Welcome to Ideas Festival!

You’ll be amazed at the diversity and energy of Ideas 2011 – from lunch with Maggie Beer tothe record-breaking attempt at the Largest Ballet Class in the World on Kurilpa Bridge, this festival has something for everyone. For those who just want to listen, the program features more than 1000 speakers. The Queensland Government has always been open to new ideas and I am personally excited that the three themes for this year’s festival are food futures, sustainability and happiness.

A great initiative has been the Queensland Government challenge launched on OpenIDEO – a global innovation platform for solving problems – and I look forward to the announcement of the top idea, submitted by people all over the world, at the festival. Another highlight will be People’s Question Time live and online from the festival.

I encourage everyone to get involved and contribute to this great forum on the future.

There’ll be workshops, music, lively conversation, comedy … and most importantly, the capacity to add your own ideas to create a clever, greener, happier future for Queensland.

The Hon. Rachel Nolan
Minister for Finance and the Arts