Bright minds and big ideas sought for MKW 2019

Knowledge Week is the City of Melbourne's annual celebration of the city's best and brightest, as the community explores smart, innovative and unique solutions to improve the world's most liveable city.

Deputy Chair of the Knowledge City portfolio, Councillor Rohan Leppert, said expressions of interest are now open for event partners, organisations and speakers for the 2019 event, which will be held between Monday, 20 May and Sunday, 26 May.

"Melbourne Knowledge Week is the city's premier knowledge event, designed to tackle the biggest challenges and opportunities presented by our changing world," Cr Leppert said.

"This year's festival in May saw over 100 events entice more than 22,000 inquisitive minds to engage in a week-long showcase of incredible experiences, including everyone from universities and major corporations to start-ups, entrepreneurs and local community groups.

"In 2019 we're looking to make Melbourne Knowledge Week even more exciting, giving everyone in our community the chance to be inspired about the future of city living, technology, food, work, health, sports and art, and to celebrate Melbourne's most ambitious innovators, creators and problems solvers."

"We are looking for submissions for a range of special events, workshops, dinners and performances, while this year, for the first time, we're also asking for speakers to submit their interest in participating".

"Knowledge Week embodies the vision of sharing and exploring our city's world class research, technology and data, helping empower citizens and industries to unite to solve Melbourne's future challenges together".

Applications for organisations, event partners and speakers keen to take part in Melbourne Knowledge Week 2019 will be accepted between Friday, 20 July and Thursday, 20 September 2018.

A series of information sessions will be held at Melbourne Town Hall in August and September.

There are limited spaces available for Melbourne Knowledge Week, and all applicants will be assessed based on the quality and calibre of their submissions as well as their alignment with the festival's goals.

"As Melbourne continues to grow we must take up the challenge to evolve and innovate so that we don't get left behind," Cr Leppert said.

"This is why we want to hear from those people whose research, thoughts and innovations are already sparking the big ideas which will have a major impact on the future of our city."

For more information, or to submit an expression of interest, visit the Melbourne Knowledge Week website.