Imagine RIT wins national award

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The annual Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival, which showcases the diverse, innovative culture of Rochester Institute of Technology, has received a top honor from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The festival has been named the gold award winner at the national level in the special events category of the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.

“The award serves to reward RIT for embracing the exciting innovation and creativity that our students, faculty and staff demonstrate to the Greater Rochester community in a hands-on way,” says Barry Culhane, RIT’s executive assistant to the president and chairman of the Imagine RIT festival since its inception in 2008.

Earlier this year, CASE District II, the largest of the organization’s eight districts, awarded Imagine RIT with a gold medal for community relations and a gold medal in the category of best practices in communications. RIT also received an honorable mention for media relations for the festival.

“The festival serves as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship throughout campus and is spawning student-led ventures,” says Bob Finnerty, chief communications officer at RIT, who oversees marketing and public relations for the festival. “The mission of the festival is to spark an interest among our young people and demonstrate to them how science, technology and the arts can be fun and rewarding. We see the festival as a call to national service and we are pleased with this national recognition.”

CASE is a national association of educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas.

In the six years since Imagine RIT was first held, nearly 175,000 visitors have attended the festival. It is held annually on the first Saturday of May and next year’s event is scheduled for May 3, 2014.