze Soda & Syrup Co., which produces all-natural soda syrups by hand at Blue Ridge Food Ventures.
• Annika  Schauer of HotWax Websites, a software as a service (SaaS) provider that allows designers to build professional-quality websites in a single      day to exact client specifications--95% painless, 100% code-free.
• Sarah Benoit of JB Media Institute, a cutting-edge, comprehensive, in-person training program for online marketing.
• Angela Newnam of Knock out!, whoseSmart Panties are eradicating panty failures using patented technology in luxury cotton underwear to protect you from wetness and odor all day, every day.
• Clark Harris of LoLo, a free and effortless local loyalty movement that enables members to earn 5% in rewards on every dollar spent at local businesses.
• Jesse Lee of OutriderUSA, which builds ultralight recumbent tricycles that are setting records for speed and distance across the U.S. and are adaptable for physically disabled riders.
• Marty Bauer of The Iron Yard, which will open a Green Tech Accelerator in Asheville to stimulate startup green tech consumer apps and clean tech enterprise software and hardware developers.
• Ty Hallock of Trusted Sharing, an app-based social tool that enables      individuals and user groups to tune into the people and topics they care about most with deeper, more valuable conversations.

See what all the excitement is about and check out the IgniteAVL video.