Designers in Innovation webinar - view from the Chair
When Stephen Green, BIDA Board Director, posted the invitation to join our ‘Designers in Innovation’ webinar a few weeks back we were hopeful of a decent turn out. The response was amazing with more than 200 at the event. This was my first experience chairing online and a tricky user experience! Not being able to see the whole audience or being able to read the body language of postage stamp size images.
Did we achieve anything? I think we did. We attracted a greater breadth of designers; design entrepreneurs, in-house designers, design consultants and design commentators. The speakers gave us a great variety of perspectives into ‘Designers in Innovation’. Mat Hunter and his investor colleagues illustrated the support being given to design entrepreneurs, Jo Barnard spoke about the importance and power of storytelling to articulate an idea, Bettina von Stamm said she was ‘both delighted and dismayed by the topic’ as its been around a while! Professor Peter Childs took a much broader interpretation by addressing how we design businesses and Ben Griffin provided the latest information on the support and value UK government is offering through Innovate UK
To some of us this topic of support is not entirely new and I’m mindful that we’ve been here before having been involved in a number of government backed design schemes in the last 35 years. So, what’s different? Well, a much bigger group engaging in the conversation, greater diversity in the experiences present and perhaps, most important in these difficult times, an underlying empathy to working out ways to support our next generation of designers.
However, there remains the fact that perhaps we spend too much time talking amongst ourselves! We can lobby government and big business and there is abundant evidence of the value of design to the economy. But, the world of SME’s makes up a significant proportion of the UK economy and despite all the promotion many still don’t benefit from the value designing creates. SME’s are also unlikely to be employers of design graduates . . . in whatever form during these difficult times.
So, can we, alongside non-designers, in forward looking interdisciplinary partnerships develop new ways of working and relevant initiatives to tackle important innovation challenges. Can we, including you, the audience, bring a non-designing SME audience to BIDAs next webinar?
Phil Gray, BIDA Director
Event videos: