Festival Expedition, a conference to teach people how to host a children's water event, will be March 18-19 in Grand Island, Neb. Expedition is a wrap-around conference associated with the Children's Groundwater Festival. Both events are hosted by The Groundwater Foundation, a national nonprofit organization with a mission of educating people to care about and for ground water.

Expedition is open to anyone interested in learning how to host a children's water event of any size, but is particularly helpful for people planning large events. The Children's Groundwater Festival is expecting 1,700 children at this year's March 19 event, as well as 40 classroom presenters, four different stage shows, two outdoor displays and 12 stations in an exhibit hall.

The Expedition program features a behind-the-scenes look at Festival setup and volunteer training, a structured tour as well as free time on the day of the Festival, and a question and answer session with Festival organizers. A special feature of this year's Expedition will be a two-hour workshop on evaluation conducted by Mary Marsters, a nationally recognized expert on program evaluation. Each conference registrant will also receive a complete set of written materials on organizing a water event.