IdeaFestival begins Tuesday in Louisville

Event last four days

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Sept. 27, 2016) — IdeaFestival will be held from Tuesday through Friday at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville. The festival, founded in 2000, brings together the world of science, the arts, design, business, film, technology, education and others to work towards the convergence and exploration of how ideas shape our future.

Guest speakers:

• Troy Carter – Founder, President and CEO of Atom Factory, a diverse entertainment company with roots in talent and investments. As a digital social entrepreneur, he helped define the career of multi-platinum Grammy winning artist Lady Gaga.
• Susan Schneider – Philosopher and cognitive scientist, will discuss her work with NASA that explores the question: “If we encounter a highly advanced alien consciousness what might it ‘look’ like and would we even recognize it?”
• Alan Lightman – American physicist, writer and social entrepreneur. He is a professor of the practice of the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the international bestseller, “The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew.”
• Kim Phuc – Girl in the iconic Pulitzer-Prize winning Vietnam War photo depicting children in flight from a napalm bombing. She is the subject of the book “The Girl in the Picture” and a documentary, “Kim’s Story: The Road from Vietnam.”
•  Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer for the American Cancer Society and Harald Schmidt, Medical Ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania will discuss how recent data demonstrates an emerging downside of the incredible advances in medical diagnostics and treatment. They will explore how too much medicine, too many tests and treatments may result in making people not more, but less healthy.
• Pagan Kennedy – American columnist and author, and pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. She will explore the role of serendipity behind innovations and inventions, and how discoveries aren’t typically based on luck; but rather the emergent property of the creative and prepared mind.
• James Ledbetter – Editor, Inc. Magazine and Inc.com, will bring a unique business view of the conscious capitalism movement as he leads a panel discussion asking the question, “Does Doing Good Mean Doing Better?”
• Christine Kenneally – Australian-American journalist who writes on science, language and culture. She will discuss “The Hidden History of Us” exploring where we came from, who we are, and where we may be going.
• Led by Suzy Delvalle, Creative Capital will once again showcase four emerging, innovative new artists this year: Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Jeffrey Gibson, Shawn Peters and Phillip Andrew Lewis.