Click here to register

The seventh annual

IdeaFestival Bowling Green
February 11, 2020

Land and Legacy: Building Ideas That Will Last

Registration is open! Click on box above.

School groups and individuals are invited to attend.
Registration will open on December 2 and close on January 29 or sooner if we sell out.
All participants must be registered in order to attend.
If you are on our email list, you will be notified when registration is open. Click the button above to get on our email list.
Tickets will be $15. This cost includes lunch.
Schools receive one free chaperone ticket for every 10 students plus a free bus driver ticket.
Schools are limited to 50 students.
Payment or a Puchase Order will be due January 30.
For more information, see our FAQ page or contact erika.solberg@wku.edu.

WKU students may purchase speaker session-only tickets for $5!

Speakers

For more info, go to our Speakers page


Samantha Fore chef/owner, Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites	Larah Helayne singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and activist	Gerry James founder, The Explore Kentucky Initiative and the Waterman Series

Timothy Kercheville farm manager, International Center of Kentucky	Kellyn LaCour-Conant coastal resources scientist, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana.	Dr. Shelby Rader assistant research scientist in geochemistry, Indiana University (graduate of The Gatton Academy and WKU).

Now in our seventh year, IdeaFestival Bowling Green is an annual one-day celebration of ideas and imagination designed to inspire the next generation of creators, thinkers, and innovators. Hosted by The Center for Gifted Studies at WKU since 2014 and created in cooperation with the original IdeaFestival® in Louisville, our event brings passionate and motivated middle and high school students and interested community members from throughout the region to the WKU campus for a morning of speaker sessions and an afternoon of minds-on, hands-on activities. The whole day highlights innovation, curiosity, entrepreneurship, community engagement, and creativity across a variety of fields.
Ideafestival Bowling Green: just imagine the ideas that will transform the future of our region.

IdeaFestival Bowling Green 2020 Sponsors

The Vid Monster vision is to redefine the consumer's experience, one city at a time, through effective creative content and promotional solutions, and to capture and share the special moments that happen within our community. We are a video production and photography company that focuses on telling stories in new and innovative ways. From small business and corporate, to weddings and special moments, to music videos and documentaries, we can create it all.

At AT&T, we’re bringing it all together. We deliver advanced mobile services, next-generation TV, high-speed internet and smart solutions for people and businesses. That’s why we’re investing to be a global leader in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications industry.

The Gatton Acadeny
The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky is a residential program for bright, highly motivated Kentucky high school students who have demonstrated interest in pursuing advanced careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Housed on the campus of Western Kentucky University, students take college classes, engage in faculty-led research, and have the ability to study abroad while living in a supportive community of like-minded peers.
In short, students in Kentucky can apply for our program during their sophomore year of high school, and if accepted, they will spend their junior and senior year on WKU’s main campus while remaining enrolled in their sending school. Furthermore, the tuition, meals and housing costs for our students are covered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, so any student in the state is eligible to apply if the program meets their interests and abilities.
Interested in learning more about The Gatton Academy’s application process? Visit us at https://www.wku.edu/academy/admissions/instructions/index.php.

For more on IFBG, watch below!
Video courtesy of Vid Monster Productions.

Watch below to see what happened at IFBG 2019!
Video courtesy of Vid Monster Productions.

IdeaFestival Bowling Green: The Future Is Now

was held February 13, 2019 at Western Kentucky University

See all the videos from IFBG 2019 on our YouTube channel!

You can also see all the speaker session videos from 2019 here.

Read what participants said about IdeaFestival Bowling Green 2019:

It was insanely inspirational.
I had a wonderful experience at IdeaFestival. I loved getting to meet people who had the same ideas as me.
It's about experiences and opportunities for the students!
The awesome advice that the speakers gave inspired me to retry a lot of things that I wouldn't have previously.
I will remember the passion the speakers hold for their topics, and the amount of devotion they held for working towards their goals and not giving up on them.
I loved the hands-on activities, and I also liked how the students could travel at their leisure between the activities.
The event was rich in young presenters.
I can’t wait to go again!