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Upcoming Conferences

Business Innovation Factory
September 15, 2010
Philanthropic and independent organization, founded in 2004, which emphasizes implementation of new ideas, especially in the spheres of healthcare, education and energy. BIF also maintains an Innovation Story Studio with digital material from its creative community.

Picnic Conference
September 22, 2010
Three-day event in the Netherlands connecting media technology, entertainment, art and science. Runs concurrent Picnic Labs, workshops for the development and review of new business ideas.

Opportunity Green
September 22, 2010
"Forge new strategic partnerships and explore the latest in sustainable strategies and best practices to lead your organization to success. Get the inside view on the hottest topics, trends and technologies at the premier green business event focused on creating new opportunities through sustainability."

Idea Festival
September 29, 2010
Brings together creative thinkers in science, the arts, design, business, film, technology and education. Hosts presentation of annual Curry Stone Design Prize ($100,000), given to "an individual who has demonstrated breakthrough design solutions with the power and potential to improve our lives and our world."

A Better World by Design
October 01, 2010
Brings together a global community of innovators to investigate the ways in which technology, design and enterprise can change communities and the environment for the better. Sessions take place on the campuses of neighbors Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, and students from these institutions run the program.

International Design & Emotions Conference
October 04, 2010
Sponsored by the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Design & Emotion Society, this biannual forum is where practitioners, researchers and industry leaders meet and exchange knowledge and insights concerning the cross-disciplinary field of design and emotion. The conference will offer workshops, research paper presentations, design case presentations, and poster presentations.

6th Annual Design, Art & Technology Symposium
October 09, 2010
DATS 2010 explores how food-related designs can help to develop a sustainable culture of healthy lifestyles through good eating. Interdisciplinary teams are creating implements, furnishings and environments to promote thinking and learning about healthy food, in every aspect of our experience. Creative works featured at DATS'10 reflect consideration of nutritious food, sensible diets, appealing tables, creative kitchens, convivial dining spaces, local growing, conscientious farming, fair trade, efficient supply chains, equitable distribution, engaging education and vibrant regional growth. The legacy of Charles & Ray Eames informs appreciation of the power in considering different scales of experience for generating effective art and designs. Powers of 10 Day is part of the DATS'10 program and inspires many of the events and featured projects.

Service Design Conference
October 13, 2010
The Service Design Network, established in 2004 by Köln International School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Linköpings Universitet, Politecnico de Milano, Domus Academy and the agency Spirit of Creation. The basic idea is to create an international network for organizations and institutions dealing with service design. This year, the SDN conference, entitled "Connecting the Dots," will take place in Berlin.

AIGA Gain
October 14, 2010
Design has the power to change the direction of businesses, provide fuel for economies and even change lives. Provocative thinkers from a wide range of disciplines will inspire and reinvigorate at this year’s “Gain: AIGA Design and Business” conference, which will focus on the theme “Design (Re)Invents.”

Feast Conference
October 15, 2010
The Feast Conference gathers the world's greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change.

PopTech
October 20, 2010
A three-day summit hosted in a 19th-century opera house in Camden, Maine, that explores technology, new ideas in the social and physical sciences, and other forces of change. Presentations run from lectures to short films to musical performances. Supports fellowship program.

TED Women
December 07, 2010
How are women and girls reshaping the future? The first ever TEDWomen invites men and women to explore this question in depth: From the developing world, where a single micro-loan to a single girl can transform a village; to the West, where generations of educated women are transforming entire industries. The diverse international program takes a long look at women through the lens of change agent, intellectual innovator, idea champion ...

Compostmodern
January 22, 2011
This interdisciplinary conference brings together designers, manufacturers and business leaders to address questions from a design point of view about what makes a socially and ecologically responsible society.

World Economic Forum
January 26, 2011
For more than four decades, the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos has provided leaders from industry, government, academia, civil society and the media with an unrivalled platform to shape the global agenda and catalyse solutions at the start of each year. The diversity and the informal and collaborative “spirit of Davos” mean that, as well as engaging with familiar faces, participants have the chance to connect with people they don’t know, who challenge the way they think and act.

TED Long Beach
February 28, 2011
A gathering place for the country’s leading entrepreneurs and social change agents, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) runs a conference in Long Beach, California, each February and a summer conference abroad (e.g., Oxford, England). TEDIndia launches in November 2009. The website offers networking opportunities as well as a chance to view videotaped presentations, which have been translated into scores of languages. Also supports a fellowship program.

Include 2011
April 18, 2011
The Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art is pleased to announce the sixth International conference on Inclusive Design.

The theme for Include 2011 will be: The Role of Inclusive Design in Making Social Innovation Happen

As a concept, social innovation has growing currency in society, government, academia and business. It manifests itself in many different ways in different contexts. Its meanings extend from public service and policy innovation to initiatives in assistive technology and to aspects of civic participation and creative entrepreneurship.

In all of these areas, design has a key role to play. It can make policy visible and participation possible.

In particular, inclusive design can deliver innovations of social value to communities and markets.

The Include 2011 international conference at the Royal College of Art seeks papers on all design aspects that catalyse social innovation, in particular:

* Organisation - what design tools, techniques, frameworks and networks support and enhance social innovation?
* Origins - how has social innovation emerged as a design construct and in what ways does it manifest itself?
* Outputs - research studies and design exemplars of social innovation, drawn from public space, health, transport and other key domains.

TED Global
July 11, 2011
What is life? And how can it be better lived? From the secrets of the biological processes that take place in our body, to the cultural constructs that take place in our society; From the technologies and resources that make life possible and enjoyable, to the themes that define our humanity -- or threaten it: TEDGlobal 2011 will be a celebration of life, in all its forms.

All Conferences & Events >>

Academic Programs

Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship
Program at New York University for educating and inspiring a new generation of leaders in public service. A select group of undergraduate and graduate NYU students are chosen annually to learn cross-disciplinary skills for producing sustainable and scalable solutions to demanding social problems.

Austin Center for Design
Austin Center for Design exists to transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems. The Center offers an innovative curriculum that repositions creative design education in the context of designing for the public sector.

Studio H
Studio H is a one-year high school program for the Bertie County School District in rural North Carolina that combines design thinking, vocational trade skills training, and community citizenship to equip low-opportunity teenagers with critical creative problem solving skills for life. An innovative pedagogical approach, Studio H will empower struggling students through highly collaborative hands-on learning, engage educational capacities to the fullest, and provide a diverse skillset for the next generation to access broader job markets, improve their community and excel academically in the state’s poorest and most racially polarized county.

More Academic Programs >>

Competitions

INDEX Design Challenge : Design for Education
The INDEX: Design Challenge asks design and business students, as well as cross-disciplinary student teams, to develop design solutions for better education and education environments in developing regions. The challenge centers around three sub-themes: Improved Education Facilities; Sanitation and Hygiene; and Gender Parity in Education. As well, the contest features an open challenge. Participants from all design disciplines are invited to enter the challenge.

Re:Vision
Initiative to create the prototype for an innovative, sustainable urban community. At the heart of the process is a series of contests generating visionary ideas for what can and should be done in the design of urban space.

More Competitions >>

Fellowships & Prizes

PopTech Social Innovation Fellows
The PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program is designed to equip world-changing innovators with the tools, insights, visibility and social network that can help them scale their impacts to new heights. Each year, PopTech selects 10-20 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like healthcare, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement, among many others.

INDEX:awards
The INDEX:Award is the main driver of INDEX:'s mission to generate more Design to Improve Life of higher quality all over the world. The award receives nominations from all over the globe – and from these nominations, the INDEX: international jury selects the best as finalists, and the very best as winners of the biennial award, amounting to a total sum of 500,000 euros. Each of the five winners represents one of the INDEX:Award categories – Body, Home, Work, Play and Community – that together span the spectrum of human activity and are relevant and understandable to people all over the world.

The Secretary's Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls
The Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls seeks to find and bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe. Founded on the premise that the major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our time cannot be solved without the full participation of women at all levels of society, this award supports the Department of State’s commitment to the advancement of women globally.

More Fellowships & Prizes >>

Organizations

Designers Without Borders
Non-profit consortium of designers and design educators working to assist institutions of the developing world with their communication needs.

Interaction Institute for Social Change
"We are a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of collaboration within the social sector to create a just and sustainable world. IISC provides consulting, facilitation, network building, leadership development, and training services so that our clients can innovate, think strategically and take vision to action. We build the capacity of all with whom we work by modeling the behaviors and transferring the skills and tools of collaboration. "Today our focus is on integrating technology and new social media to achieve greater social impact in all of our collaborative work."

Design Seed Enterprise Creation Lab
Organization founded out of Auburn University's industrial design department to improve the social conditions of Alabama’s poverty-stricken Black Belt, a region of a dozen counties named for the rich soil. The lab employs design thinking and aggressive business practices to develop local manufacturing enterprises with the potential to create hundreds of jobs.

More Organizations >>

Programs & Initiatives

The Mayors' Institute on City Design
National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored program that helps mayors to be the leading urban designers of their cities. Every year, the institute holds half a dozen two-and-a-half-day sessions attended by mayors and development professionals.

DESIS Lab at Parsons
The DESIS Lab advances the practice and discourse of design-enabled social innovation toward more sustainable cities. The DESIS-Lab conducts applied research into the ways in which design can enhance community-led initiatives in the development of more sustainable ways of living and working. The DESIS Lab brings together faculty and students from across the disciplines at The New School, led by Parsons The New School for Design and Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

Kickstarter
"Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors and explorers."

More Programs & Initiatives >>

Publications & Websites

Treehugger
Website that is "the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. . . . We strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions and product information."

Engineering for Change
Engineering for Change is an online environment bringing together engineers and other problem solvers with NGOs and local communities to address basic quality of life issues such as access to clean water, electricity and proper sanitation.

Appropedia
Wiki for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development through the use of appropriate technology and the sharing of project information.

More Publications & Websites >>

Social Networks

Open Architecture Network
An online, open-source community founded by Architecture for Humanity. Offers a place where designers can share ideas and projects and host or participate in competitions

Design 21
UNESCO and the Japan-based company Felissimo are behind this network, which connects designers, businesses and nonprofits for the greater good and hosts competitions to create socially minded products and graphics.

BOP Source
"Social network that closes the digital divide, bringing together the 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (the 'BOP') with the companies and NGOs that want to hire them and design products and services for them."

More Social Networks >>

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