IdeaFest 2012 an 'unquestionable success'

IdeaFest 2012, the University of Victoria’s first ever week-long celebration of all things research and creativity, was a triumph by all accounts, bringing out hundreds of festival participants each day to tackle more than 30 ideas in every corner of campus.

Running from March 5–10, the festival was led by the Office of the Vice-President Research with participation and support from nearly 30 faculties, departments, schools and centres.

“IdeaFest was—thanks to a prodigious level of energy and attendance from across the campus community—an unquestionable success,” says Howard Brunt, UVic vice-president research.

As a celebration of the volume, breadth and excellence of UVic research and creativity, the festival served its purpose with six days of packed classrooms, laboratories and unit tours in which new ideas were explored and debated by thoughtful participants.”

The festival aimed to curate the kind of stories, art and knowledge that speak to our time and, in doing so, highlighted UVic’s commitment to maintaining an open transfer of knowledge with a broad range of audiences.

Some of the ideas up for discussion at IdeaFest included ecological governance, health literacy, Islamic finance, community mapping, the sustainability of our food systems, water issues, the Occupy Movement, aging, the Arab Spring and whether or not the book—in its print form—was really on death’s door.

“I’d like to thank and congratulate the dozens of units—right from theatre to nursing to physics and astronomy—who stepped up to the unique challenge posed in first imagining a brand new event and then spending time and creative energy organizing presentations,” says Brunt.

Owing to such a successful first venture, the IdeaFest planning committee has used feedback collected during and after the festival to start putting ideas on the table for a two-week event in 2013 (March 4–15) as part of the university’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

While IdeaFest 2012 was intentionally targeted to an on-campus audience, the next incarnation will see IdeaFest marketed widely to the public.