Uncharted is the Bay Area’s first ideas festival: Two days of extraordinary thinking in the heart of Berkeley.

It’s an annual gathering for “infovores”: people who are intellectually engaged, eager to share ideas and grapple with the latest thinking, happy to have their preconceptions challenged.

Participants at Uncharted will be encouraged to dig into the discussions: it’s not a passive event, where you sit and let ideas wash over you. It’s also not designed as an echo chamber of like-minded people (which might surprise some who think they know Berkeley). At the root of the Uncharted philosophy is a conviction that the best thinking emerges from the contention of diverse ideas. Similarly, we have a core belief that innovation often derives from the mixing of different domains, and exploring the edge.

Uncharted is built around conversations rather than speeches or panels. The best conversations head in unexpected directions and break out of conventional, rote responses. We’ll also pepper Uncharted with “mind bombs”, short, sharp interjections of provocative new ideas. And we’re dedicating our Studio B space at Uncharted to wholly interactive sessions, where participants will collaborate with skilled facilitators on fascinating issues.

Most of all, however, Uncharted is a festival: varied, lively, surprising, fun.