Have a business, project, service, organization or cool idea to share?
Register your own What IF… Festival experience. Reserve a Booth!
Engage attendees with your Festival Experience and become memorable!
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Criteria for What IF Festival Applications
- We invite proposals that celebrate innovation and/or creativity. While creativity and innovation are subjective terms, we offer these (not to be limiting) definitions:
- What is creativity? It is our inherent ability to create something that is, in some way, new rather than imitated.
- What is innovation? It is the creation of something that is both imaginative/creative and usable. An innovative idea might be a totally new concept, push the boundaries of an existing idea or break existing assumptions.
WHO: Entrepreneurs, business owners, scientists, engineers, makers, health professionals, students, educators, corporations, garage geeks, artists, musicians, performers, inventors, designers, gardeners, chefs, marketing pros, start ups …
WHAT: What IF… A Festival of Innovation and Imagination invites you to propose an “Experience” (an exhibit, an experiment, an activity, a unique collaboration, etc. that creates an important experience for the viewer/participant). An Experience can either
— Demonstrate your organization’s or your own innovation/creativity/imagination, or
— Encourage innovation/creativity/imagination by the Festival-goers.
We invite proposals for an Experience in any domain/discipline: arts, technology, business, education, culinary, retail, health, sports/recreation, environment, ranching, gardening/farming, etc. We encourage inventions devised in your garage, or new processes for doing things. We love creativity and/or imagination in ANY domain!
Applications might:
- Demonstrate an innovative process or an innovative product or both.
- Show collaboration between/among surprising partners, such as among multiple usually unrelated businesses, or between technology and art, or ranching and dancing.
- Span diverse cultures or geographical areas.
- Result in a presentation, play, interactive exhibit, installation, or some completely unexpected interactive Experience.
Basic Festival Standards
Each application must describe how the proposed Experience would meet the basic Festival Standards for Experiences or it was excluded from further review. The Festival Standards are:
- The proposed Experience is educational and not about selling a product. (Note: If you have a cool product to sell, apply to be part of the Bizarre Bazaar .)
- The proposed Experience is in good taste and appropriate for a family-friendly event.
- The final Experience will be professionally presented and/or executed.
- The Experience is not overtly political or religious.