Knowledge of Design Week 2020 Connects 10,000 Innovative Minds to Co-create a Digital Future with Design

iKnowledge of Design Week 2020 Connects 10,000 Innovative Minds to Co-create a Digital Future with Design

Livestream session recordings now available until 30 September

Knowledge of Design Week (KODW) 2020, organised by Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) with Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) as the Lead Sponsor, officially concluded its successful debut as a virtual event. Livestreamed from Hong Kong over four days (26 to 29 August), KODW 2020 connected innovative leaders with the global community through over 15 thematic sessions, interactive remote workshops and an exclusive online community and networking platform.

By becoming virtual as well as more international this year, KODW attracted around 10,000 audiences from Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas. Under the theme “Designing Digital Futures for the New Normal”, audiences from different time zones joined the virtual event to take part in discussions, conversations and workshops which explored how human- centred design serves as a bridge between “digital and technology” and “human and user needs”, especially in post-pandemic times. Participants and anyone who missed KODW 2020 or would like to revisit the free thematic sessions can now watch them on-demand before 30 September at www.kodw.org.

KODW 2020 invited more than 40 local and international speakers to share their experiences in braving the new normal and critically relevant insights about emerging cross-industry trends. Here are the five sessions that drew the largest number of participants, including some speakers’ insights:

• Collaborative Creativity: Navigating Change and Ambiguity to Drive Progress

Eric Quint, Former Vice President, Chief Brand and Design Officer of 3M Company (US) said, “For me, design is all about creativity with purpose, driven by empathy. The success of design is closely linked to the level of interconnectivity of design.”

• From Content Curation to e-Commerce: New Future of Contents
  SK Lam, Founder of AllRightsReserved (HK) said, “How a creation is evaluated must be based on whether it can improve the quality of life. It's like reaping what you sow.”

• Branding in the Changed New World

Prof. Viveca Chan, Chairman and CEO of WE Marketing Group (HK) said, “There are four major trends that change consumer behaviour (since the pandemic), namely the digital acceleration, live-streaming sales models, raising health awareness, and innovation in retail channels."

• Rethinking Digital Transformation: The Role of Design

Clive Grinyer, Design Consultant of Clivegrinyer Limited and Head of Service Design of Royal College of Art (UK) said, “The fourth industrial revolution just happened. The fourth industrial revolution is about artificial intelligence, machine learning, data, digital touchpoints suddenly being in our lives. And they are here now.”

• In Conversation with Carlo Ratti: Initiatives to Deal with the Covid-19 Situation

Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT Senseable City Lab and Founding Partner of Carlo Ratti Associati (US/Italy) shared his team’s experiences, “Because we did everything open source, people around the world started taking our design and building their own. By open sourcing we’re much faster in design, in replication and execution. In a crisis we need to rethink what we do. We try something, we share it, and get feedback immediately.”

Prof. Eric Yim, JP, Chairman of HKDC, stated in his welcome speech, “Technology is a powerful tool, but shaping change that really matters requires human perspective. To reimagine a better society and future, we need to interweave technology with good design – design based on human and user needs. The creative leaders at KODW 2020 inspire us on how innovation – through the human-centred lens of design – can help us brave the new normal.”

As a special session of the KODW 2020 programme, a Roundtable on Public Service Innovation participated by civil servants will be held on 10 September, co-organised by HKDC and the Efficiency Office (EffO). This online roundtable invites three renowned cross- disciplinary speakers to share their global experience in the process and adoption of Design Thinking for designing public services, as part of HKDC’s mission to promote wider and strategic use of Design Thinking in the public sector.

Local and international audiences who found new ideas and inspiration at KODW should stay tuned for Business of Design Week (BODW) 2020, Asia’s leading event on design, innovation and brands curated under the theme “Vision 20/21”, to be held on 30 November to 5 December. More updates on the programme and speakers will be available on BODW social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and WeChat.