Draft:Imagine RIT

Submission declined on 30 May 2026 by LuniZunie (talk). This draft's references do not show that the event meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for events. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that: provide significant coverage: discuss the event in detail, not just brief mentions or routine announcements; show lasting significance: analysis published after the initial breaking news has passed, showing historical impact; are reliable: from reputable outlets with editorial oversight; are independent: not connected to the event, such as press releases, the event or organizers own website, or sponsored content. Please add references that meet all four of these criteria. If none exist, the subject is not yet suitable for Wikipedia. If you would like to continue working on the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. If you have not resolved the issues listed above, your draft will be declined again and potentially deleted. If you need extra help, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. Please do not remove reviewer comments or this notice until the submission is accepted. Where to get help If you need help editing or submitting your draft, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. These venues are only for help with editing and the submission process, not to get reviews. If you need feedback on your draft, or if the review is taking a lot of time, you can try asking for help on the talk page of a relevant WikiProject. Some WikiProjects are more active than others so a speedy reply is not guaranteed. How to improve a draft Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a basic overview on how to edit Wikipedia. Help:Wikitext – how to use the markup Help:Referencing for beginners – how to include references Wikipedia:Article development – how to develop your article Wikipedia:Writing better articles – how to improve your article Wikipedia:Verifiability – make sure your article includes reliable third-party sources You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Add tags to your draft Editor resources Easy tools: Citation bot (help) | Advanced: Fix bare URLs Declined by LuniZunie 2 months ago. Last edited by ~2026-31555-75 2 months ago. Reviewer: Inform author. Resubmit Please note that if the issues are not fixed, the draft will be declined again.

Submission declined on 24 February 2026 by CostalCal (talk). This draft appears to contain text generated by a large language model (such as ChatGPT). You cannot use LLMs to generate article content. LLM-generated pages with certain obvious signs of being machine generated may be deleted without notice. Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. See the advice page on large language models for more information. Declined by CostalCal 5 months ago.

• Comment: If Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tora-Con can have an article, then this article should be accepted. This is actually way more notable than Tora-Con. ~2026-31212-44 (talk) 00:55, 31 May 2026 (UTC)
• Comment: The article seems to be polished using WP:AI. CostalCal (talk) 06:11, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival is an annual public festival at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Henrietta, New York. The free, one-day event features interactive exhibits, research demonstrations, and performing arts by RIT students, faculty, and staff.^[1][2] First held in 2008, it has grown into one of the region's largest public events, drawing crowds in the tens of thousands and approaching 400 exhibits in recent years.^[1][3]

William W. Destler proposed the festival during an open forum while a candidate for RIT's presidency in 2007, arguing that RIT had an "unfair advantage" for such an event because of its mix of technology, arts, and science programs alongside the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.^[4][5] Barry Culhane, Destler's executive assistant, was named the festival's first chairman and had eight months to organize it.^[6] Culhane chose the name "Imagine RIT" after hearing the John Lennon song on the radio shortly after being assigned the project.^[7]

The first festival, held May 3, 2008, drew approximately 17,500 visitors.^[8][9] Attendance reached 25,000 in 2009 and exceeded 30,000 by 2010.^[10]

The festival's reach widened over its first decade; by 2017 cumulative attendance since 2008 had reached nearly 270,000.^[11] The 2018 event drew a then-record number of exhibitors and introduced a new performing-arts contest,^[12] and the 2025 festival set a new record with 434 exhibits.^[3][13]

RIT's communications office produced a mini-documentary, Inside Imagine RIT, about the inaugural 2008 festival.^[14]

For its promotional and outreach work around the festival, RIT received gold medals from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II for Community Relations and Best Practices in Communications, as well as a national gold award in the Special Events category of the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.^[15][16]

The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[17] A virtual version was held in 2021 with over 250 exhibit videos posted online, the first time RIT's global campuses participated.^[18][17] The in-person festival returned in April 2022 with a hybrid format of 272 in-person and 77 virtual exhibits, with attendees required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.^[19][20]

Starting in 2023, students from RIT Croatia, RIT Dubai, and RIT Kosovo traveled to Rochester to present exhibits.^[21][5] The number of proposals from global campuses grew from 28 in 2024 to 80 in 2025.^[5]

The festival takes place on a Saturday in late April or early May, usually two weeks before RIT's commencement, running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free.^[1][9][2]

Exhibits are organized into color-coded zones spanning the campus and cover subjects including robotics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biomedical engineering, sustainability, and design.^[1][22] Recurring exhibits include a human-sized hamster wheel built by Engineering House students, miniature amusement rides by Theme Park Enthusiasts, glassblowing demonstrations, and a concrete canoe project.^[9]

A Futurists Symposium has been held the day before the main festival since 2019, featuring RIT alumni speaking about trends in technology, arts, and design.^[23][5][24]

Introduced in 2022, the Technology, the Arts, and Design (TAD) Competition awards $5,000 prizes to student exhibits that combine all three disciplines.^[25] Categories include solving problems, visual communication, and storytelling through enhanced realities.^[26]

Sean Petterson and Justin Hillery first showed their industrial safety wearables at Imagine RIT while students, later founding StrongArm Technologies; Petterson was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017, and the company was acquired in 2023.^[5][27] Kailey Bradt displayed a waterless powder shampoo at the festival before launching OWA Haircare.^[5]

• Rochester Institute of Technology
• William W. Destler
• Science festival

• Official website
• Inside Imagine RIT, mini-documentary on the inaugural 2008 festival (RIT)