The Big Idea(s)

IDEA FESTIVAL CELBRATES THE POTENTIAL OF "WHAT IF"

BY ANGIE RODRIGUEZ | PHOTOS  BY GEOFF OLIVER BUGBEE

Imagine yourself learning about 11th Dimensional Hyperspace from one of the foremost thinkers in the field.

You don’t even have to leave town to do it.

That was my experience last fall when I attended the Idea Festival, and I have to tell you, I’m hooked. I’ll be returning next year, and attending even more events.

I was a little nervous before Michio Kaku’s presentation, because my knowledge of String Theory and Physics in general is basic, and I was afraid he would go over my head. That wasn’t the case at all. Kaku was a masterful speaker, and effortlessly explained the basics to our large, diverse crowd.

While I don’t see myself coming through with solutions to long-standing problems of physics, I did find myself afterward reading some articles I might not have otherwise and thinking about our universe quite differently. Who knows where the new ideas might lead me?

That journey is what the Idea Festival is all about.

The Idea Festival is an annual three-day event in downtown Louisville featuring speakers and activities designed to promote ideas, knowledge, innovation and creativity. World-famous innovators like Kaku, Ray Bradbury and Karen Walker, gather to share their ideas in fields ranging from physics to fashion. Louisville is fortunate to have been home to the event since 2006.

Over coffee at the Fourth Street Borders Books & Music Store last month, founder Kris Kimel and I talked about the ideas behind the Idea Festival.

Kimel originally came up with the festival in 1998 while visiting Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival. As he watched the hubbub around him, it occurred to him that a festival centered on ideas and innovation would expand Kentucky’s brand.

For the next several months Kimel and his colleagues at the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation tried the idea on for size, bearing in mind the critical role that innovation plays in today’s world.



“The only competitive edge that anyone has today, whether you’re an individual — an artist, a writer, or a scientist — or president of a company or university, is to out-innovate the competition,” Kimel said.

The festival interacts with both the actual and virtual community by being open to the public and affordable

Another idea important to the founders was convergence, the connection and interplay between different fields of knowledge. True innovation occurs when creative individuals take ideas from different fields, then reassemble them in new ways, Kimel said, so the Idea Festival is not limited to one area of interest but all fields of knowledge.

Kimel says the organizers wanted to create “not just an event, but a community or culture of people and organizations that are committed to innovation, and particularly the convergence of ideas.”

The festival interacts with both its actual and virtual community, by being open to the public and affordable. “We didn’t want to create an elitist event,” he said. “Ideas are not limited to any one group of people.”

The Idea Festival is an annual, three-day event in downtown Louisville that features speakers and activities designed to promote ideas, knowledge, innovation and creativity.

To keep costs down, organizers seek out sponsors to underwrite the event. In 2007 the cost for attending all the events was less than $250. You can often attend a single event for free, or with a free pass you receive upon registration.

You can keep track of what’s coming up in 2008 at www.ideafestival.com, which features a daily blog and organizers take your suggestions. This year, Kimel says organizers might include a potential book club, podcasts of previous speeches and “IF Conversations,” in which presenters briefly answer a question relevant to the process of creation and innovation.

While your surfing, check out the festival’s Facebook group and videos of IF on IFTV at YouTube.

Idea Festival coordinators welcome community involvement, and that if you have suggestions for future events to contact them via the website. The Idea Festival is an “open-source” event, he says, and they encourage your input.

I’ve already marked it on my calendar.