It’s time to Think Big and dream even bigger.

The Innovation Collective's sixth-annual Think Big Festival will bring big ideas and big names in tech and science to the Lake City this weekend.

"I think for our community, this event represents access, mentorship and heart in a way that is hard to see in other towns," Innovation Collective founder Nick Smoot said Tuesday.

"Everyone’s together," he said. "There's this sense that this is community, this is good; the hierarchy is kind of peeled back."

Venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, inventors, e-learning experts, finance and education pros, scientists and more will spend a few days in Coeur d'Alene during the festival, which begins with a private reception Thursday evening and opens to the public with a tech-carnival block party from 3 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Innovation Den, 418 E. Lakeside Ave. The block party will feature robots, DJs and a beer garden, as well as interactive demonstrations.

"It provides a sense of accessibility to take part in something that, for a lot of people, seems far out and science fiction," said Chris Cochran, director of global communities for the Innovation Collective. "It's always awesome when you see somebody handle a piece of hardware that, on paper, looks like something from the future."

The speaking event at North Idaho College goes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and will feature speakers who have worked or currently work for companies such as Amazon, Niantic (the developer of the smash hit "Pokémon Go"), Facebook, Google, Itron, Sphero, Kootenai Health and Vicis, a headgear-technology company. Sessions will focus on topics such as money matters, reimagining education, culture shifts and tools for transforming cities.

Cochran said it's exciting that Sphero has joined the festival.

"They're the second-largest robotics education company in the world, only under Lego," he said. "They wanted to come here because they know a lot of the students are interested in robotics. They're sending some of their top brass to come out here."

City-wide tech parties will take place throughout downtown from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday — VR CDA, 115 S. Fourth St.; Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman Ave.; Emerge Art Gallery, 208 N. Fourth St.; and at the Innovation Den.

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Tickets are available at www.thinkbigfestival.com and range from $19.95 to $49.95.