A music video director, podcast host and other young creative professionals will speak to more than 600 regional high school and middle school students at this year’s IdeaFestival.

The festival, which is in its fourth year, will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Western Kentucky University’s Downing Student Union. Sponsored by WKU’s Center for Gifted Studies, the event will feature a line up of morning speaker sessions and afternoon activities.

Julia Roberts, executive director of the Center for Gifted Studies and the Gatton Academy, said the event aims to spark creativity and innovation in the minds of the students attending.

“I want young people to always be thinking in new ways,” Roberts said.

Students will start the day with an improvised musical warm-up exercise led by Zachary Bush, of Zachary Bush Voice and Acting Studio.

After that, one of two alumni panels will take up the topic of creative technologies and how students can pursue their goals. Panelists include Max Moore of Max Moore Films and Vilas Entertainment, Luiggi Carlin of Southern Made Co. and Megan Tan, who created and hosts the podcast Millennial.

A second panel will focus on social entrepreneurship and includes Hannah Drake of IDEAS xLab; Alex Kimura, executive director and co-founder of Sharing America’s Marrow and WKU freshman Kenan Mujkanovic, founder and chief executive officer of the Young Visionaries Foundation.

Several hands-on activities will run from noon to 2:30 p.m., including a space for students to create and work on projects, 3D printers and computer coding lessons. Local artist Andee Rudloff will also facilitate the painting of a mural specifically for the 2017 IdeaFestival.

Other activities include writing poetry in circles, practicing business pitches, a photo booth and many other activities.

Erika Solberg, special program coordinator at the Center for Gifted Studies, described the student event as “a chance to celebrate their own curiosity, creativity and innovation and too see how many other kids there are like them.”

Solberg said interested schools can register at http://www.wku.edu/gifted/ideafestivalbg/.