With lights flashing, University of Oregon’s first ever Innovation Summit is kicking off. Designed to be a way to introduce students to creation, research and to encourage innovation, the Innovation Summit on Friday, Oct. 27 will be filled with different activities and panels all over campus as a highlight to homecoming week. It will also hopefully become an annual event.
It will act almost as a “comic-con for innovation,” according to Assistant Professor of Marketing Troy Campbell, the event consultant and one of the presenters at the Innovation Summit.
Two preview events will take place in the week leading up: “Light Up Lillis,” a light show held both inside and outside of the Lillis Business Complex, and “Young and Innovative: Stories of Success and Guidance,” a casual career event. Both are held in the beginning of the week.
The idea of the summit is to both give an exposition of innovation and invite innovation among students.
“We want this to be interactive,” Campbell said. “Lots of our events are where people in the audience themself actually can watch, vote, pitch [and] participate.”
“Light Up Lillis” will feature multiple different art shows, meant to represent the three stages of innovation: inspiration, connection and reflection.
The outside of the building will be the “inspiration” stage, with projectors and musical performances.
Inside the building will be the “connection” stage. Students will be able to write an idea on a glow stick that will be suspended on a string from the ceiling.
Finally, in the stairway, there will be the “reflection” stage, which will be a virtual ecosystem, containing clouds that students have made, as well as an almost 360-degree projection of Oregon landscape.
This event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. starting on Monday Oct. 23 for the preview night, which will have some of the features. It will continue on Tuesday Oct. 24 and Wednesday Oct. 25 in full effect.
“Young and Innovative” will also take place in the business school at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 24. It will be a time for students to discuss ideas and ask advice from people who had success when they were younger. There will also be general career guidance.
The week concludes with the Innovation Summit on Friday, Oct. 27, a day that UO President Michael Schill has renamed “UO Innovator’s Day.” This will consist of a series of events taking place in different places around campus. Most events will be held in the EMU or in Straub Hall, although Hayward Field, Condon Hall and other buildings will also have events.
These events will range from laps around Hayward Field while pitching ideas, to open houses and discussions with researchers and activists, and also a movie battle.
“Students should look forward to this being sort of the pinnacle of the education experience,” said Campbell. “When you think what college should be like, or could be like when it’s fun, and learning, and interactive at the same time… This is going to be that.”
The full schedule of events can be found here.
Follow Kylie Storm on Twitter: @kmstorm99