2014 WHAT IF… FESTIVAL OF INNOVATION AND IMAGINATION

Volunteer Guide

Thank you for volunteering for What IF…! We know you have a lot of other things going on in your life, and we can’t thank you enough for joining us. We hope you find working on the festival to be as rewarding as we do. Here are the most important things for you to remember about the festival:

It’s September 6 downtown!

This FREE festival is here to bring the community together in a day of JOY!

WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS!!!

If we love you so much, why are we bugging you with all this training? Many reasons! Most importantly, it’s to make volunteering easier for you! When you are asked something, we want you to feel empowered with knowledge and answers. If you don’t know an answer, we want you to know who you can contact to get it. We want our festival attendees and experience participants to receive all the help and information that they need quickly and easily. Finally, we want you to understand the importance of the festival, what we are trying to accomplish, and how we want to accomplish it, so that you feel like the integral part of the festival team that you are! Thank you for reviewing the training materials and for everything you will be doing for the festival!

FESTIVAL BASICS

Festival Name: What IF… Festival of Innovation and ImaginationWhy the name: “What IF…” is the question that precedes any creative endeavorWhy have a festival: To bring the community together in a day of joy and WOWsWhy is it special: It’s a festival that’s about interaction, not about handing out flyersWho presents it: Small local non-profit Imagination Celebration, founded 29 years agoThat’s cool why? Because small groups can do big things in the community!What do they do: Creative programs, iSpace creative/community center at Citadel MallIs the festival new? No, this is the fifth year!Where is it? Downtown Colorado Springs (more details to follow)When is it? Festival day is Saturday, September 6, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Setup

will start at 5 a.m., and cleanup will continue through 6 p.m.

The Basics Q&A

OFFICIAL FESTIVAL DESCRIPTION

The What IF… Festival seeks to delight the community in the celebration of the innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the Pikes Peak region.

Produced by Imagination Celebration and presented by Xfinity, the What IF… Festival in downtown Colorado Springs offers a day of free engaging, interactive, and exciting experiences to WOW participants of all ages. The What IF… Festival,

the only event of its kind, supports economic development and intellectual vitality by welcoming over 25,000 participants to discover the breakthroughs of local

businesses, organizations, artists, scientists, inventors, performers, and students.

The Basics Q&AWho are the sponsors? Xfinity is the presenting sponsor. They will have a presence all

over the festival, including the information booths and scavenger hunt, to which we want to point as many people as possible. They have been generous and awesome!

Are there other sponsors? Yes! They include Colorado Technical University, School District 11, Century Link, Junior Achievement, Lockheed Martin, the Gazette, KCME, the Pikes Peak Library District, and the CS Independent

What else is going on? The Indy Music Awards fall within the umbrella of the What IF… Festival. They will occur the evening of Thursday, Sept. 4. On the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 5, Junior Achievement will hold a media event with rappelers rappelling off the side of the Alamo building. Rappelling will continue on Saturday.

The Basics Q&A

What happens Saturday? The Color Run begins at 8 a.m. (more info on that to come…) The festival opens, and the rappelers start at 9 a.m. Four performance stages are open all day. At 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ArcAttack will perform in the Pikes Peak Center. (more info to come…) Over 100 organizations provide interactive experiences to attendees, all really cool stuff. All experiences are free. A few limited areas require payment. Those include the food vendors, Bizarre Bazaar booths, ArcAttack performances, and entry into The Color Run.

The Basics: Experiences!

Who is offering “experiences?” Organizations, individuals, non-profits, and more.How were they selected? They entered an application describing their proposal

for an experience, which was approved by the festival planning committee

Why are they special? They paid money to enter our festival, even with an agreement not to sell stuff. They are the foundation of the festival and the reason people come.

Who should participate? Everyone of ALL AGES!!! We want adults to play too!How many people participate? Last year we estimate 25,000 attendees. We hope for

thousands more this year.

The Basics: The Color RunWhy are they here? Many reasons. We like to start with an athletic activity.

This group is the originator of this creative and popular run. Although they are a for-profit organization, they are donating much to the festival and giving to our community. It will also be used as a tool to promote local organizations.

What’s up with the color? The runners will be sprayed with color during the run. It is made of cornstarch. Someone covered in color cannot enter the Pikes Peak Center because it can fall off and leave a mark. Outside The Color Run will be cleaning up all outdoor spaces.

The Basics: ArcAttackWhy are they here? They are a great fit for the festival, as they represent both

innovation and imagination in their best forms. These guys built giant Tesla coils (more on Tesla to come…), which shoot out electricity like lightning. Normally Tesla coils don’t sing, but these do! The coils shoot beams of lightning electricity into the musicians’ instruments. They also have rock music, a fully automated robot, and other gadgets. They teach about the science behind their technology.

Have I seen them? Possibly—they made the semi-finals on America’s Got Talent. They were also on National Geographic’s Known Universe and David Blaine stunts. Watch now!

Is this special?Yes—this is their premiere show in Colorado.Are there more shows? They will also perform at the Pikes Peak Center for school audiences on

Friday, Sept. 5. We hope these kids will return with their families!

The Basics: Nikola TeslaWhere is he at What IF…? We will have a Nikola Tesla reenactor and

ArcAttack’s Tesla Coils at the festival. Colorado College will also do a feature on Tesla.

Who is he? He was an extremely important scientist, and he did some of his most important work in Colorado Springs. You’ve heard of Thomas Edison, right? Tesla’s ideas on how to transmit electricity beat out Edison’s ideas and are the way we receive our electricity today. Also, because of Tesla, our city was one of the first cities in the country to have electricity.

Tesla at his Colorado Springs laboratory

The Basics: Xfinity Treasure HuntWhat is it? Attendees will take a card at the Xfinity booth to find certain things

at the festival. They will take pictures of themselves engaging in activities that fit the descriptions and load them to our social media. When their card is complete, they will get prizes.

Why do we have it? To draw attention to our Presenting Sponsor XfinityTo provide incentive for attendees to find fun things to doTo ensure that adults engage in the activities as well as kidsTo collect wonderful festival pictures!

Are there rules? Yes! Children may not participate without adults.Only adults may upload and share their children’s pictures.Adults may participate without children, and are encouraged to do so. We want adults to PLAY!

The Basics: Festival TeamWho’s the Planning Team? They have been working on the festival for months now;

some for all five years. They have more answers than anyone. They are wearing purple shirts, and they can help!

Take me to their leader… That is Deborah Thornton, Executive Director of Imagination Celebration. Give her a hug! She came up with the festival idea and does amazing work getting it together. You’ll rarely meet anyone as dedicated to doing good in our community.

DEBORAH THORNTONHow to identify:She looks busy!

The Basics: Festival Team

Jacob KirkseyCC student who works

on the festival on a daily basis. On festival day he

is king of the walkie-talkie. He knows lots!

How to identify:He looks like he runs a

lot!

Colette LabateShe attempts to know as much as Deborah. She doesn’t, but she will do her best! On festival day, she will be on a bicycle.

How to identify:She looks like she stepped out of the 1950s!

The Basics: Festival Team

Betsy McClenahanBetsy has worked on the

festival every year and particularly

concentrates on volunteers. She too will be all over that walkie-

talkie.

How to identify:She looks authoritative!

Dan WecksHe’s Deborah’s husband and will be problem-solving on an electric vehicle on festival day. He works in particular on logistics.

How to identify:He looks concerned!

FESTIVAL LOCATIONS

Here is the festival map. There is an interactive one available online on the festival website also. We will now review each location for those who are not

familiar with the area.

Pikes Peak Center

Inside there will be experiences.

In the theater ArcAttack will be performing.

The Color Run ends

here

Festival Team Home Base

Movement Stage

Sun Building & Lawn

Beer Garden

here

The Color Run Stage

will be here

The Color Run

vendors here

The Color Run ends

in this driveway

Lockheed Martin

slingshot will be here

Bizarre Bazaar here

Xfinity Treasure

Hunt here

Colorado Springs Utilities Parking

LotThere will be food vendors here.

This alleyway takes people to the east side of

the festival.

Food vendors

People will be drawing on the sidewalks with

chalk here

Now let’s take a stroll to the east side of the festival…

That brings us to the historic Alamo building!

This is the corporate Alamo building. The

rappelling will occur off the side of this building.

This is the alleyway we used to come

from the west side of the festival.

More food vendors here

Plaza of the Rockies

There will be many experiences on the first two floors of this building.

Pioneers Museum

There will be experiences inside and outside this building, as well as two stages.

KRCC stage here Mobile music stage stage behind building

FESTIVAL VOLUNTEER CONDUCT

We ask all volunteers to behave professionally, helpfully, and positively!

It is not only the experiences that should WOW festival attendees, but also the behavior of our volunteers. Ask yourself, is there a way for me to go above and beyond for the person I am assisting?

EXAMPLE:Jo Schmo can’t figure out where the Plaza of the Rockies building is. She asks a volunteer for help.

What a normal volunteer does: Points to the Plaza building.Marks building on Jo’s map.

What a What IF… volunteer does: Walks with Jo to the building.Asks if Jo has the interactive map on her smartphone.Asks if she needs anything else.Makes sure Jo is having fun and has seen a lot of cool stuff!

EXAMPLE:

Ray Schmay is irritable. There was a long line for the experience he came to try because it is very popular. He complains to a volunteer, and no answer the What IF… volunteer, trying his best, gives him seems to make him happy.

NO MATTER WHAT the What IF… volunteer remains PLEASANT and SMILING! He asks the experience managers whether they expect the line to improve later in the day. He listens patiently while Ray vents. He suggests other experiences Ray might like.

RULES & RESOURCES

(We’re all about possibilities, but we have to have some rules!)

What ISN’T allowed at What IF…?

Non-service animals. Tell the attendee that we love dogs, but we are not allowed to have them at the festival due to city ordinance and that the police will be ticketing folks who have them there.

Political or religious proselytizing. Tell the attendee that they are welcome to do their thing outside the festival grounds. Show them where the grounds end.

No color in Pikes Peak Center seats! It could damage them.

Where can I get more information?• www.whatif-festival.org• Festival print guide (published week of festival in

the Colorado Springs Independent)• Festival information booths (located in small

Xfinity trucks)• Ask someone on the festival team!

THANK YOU!!!

We are so happy and excited to have you work with us on this wonderful festival this year! We hope you love it as much as we do!

-- The Festival Planning Team