Jaguar Land Rover, Unilever, Electrolux and British Airways to Peak at First Product Design & Innovation Conference

Unilever, Jaguar Land Rover, Philips, Electrolux and British Airways will be sharing the secrets of successful design strategy at the new Product Design + Innovation, which takes place on 18 and 19 May 2011 at the ExCel Centre in London.

Chaired by Kevin McCullagh, director of Plan, the unique two day conference for senior industrial designers boasts a heavy-weight speaker line-up featuring leading names from the consultancy world and design heads of in-house teams including:

• Jonathan Hague, vice president of open innovation, Unilever Research and Development
• Henrik Otto, senior vice president Global Design, Electrolux
• Richard Seymour, co-founder of SeymourPowell
• Clive Grinyer, director of customer experience at Cisco IBSG
• Peter Cooke, design lead, British Airways
• Sandy Spaan, senior design consultant, Philips Design Centre
• Simon Colbeck, head of technology, Marks & Spencer,
• Professor Martin Darbyshire, chief executive of Tangerine

Chairman Kevin McCullagh said: “How often do product designers get the chance to meet, take stock of recent developments and debate the way forward? Not often enough, particularly right now. A post-recession world is taking shape, in which emerging economies no longer believe that the ways of West are best and Britain's government talks about 'rebalancing' the economy toward manufacturing. However manufacturers today usually rely on value chains that stretch to the East – and most offer services alongside the products they make. These and other shifts present real opportunities for product designers, and this conference and its great line up of speakers, offers a great chance to debate and explore different ways of seizing them.”

The programme combines inspiring keynote addresses on topics such as open innovation and sustainable design, with real case studies presented by visionary product designers whose approach to design has been fundamental to the growth of the brands they work with. Product Design + Innovation also incorporates a panel discussion exploring how design teams must adapt for the next decade and a dynamic Pecha Kucha session in which academics, designers and entrepreneurs explore where great ideas actually come from. Meanwhile sessions on intellectual property, technology transfer and materials development will provide essential updates for the design community who will also be encouraged to exchange ideas and explore new partnership opportunities through the networking sessions.

Product Design + Innovation is supported by British Design Innovation (BDI), the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) and media partner DEVELOP3D magazine. Verband Deutscher Industrie Designer (VDID) in Germany is an international supporting partner and the event organiser is also a member of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID).
Delegates attending Product Design + Innovation will also have free access to the co-located Plastics Design & Moulding conference and exhibition (pdm 11).
For the full programme and booking information, see the official website www.pdesigni.com which includes product design news and blogs as well as speaker biographies.

About Product Design + Innovation:
Product Design + Innovation is a unique new conference for product design professionals and is organised by Crain Communications which also owns the Plastics Design and Moulding Exhibition (www.pdmevent.com) and publishes
leading plastics publications Plastics & Rubber Weekly, European Plastics News and Plastics News. Website: www.pdesigni.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/pdesigni

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This release was published on openPR.