Hong Kong Design Centre

From century-old businesses like IBM to millennial startups such as Airbnb and Uber, design has become an integral part of the success of businesses. The two fields have been conjoined to blaze new trails in creating new business models and game-changing innovations. At a time when ‘good design is good business’ and vice versa are equally true, we are witnessing an ever stronger synergy between the two and their impact is spilling over into other sectors.

For Asia’s leading event on design and business, look no further than the Business of Design Week (BODW), Hong Kong Design Centre’s (HKDC) annual flagship event on design, innovation and brands. Debuted in 2002, it has been providing a world-beating platform for influential leaders and professionals of business, design and other sectors to network, exchange ideas and explore business collaborations. BODW has made its name as a signature event which reinforces Hong Kong’s position as a world-class hub in Asia for business communities and the creative industries.

Paving the way to its 17th edition, BODW 2018 breaks new ground by partnering up with Melbourne, the first partner city from the southern hemisphere in the event’s decade-long history. A city with widely acclaimed liveability, named the world’s most liveable city for seven years’ running, Melbourne is bringing its most reputed design and business experts and their forefront insights to stimulate discussions on innovations in branding, space, communication, product, culture and creative leadership. The event theme ‘Think ‧ Collaborate ‧ Create’ succinctly expresses the three actions that underpin the contemporary cross-sector and multi-disciplinary approach led by successful designers and businesses.

Each year, BODW is anchored by a lineup of pioneering creative minds and a week of meticulously curated programmes. While the speakers’ list is still growing, currently confirmed speakers include the world’s leading trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, Charles Renfro (Partner of the New York-based interdisciplinary design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Tony Chambers (Brand & Content Director of Wallpaper*), branding and design master Ken Cato AO (Chairman & Global Creative Director, Cato Brand Partners), winner of an Apple Design Award 2018 Ken Wong (Creative Director and Founder of Mountains, a craft game studio from Melbourne), award-winning Chicagoan architect Carol Ross Barney, FAIA and Martha Thorne (Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize), amongst others.

Since the beginning of this year, HKDC has been proactively building ties with Melbourne through a portfolio of lead-in events. The Melbourne leg of DXHK presented the works of 8 budding Hong Kong designers to their Australian counterparts and public audience during Melbourne Design Week this March. During Knowledge of Design Week (KODW) in June, Australian speakers - Jill Garner from the Office of the Victorian Government Architect and Sam Hannah-Rankin, Director of Public Sector Innovation of the Victorian State Government - broadened the audience’s perspectives with their state-led innovation in urban planning and in the public sector.

These collaborative experiences with Melbourne certainly proved to be fruitful and valuable while building momentum to the widely anticipated BODW. We can’t wait to open the door to more dialogues, exchanges and collaborations to foster more connections between business and design in the Asia-Pacific region. More speakers and programme updates to come, stay tuned!

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