BONUS EPISODE: The Ignite 2027 Speaker Reveal 🔥

The wait is over—the speakers for the 10th annual Ignite Leadership Conference have officially been revealed!

In this special bonus episode of IgniteCast, Judd Wilson and Taylor Tutor celebrate a decade of Ignite and look back at the impact the conference has made over the years. Since its beginning in 2018, Ignite has welcomed more than 40 speakers including bestselling authors, CEOs, Olympic athletes, and more.

Now, for year 10, Ignite is going bigger!

The 2027 lineup features legendary leadership expert John C. Maxwell, Mark Cole,  and Valorie Burton.🔥

Hear why this milestone year is so special, what to expect from the conference, and why you'll want to secure your seat early.

📅 Thursday, January 21, 2027
📍 The Orchard | Tupelo, Mississippi
🎟️ Early Bird Tickets: $249

Get your tickets now at igniteleadership.com and join us as we celebrate 10 years of learning, growing, and leading together.

Big thanks to iHeartMedia—our Presenting Sponsor for the entire IgniteCast podcast and the powerhouse fueling this season’s episodes! 🔊🔥 

🎧 New episodes drop every other Thursday, packed with insight, inspiration, and actionable ideas to help you grow as a leader—right where you are.

Want to learn more about the Ignite Leadership Conference?
 Visit 👉 www.igniteleadership.com

Transcript

S8 E7 BONUS Ignite Speaker Reveal
===

[00:00:00] Taylor Tutor: Welcome to IgniteCast, where ideas spark action, brought to you by the Community Development Foundation, your chamber of commerce and economic development engine for Tupelo and Lee County. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia, for powering this season of IgniteCast. I'm Taylor. 

[00:00:35] Judd Wilson: I'm Judd. 

[00:00:36] Taylor Tutor: And welcome to IgniteCast.

[00:00:42] Judd Wilson: Taylor Judd Look at this. We're doing a bonus session of the Ignite Leadership Podcast. 

[00:00:50] Taylor Tutor: B- b- b- bonus. 

[00:00:51] Judd Wilson: Yep, we are. And I tell you, we had a great season of Ignite 

[00:00:55] Taylor Tutor: cast. We did. We 

[00:00:56] Judd Wilson: had a lot of good speakers. A 

[00:00:57] Taylor Tutor: lot of leaders. 

[00:00:58] Judd Wilson: But you know what? You know what [00:01:00] today is. This actual podcast is being released today, Monday, August the 10th.

[00:01:06] Taylor Tutor: It's a special day today because today w- is, was... We've already done it Was. 

[00:01:13] Judd Wilson: We, we, we already, we walked out of the pre- We actually had a press conference about this Ignite. 

[00:01:18] Taylor Tutor: Why did we have a special press conference about today? 

[00:01:21] Judd Wilson: Let's back it up. 

[00:01:22] Taylor Tutor: Back it up. 

[00:01:22] Judd Wilson: Beep, beep, beep, beep. Put it in reverse, Terry. The reason we had a press conference, it's our 10th year.

[00:01:30] Judd Wilson: You know, it's so amazing to think that it's been 10 years that we've been doing the Ignite Leadership Conference. I like talking about numbers. Some people think Judd doesn't like talking about numbers, but I actually do, Taylor. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. 10 years. Besides yourself.

[00:01:45] Judd Wilson: What does that mean? What does that mean? Back in 2018, we did the very, very first Ignite, had a great group of speakers there, had a great audience there. But over the last nine Ignites, we've actually [00:02:00] had over 40 speakers. 

[00:02:01] Taylor Tutor: Wow. 

[00:02:02] Judd Wilson: I'm testing your knowledge. 40 speakers. 

[00:02:04] Taylor Tutor: Uh-huh. 

[00:02:05] Judd Wilson: And if you had all the attendees together, what number do you think it is?

[00:02:11] Taylor Tutor: A bajillion 

[00:02:12] Judd Wilson: 5,550 plus attendees during that time. We've had New York Time bestselling authors. 

[00:02:19] Taylor Tutor: Yeah. 

[00:02:20] Judd Wilson: We've had Netflix stars. Yeah. We've had Olympic athletes. We've had CEOs. You name it, they've been on the stage of Ignite. 

[00:02:30] Taylor Tutor: For 10 years. 

[00:02:31] Judd Wilson: Yeah, our 10th year, and so we said, "Hey, we gotta do something special."

[00:02:34] Judd Wilson: We gotta do it- That's why we had a press conference ... big. It was a great press conference, by the way. It was awesome. Cameras were flashing and everything. But what do we have to announce? That's why we're here. 

[00:02:44] Taylor Tutor: That's why we're here. We- 

[00:02:45] Judd Wilson: When is Ignite first? When is it? 

[00:02:47] Taylor Tutor: This year, Ignite is Thursday, January the 21st.

[00:02:50] Taylor Tutor: It's a week earlier than usual, and I'm so excited about it. Just one, one week less to wait. 

[00:02:56] Judd Wilson: Exactly. Exactly. Who do we have coming? [00:03:00] Do we wanna announce them together? 

[00:03:02] Taylor Tutor: Yeah. Do... You count it down. You count it down. You count it down. 

[00:03:04] Judd Wilson: Okay. We're gonna start off with Mark Cole. Woo. You'll learn- 

[00:03:12] Taylor Tutor: Mark, Mark, 

[00:03:13] Judd Wilson: Mark, Mark

[00:03:13] Judd Wilson: over the next couple of weeks, you'll learn a lot about Mark Cole, great guy, great speaker, a lot about leadership. Who's our next one? 

[00:03:22] Taylor Tutor: Our next one is Valerie Burton. Whoop, whoop, whoop. 

[00:03:26] Judd Wilson: Valerie Burton. Whoop. Great speaker, great author, has several books. Several 

[00:03:30] Taylor Tutor: books. 

[00:03:31] Judd Wilson: Several books. And you know the neat thing about Mark and Valerie?

[00:03:36] Taylor Tutor: Tell me. 

[00:03:37] Judd Wilson: They work for an organization that does a lot with leadership. A 

[00:03:40] Taylor Tutor: lot of leadership. 

[00:03:42] Judd Wilson: And that kinda brings us to our last speaker that we wanna present. I feel like, have we ever had a drum roll or anything like that at Ignite? We haven't. We- We're, we're gonna do it right here. Here we go. You ready?

[00:03:53] Taylor Tutor: Ready.

[00:03:58] Judd Wilson: Our final speaker, [00:04:00] who works at the same organization with Mark and Valerie, I feel like I'm drawing this out like Ryan Seacrest on American Idol. Ladies and gentlemen, it'll be the one and only - John ... Maxwell. Maxwell. Look at that.

[00:04:17] Taylor Tutor: Woo! So Valerie and Mark are both of the Maxwell Leadership organization, and I'm excited to hear all three of them actually. I haven't read, uh, any of Valerie or Mark's books, but I am excited to hear John speak on Jan- January the 21st, a Thursday, at The Orchard here in Tupelo, and, um, I'm very excited about that day, to meet him and hear from him and apply all the different things.

[00:04:46] Judd Wilson: Isn't that great? 10 years, and now we're bringing in a name like John Maxwell, and the good thing is, what I love about Ignite is, you know, we learn all these different speakers over the last 10 years. Mm-hmm. And so we're gonna get so much out of all of [00:05:00] them, but it's just an exciting time that, that we can kinda celebrate with our folks here in our region.

[00:05:05] Judd Wilson: Um, but guess what? As always, Ignite really, when it gets towards the end, is... We've sold out before. Yes. I'm really thinking that's gonna happen now- Oh, yeah ... and a lot earlier than usual as well. So- 

[00:05:19] Taylor Tutor: If you're just n- if you're just now hearing this podcast, you probably are missing out on half the tickets anyways.

[00:05:24] Taylor Tutor: It- exactly. Because today is also when the early bird tickets are live. And so today is the best time to buy a ticket, 'cause you can get tickets for only 249. Buy them today at igniteleadership.com, and go ahead and secure your seat, 'cause we're gonna sell out this year. 

[00:05:40] Judd Wilson: We are. We are. 

[00:05:41] Taylor Tutor: We sell out every year, but definitely this year.

[00:05:43] Judd Wilson: Exactly, exactly. But, you know, we just wanted to hop on here and just talk about this, because we had the press conference, said, "You know what? We need to let our Ignite Leadership Podcast listeners know this exciting news that we're releasing today." So as Taylor said, get your tickets, igniteleadership.com.

[00:05:59] Judd Wilson: You don't [00:06:00] wanna miss it. 

[00:06:01] Taylor Tutor: See you at Ignite. 

[00:06:02] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:06:04] Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe, and if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review. And remember. Go forth and do good things.