For 25 years, Rowan Lodge has been creating and implementing architecture solutions across the globe, representing major retail labels in the sectors of fashion, sporting apparel and cosmetics.

In 2007, Rowan was responsible for delivering one of the world’s largest retail rollout programs for the Adidas Group, Asia Pacific. In 2011, he relocated from Hong Kong to the Adidas headquarters in Germany. It was from here that he drove the creative development of Adidas’ future Retail Concepts strategy globally, including retail design solutions for Adidas Originals, Y3, Adidas by Stella McCartney, and Adidas Sports Performance.

In 2014, Rowan returned home to Australia, joining Aesop as Head of Retail Design. Rowan has a sincere interest in intelligent and sustainable design. As a brand, Aesop have delighted by the unexpected affinities that have come from the negotiation of differences involved in establishing new stores – by means of immersion in unfamiliar landscapes, investigation of local materials, engagement with local culture and history, and of course development of fertile new relationships. During Rowan’s tenure the Aesop store portfolio has grown by 70% with a further measured and sustainable growth strategy of future new stores and counters in existing and new markets across the globe.

Julian Ma has been with Tencent since 2008. He oversees Tencent’s map, vehicle connectivity and autonomous driving business. Prior to his current position, he had led Tencent’s corporate strategy and search business line.

Ma is a recognized expert in internet and technology. He also has extensive experience with consumer goods, retail and logistics.

Ma was previously with A.T. Kearney, a global management consultancy, where he was Principal and the Head of Communication & High-Tech Practice in Greater China. He also worked for Motorola in cellular network business.

Ma received B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and MBA from IMD in Switzerland.

Rainer has more than 15 years of professional creative experience and is the frog lead for the financial services and telecommunications industries. He heads up the Creative team of technologists, interactive designers, and visual designers in Shanghai and has been working in the Asia region for over 7 years.

Before joining frog, Rainer worked at iconmobile in London as Head of strategic design. He also worked at Vodafone Group where he managed the concept design team and design specification team and was responsible for defining, validating and executing future service concepts that support the group’s vision and strategy. Prior to that he was the Creative lead for Sapient.

Rainer holds a degree in psychology and focused on ergonomics, user centred design processes and evaluation during his study.

Rainer has spoken at conferences such as The Bloomberg Green Summit, Internet of Things Asia, and is frequently quoted in China’s top tier media.

Zishu Zhou, Spencer, is a researcher and multidisciplinary designer from Beijing, China. Inspired by his MA studies in Narrative Environment of Central Saint Martins, London, he builds the Digua Community, which is transformed from an air defence basement to a new sharing space for local residents. He is also a lecturer in the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Patrick Blanc was born in 1953 in Paris and became Docteur d’Etat ès Sciences, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 in 1989. Blanc is both a Botanist and an Artist. Blanc created a soilless system allowing the realization of Vegetal Walls. This was patented in 1988.

After the first public Vertical Garden created in Paris in 1986, Blanc created about 300 Vertical Gardens all over the world, indoor and outdoor, under various climates, from Riyadh to New York. Blanc worked with world-famous architects including Jean Nouvel, Kazuyo Sejima, Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando and more.

Blanc received many awards including the Botany award, French Academy of Sciences in 1993. Blanc’s Vertical Garden was listed as “One of 50 Best Inventions of the Year”, Time Magazine in 2009.

Blanc created the world’s tallest plant installation of climbers: Le Nouvel in Kuala Lumpur with Architect Jean Nouvel in 2015.

Blanc’s book The Vertical Garden, from Nature to the City, Norton Press, 2008 and 2012 for the second edition, is the world’s major publication regarding the Vertical Garden.

Blanc is a world famous botanist and discovered a new species of Begonia which was named after him Begonia blancii. Blanc was also the Scientific Director of the « Canopy Raft » expeditions in French Guyana (1986 and 1989) and in Cameroon (1989).

Cécile Poignant is a Trend Forecaster based in Paris. She is specialized in contemporary lifestyles. She studies with passion for 30 years, the ever changing socio-cultural trends. Her savoir-faire is to find the weak signals that announce major future trends to be able to anticipate new behaviors.

Currently, Poignant is editing Trend Tablet, a web platform resource for creative minds, she develops strategic studies for international brands in the field of design, food, beauty or new technologies.

She is also involved in international conferences and conducts workshops with professionals. She teaches and shares her experience in several schools including: Parsons Paris, IFM Paris, ESCP Europe.

Office for Product Design is an international design studio formed in 2007 by Nicol Boyd and Tomas Rosén, who originally began their collaboration while studying at the Royal College of Art in London.

Office for Product Design’s work spans a wide range of sectors, including homeware, consumer electronics, furniture and lighting, for clients that range from hardware start-ups to global brands. The practice is rooted in an experimental yet rigorous approach and is often characterised by a search for simplicity, a preference for clear forms and contextual relevance. The resulting work is frequently based around simple observations or insights, which are distilled into a form that represents the very essence of the idea.

The office is based in Hong Kong, with a presence in Stockholm and Taipei.

Nicol Boyd was born in 1976 in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied at the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He previously worked for Alessi (Italy), IDEO (USA/UK/Germany) and Nokia (UK).

Tomas Rosén was born in 1975 in Stockholm, Sweden, and studied at Linköping University and the Royal College of Art. He previously worked for Volvo, Scania (Sweden) and Nokia (UK).

Aric Chen is Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+. Previously, he served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week, helping to oversee the successful launch of that event in 2011 and 2012. Prior to moving to Beijing, Chen was an independent curator, critic, and journalist based in New York, organizing exhibitions and projects at the Design Museum Holon, Design Miami/Basel, the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale, Center for Architecture (New York), and ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam. He is the author of Brazil Modern (Monacelli, 2016), and has been a frequent contributor to publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, Architectural Record, and PIN–UP.

The artistic practice of Chris Cheung (honhim) reflects his beliefs in Chinese Philosophy and his works combine traditional and futuristic ideas. Inspired by the Zhuang Zhou, his earliest work “The happiness of fish” presents his thoughts on objectivism and subjectivism verse the initiative of interactivity and the death of the author. He is always exploring new medium and finding aesthetic in technological intervention. His creations won him awards in the Reddot, TDC, GDC11, Design for Asia awards and New York Art Director Club Young Guns 11. He received the Young Artist Award from HKADC and the Young Design Talent Awards from HKDC in 2010 and 2011 respectively. He founded XEX and XCEED, the collective works have been showcased worldwide. Recently, the work “RadianceScape” is selected for the exhibition in Ars Electronica Festival. In the 1st HK-SZ Design Biennale, he was appointed as the artistic director and curator of the New Media and Tech Pavilion.

Chris also composes music for films and TV commercials. He formed an electronic duo – VIM (Volt in Music) in 2008 and the band was selected by Time Out Magazine and CNNGO as “one of the top 10 Hong Kong indie band” in 2009.

Richard Ekkebus is the Culinary Director at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, overseeing all cuisine at one of the city’s most luxurious and distinctive five-star hotels. Under Ekkebus’s guidance, Amber, the hotel’s modern French restaurant was, for the eighth consecutive year, awarded two Michelin stars by the Michelin Guide for Hong Kong and Macau 2016.

In 2015, Ekkebus was awarded the “Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Merite” by the President of the French Republic Francoise Hollande. Created in 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle, The Order of Merit recognises distinguished service to France, in the public and private sectors.

Ekkebus began his illustrious career via an apprenticeship in his native Holland under Michelin-starred chefs Hans Snijders and Robert Kranenborg. In Holland, he won the prestigious Golden Chef’s Hat for “Young Chef of the Year”, an honour that encouraged him to further perfect his art under the tutelage of some of the greatest three-star chefs in France, including Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard and Guy Savoy.

Following that, Ekkebus held executive chef positions first at the Royal Palm in Mauritius and then at The Sandy Lane in Barbados. He accepted the same role for The Landmark Mandarin Oriental in 2005.

Trained in the conventions of classic French cuisine, Ekkebus is much admired for his fresh ideas and innovative spirit.

With over 30 years’ experience in the world of hospitality as General Manager of five-star hotels in United Kingdom, the British Virgin Islands, Bahrain, Dubai, Indonesia, PRC – China, Singapore and Hong Kong, Richard Hatter joined Hotel ICON, as General Manager in 2006.

Hatter undertook the task of successfully planning and implementing Hotel ICON’s commercial and operational strategies, leading his team creating and developing the Brand DNA to ensure clarity on the employee and customer brand message, overseeing the opening and management of the 262-room elevated luxury hotel.

In addition, Hatter works closely with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and its School of Hotel Tourism Management on curriculum design, hotel and school integration and implementation of various internship programs.

Hatter was previously Corporate Director of Development at Shangri-la hotels and resorts in Hong Kong, responsible for renovations and re-branding hotels in the group.

Hatter is active within the hospitality industry and holds the position of Chairman of the Hong Kong Chapter at the Institute of Hospitality, is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality (FIH), an Adjunct Associate Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he lectures, and consults on ICON’s innovation strategies at numerous leading trade events and conferences.

Jordan Kostelac is a Senior Workplace Strategist in JLL’s Consulting business for Asia Pacific, providing expertise on workplace optimisation, project management, user experience, process improvement and change management.

Kostelac has lead large transition efforts across Asia and North America including global initiatives. Prior to relocating to Hong Kong. He spent 13 years in the FMCG industry developing processes for multinational direct-to-consumer retail operations (eCommerce). His cross-sector experience includes organizations like Gap Inc., Shiseido, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Standard Chartered Bank, Li & Fung, and many others.

In addition to his professional endeavours, Kostelac is Development Director for HKwalls, an internationally recognized non-profit street art festival that is transforming Hong Kong neighbourhoods intersection Sham Shui Po, Stanley Market, and Sheung Wan in to galleries of public art. The intersection of these two passions creates opportunity to inject creativity into even the most traditional organizations and their approach to work styles.

Christine Loh was the Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit public policy think tank Civic Exchange prior to joining the HKSAR Government in September 2012. Prior to founding Civic Exchange in 2000, Loh had spent nearly a decade as a politician and member of the Legislative Council (1992-97 and 1998-2000).

Before joining the Legislative Council, Loh held senior regional positions in commodities trading, as well as in project negotiation. Having been very active in public affairs since 1980, she had founded or served on boards of a wide range of non-governmental organisations in Hong Kong and overseas concerning a variety of issues including environmental protection, urban planning and design, and equal opportunity. Loh is a lawyer by training.

Guy is a partner in PwC’s Experience Centre in the China Consulting practice based in Hong Kong. He is a marketing industry veteran of over 17 years. Guy has a broad range of agency experience across Europe, Australia and Asia, and currently serves as Chair and Founding Member of The Marketing Society Asia.

Guy has delivered impactful marketing and brand experiences for clients in a variety of industries, including Hospitality, Education, Banking and Insurance. Prior to joining PwC, Guy served as CEO of fluid HK, a Hong Kong based creative and digital agency, successfully growing the firm to its award-winning status in the field of marketing, creative and agency culture in the last three years.

Guy is a believer in driving meaningful change through integrated marketing built on solid brand and digital strategy, bringing with him an endless passion and enthusiasm to everything he does.

Johan Persson (1971), a Swedish native with a 20-year track record of brand and design management. His brand and industrial design consultancy in Hong Kong is strategy and research-driven, operating at the intersection of business, brand and design.

Johan is credited with being one of the early influencers to identify and tackle the challenge of a widening gorge between market insight and production output. He came to Hong Kong in 2004 with the backing of two pioneering Scandinavian agencies – No Picnic and Veryday. Positioned in Hong Kong – the gateway where East meet West and the best possible embarkation port to manufacturing in China – Johan’s studio is poised to reap the geographical benefits by increasing speed, improving concept feasibility and gaining access to early idea validation to maintain design integrity throughout the Chinese manufacturing process.

Johan’s extensive experience is supplemented by a strong educational background. MSc Industrial design (BA) Umeå University. UID, National College of Art Craft and Design, Stockholm 2001. Winner of large scholarship upon graduation. 2 time Swedish Young Designer Of The Year (Ung Svensk Form 2000, 2001). Finalist in the Braun Prize 2002 and numerous design jury assignments.

Duncan Pescod joined the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) in October 2014 as Chief Operating Officer, and assumed duty as Chief Executive Officer on 3 August 2015. He has 33 years of service in Hong Kong with the Government during which he has served in various bureaux and departments.

Based in Brussels, Belgium, he was Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the European Communities from March 2006 to August 2008. On his return to Hong Kong, he took up the post of Permanent Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (Communications and Technology) from August 2008 to April 2010, and then Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing (Housing) and Director of Housing from May 2010 to April 2014. He retired in October 2014.

Married with three children and two grandchildren. Pescod is an avid walker with his English Cocker Spaniel Archie and enjoys photography and listening to music.

Eric Schuldenfrei is the Associate Dean for Special Projects and Communications at the University of Hong Kong Architecture Faculty. His most recent book The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: A Universal Sense of Expectation was published in 2015 and focuses on architecture, politics, cinema and education. Together with Marisa Yiu, he founded ESKYIU – a multi-disciplinary architecture studio integrating culture, art, community and technology. He has previously taught at Princeton University, Columbia University, and the Architectural Association in London and has recently presented at DLD in Moscow on the topic of Future Cities, at the V&A museum, Harvard University AsiaGSD series, the University of Cambridge, and the Royal College of Art in London.

Todd Wood is a Canadian Industrial Designer with over 25 years experience creating beautiful and functional products. Over the course of his career, he has built, developed and scaled multi-discipline design teams for innovative companies including Nortel, Nokia and BlackBerry. Todd holds over one hundred design and utility patents, and his designs have sold in the hundreds of millions. His work has been exhibited at museums and recognized globally with Red Dot, IF, and IDEA awards. In 2016, Todd established Venn — Industrial Design Reactor, a Hong Kong-based studio and lab backed by the founders of Cosmosupplylab. Venn helps ambitious product creators re-define the possible for industrial scale.

Marisa Yiu is an architect and Founding Partner of ESKYIU, a multi-disciplinary architecture studio based in Hong Kong. She was the Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture; and recently curated Studio-X Shenzhen at the Value Factory.

Marisa is also appointed Executive Director of Design Trust, an initiative of the registered charity, Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design. Yiu is responsible for spearheading the creation of long-term, intelligent and meaningful platforms to fund innovative and thought-provoking investigations in various design disciplines, from graphics, media, wearable technologies, architecture to the environment, focused on Hong Kong and the Greater Pearl River Delta Region.

Michael Young was born in 1966 in Sunderland, a small industrial city in the North-East of England. He graduated from Kingston University in 1992 and the following year, he founded the Michael Young Studio with the aim of providing exclusive, quality design services across an eclectic range of markets – from interiors to technology.

Young quickly became one of the UK’s most sought-after young designers and revered retailers and institutions such as the Conran shop and the Pompidou Museum began demanding his work. He became known in the industry as a sophisticated minimalist acclaimed for his elegant, pared-down aesthetic design, which was in direct opposition to the elaborate style dominating London at the time.

After nearly a decade working across the UK and Iceland, Michael was enticed to Asia by his passion for pioneering technology, and in 2006 set up a studio in Hong Kong. Today Michael Young Studio is considered to be one of the most exciting and formidable design companies operating in Asia, responsible for designing award-winning icons for its clients that last a lifetime and are presented in museums globally.

Architect Michele De Lucchi was a prominent figure in movements like Cavart, Alchimia and Memphis. He designed lamps and furniture for the most well-known Italian and European companies and realized architectural project in Italy and abroad. His work has been exhibited in Europe, the United States and Japan.

He was appointed Officer of the Italian Republic for services to design and architecture and has been nominated Professor at the Design Faculty of the Politecnico of Milan and Member of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome.

He has recently realized a number of projects for the city of Milan: the pavilions for Expo 2015 (Padiglione Zero, Expo Center, Intesa Sanpaolo), UniCredit Pavilion in piazza Gae Aulenti, the Pietà Rondanini museum at the Ospdale Spagnolo at the Castello Sforzesco, the restoration and the museum design of Casa Manzoni.

Joseph Grima is an architect, writer and researcher based between New York and Genoa. He is a partner at Space Caviar, an architecture and research practice based in Genoa, Italy, operating at the intersection of design, technology, politics and the public realm, and director of the Ideas City program at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Domus magazine and director of Storefront for Art and Architecture. In 2014 he was appointed co-curator of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in the history of North America. He has taught and lectured widely at universities in Europe, Asia and America, including Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow. He currently teaches at the Architectural Association in London.

Shogo Kishino was born in 1975. He is the founder of 6D-K, a graphic design + art direction studio founded in 2007.

Since its establishment, 6D-K has focused on developing branding ideas for companies, products, and other clients, while also working in various fields of design, such as logo design, sign planning, and package design.

The studio is now frequently involved in bigger projects, with recent works including art direction for “Suntory’s Bird Conservation Activities”, creative direction for Kirin’s new project, and sign planning for a new commercial facility located at Shinjuku Station’s New South Exit.

Kishino goes far beyond client work, and have independently been producing several products and artwork. Such works include party poppers that shoot out petals of rose and cherry blossoms, and a knitwear brand named “it knit”, sold both in and outside of Japan.

Kishino is an award winner of numerous domestic and international design awards, such as “Cannes Gold Lion”, “D&AD Yellow Pencil”, “One Show Silver Award”, “Sign Design Award First Prize”, “ADC Award”, to name a few.

In 2016, Kishino served as the judge for D&AD’s Graphic Design Division. He now also teaches at Tokyo Polytechnic University’s Design Department as an associate professor.

Sugie began his career with NISSAN’s Technical Center. Exploring the world, he taught Japanese in several countries, including China and Bolivia. Upon return to Japan, he founded Smile Park, an engineering startup and focused on new product development, co-founding the WHILL project in 2011. Sugie moved to San Francisco, California in 2012, to become the company’s CEO.  He is a member of World Economic Forum Davos Meeting GSC member.

Sugie is a boxer: Feather weight champion in Kyoto, 3rd place in West Japan and a Light welterweight champion in Nanjing, China.

Jun Yamadera founded EYES JAPAN CO. LTD. in 1995, the first IT startup from the University of Aizu, Fukushima. In the past 20 years, he has been working on various cutting edge projects such as exporting Fukushima rice via web in 1995, making world’s first virtual pottery system, making CG of historical archives of national treasure of Japanese castles, temples, traditional dances and medical motions using motion capture. He is a pioneer in Virtual and Augmented Reality, wearable technologies, Medical x IT and has been organizing world’s first medical security hackathon since 2012. His team won the 9th position at Russian hacking CTF in PhDays 2012 and championship in Developers Challenge 2013 Health 2.0 in Silicon Valley. He is the Health 2.0 Fukushima Chapter Leader and a TEDxKobe 2015 Speaker. He started a project called “FUKUSHIMA Wheel” in the aftermath of the terrible disaster caused by the earthquake and nuclear accident in Fukushima, JAPAN in March 11, 2011.

Ahn Sang-soo is a Korean typographer and graphic designer. He has worked in the creative industry for more than 40 years with a rich oeuvre of cross disciplinary production and innovation. He graduated from Seoul’s famous art institution, Hongik University, majoring in graphic design. He started out as an advertising designer then an art editor for Ggumim magazine in 1981. He expressed his interest in Korean typeface at his early career and founded Ahn Graphics in 1985. In the same year, he created his first self-titled typeface configuration Ahn Sang-Soo.

His contribution to Korean typography has granted him numerous international awards. He is the recipient of Grand Prix, Zgraf8 in 1999, the Gutenberg Prize in 2007 and Icograda Education Award in 2009. He continues his passion through typography education to students worldwide. From 1991-2012, he returned to Hongik University to be a Professor at the College of Fine Arts & Design. He is currently Director of PaTI (Paju Typography Institute), Guest Professor in Royal College of Arts, London and Invited Professor in Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. He has been serving as a Chairman of the Board of Seoul Design Foundation since 2012.

Minsuk Cho (Korea, b. 1966) is an architect and founder of Seoul-based firm Mass Studies. Cho graduated from Yonsei University and Columbia University, and spent his early career in New York and Rotterdam, and in 1998, co-founded Cho Slade Architecture in New York. Since returning to Seoul in 2003, he has been committed to the discourse of architecture through socio-cultural and urban research and mostly built works, which have been recognized globally, with representative works including the Pixel House, Missing Matrix: Boutique Monaco, Bundle Matrix: S-Trenue, Ann Demeulemeester Shop, Korea Pavilion: 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and Daum Space.1 to highlight. Active beyond his practice, he has co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and was the commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (2014), which was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. In late 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, held their first ever architecture exhibition, highlighting his works in a solo exhibition titled “Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture”. Cho is an active lecturer and speaker at symposiums worldwide.

Youngsoo Han is the Principal Designer of Design Center in LG Electronics (LGE) in Seoul, South Korea, with profound experiences in consumer electronic products.

He is one of the innovative product designers leading premium design in LGE. ‘LG Signature’ OLED TV design is especially led by him. This premium product has launched since 1995, and has been considered as a cutting-edge design revealing the core elements of a TV should embrace for the users.

Another innovative product – wall mounted projector (AN110) was also designed by him. It was accredited as ‘Grand Slam’ among prestigious awards including in ‘Best of Best’ in Red Dot Award 2006, ‘Gold Award’ in iF Award and ‘Gold Prize’ in IDEA Award that is an unprecedented recognition.

From 2011 to 2014, when he was in charge of LGE Design office in New York, US, home entertainment products as well as home appliances sold in US market had been proposed and commercialized as LGE Brand and Sears Brand products.

Based on the design philosophy that “ultimately, all design becomes communication”, and a collaborative approach to the profession, Younjin Jeong co-founded URBANTAINER in 2009 and is the company’s Creative Director. Before URBANTAINER, she founded her first design studio UNIQUE DESIGN MIND and received attention in both Korea and abroad for creative design approach. Apart from designing spaces, she published the photo book Stimulate reason with emotion and worked as Visual Art Director not only for Seoul Design Festival, but also for numerous exhibitions and films. In addition, she’s a top authority in Space Branding field in Korea which is a project management method. Space Branding includes strategy planning, space programming and integrated design which optimizes brand strategy into a space by directing architecture, interior and graphic design all together.

Young Sik “Yian” OH graduated from Seoul National University. He has been working in the branding business in Korea for over 20 years. In 2004, he founded and started a new business named Total Impact and invested his efforts in this new challenge. It has now become a well-known company in the design industry in Korea. He has been working for many famous Korean clients like Samsung, Hyundai Motors, SK Telecom and many others. He had extensive experiences with global agencies such as IDEO, Bain & Company and Lippincott. In 2012, he was appointed as the regional CEO of Brand Union Seoul for WPP Company.

One of the clients, Hyundai Card, a subsidiary company of Hyundai Motors Group, is a significant project reference of him. Hyundai card focused on developing innovative credit card design and corporate identity design by a customised typeface. It is now an iconic and innovative Korean brand. Hyundai Card has been a client of Total Impact for 10 years.

He also branded national companies like SK Telecom brand “T”, broadcasting station brand “JTBC” and liquor brand “HiteJinro”. Stay in Seoul and you will see his works everywhere.

Camper was founded in 1975 by Lorenzo Fluxà. Its origins go back to 1877, when his grandfather Antonio sets in Inca (Mallorca) the first machinery for shoemaking in Spain. With the respect to the inherited values Camper was born incorporating an idea of brand where creativity and quality have been the base of the concept since its origins. In 1992 the international expansion begins with the opening of the first shop in Paris, and in 2004 begins the brand diversification in the hospitality world with Casa Camper. Today Camper continues its activity after 139 years as a family business and it has presence in more than 40 countries.

Miguel Fluxà Orti, member of the fourth generation of the family, joined the business in 2003. As from the very beginning until December 2011 he has been responsible for the brand extension as well as for the search and development of new ideas and collaborators in the fields of communication, product and interior design. In January 2012 he assumed the position of CEO of Camper.

A veteran designer in Singapore, Kelley Cheng is an architectural graduate turned Jill-of-all-trade – magazine editor, writer, curator, spatial design, graphic design, entrepreneur – she has done it all. She runs her own publishing & design consultancy The Press Room, designing everything from books, brands, exhibitions, documentaries, and even stage and film set design. From F&B businesses to an art gallery, her “creations” are diverse and unpredictable. As a creative director, her graphic and branding projects include the Youth Olympics Games, iLight Marina Bay Light Art Festival, Singapore Pavilion at the World Expo Yeosu 2012, The National Art Gallery Singapore, Artstage Singapore, Singapore Writers’ Festival 2014, etc.

Passionate about the arts, she has curated many art exhibitions, especially for young artists. An active educator, she had served as adjunct lecturer in Visual Communications at the Nanyang Technological University and Glasgow School of Art, Singapore; she is also a frequent name on international design judging panels Red Dot Awards, Nagoya-Do!, Creative Circle Award, James Dyson Award, etc. Apart from design, Cheng is also a much sought after public speaker, having spoken twice at TEDxSingapore conferences, Creative Mornings, etc. and was celebrated as one of 2009 Great Women of Our Time and one of the 50 Most Inspirational Women 2010 in Singapore.

Stefen Chow is an award winning photographer who undertakes long term projects with social conscience. Stefen is the co-founder of ‘The Poverty Line’, a global visual project that contextualises poverty. The project was referenced by the World Bank and exhibited as large scale installations at the Les Nuits Photographiques in Paris, PMQ in Hong Kong and the CAFA museum in Beijing. The project is currently in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

His editorial and commercial work has garnered multiple awards including World Press Photo and National Geographic. He has worked with global leading institutions including Apple, Disney, General Electric, GEO magazine and the Smithsonian magazine.

Stefen reached the summit of Mount Everest at the age of 25 and has been involved in more than 10 Himalayan expeditions. Stefen is grateful to be living his dream; he currently lives and works in Beijing.

Heading up the design operations across Asia, Tobias Hüttl is the Singapore-based representative of Studio F. A. Porsche, headquartered in Zell am See (Austria).

An awarded Designer, Hüttl has greatly contributed to the company’s growth and success over the past ten years. He is leading thriving external design consulting projects for major international brands. At the same time, Hüttl plays an active part in internal design projects for Porsche Design. An expert in creative design, design strategy and brand development, he has established Studio F. A. Porsche’s regional office in Singapore four years ago.

Born and raised in Germany, Hüttl commenced his education at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, studying Industrial/Transportation Design and graduating successfully with a Master’s Degree in Design. He completed his international profile by achieving an MBA from National University in Singapore, specialization in Strategy and Organization.

Robin Kwok is the Country Manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan markets at Airbnb. She is also responsible for driving business operations and strategic initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region, which is a fast-growing market and plays a strategic role for the company.

Robin joined Airbnb from Intuit, a financial-tech company, where she led sales operations and strategy initiatives for the company’s core business groups. During her time there, a major focus of her work was on Intuit’s international expansion to the Asia-Pacific & Europe markets, where she conducted research on strategic partnerships, competitors, and user growth solutions. Prior to Intuit, Robin worked at a management consulting firm (The Alexander Group) in San Francisco where she helped technology & media companies find ways to grow and scale. Early in her career, she spent much of her time managing key customer accounts in Taiwan, China, and Singapore for Applied Materials (semiconductor & solar technology), and lived in China for one year to help with the company’s expansion in 2008. Outside of Airbnb, she mentors entrepreneurs of early-to-mid stage start-ups in the areas of product development, go-to-market strategies, and organization design. She loves helping SMBs and start-ups grow.

Robin studied Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and International Business at Columbia University & UC Berkeley (MBA). Her passion for building high-performing teams and helping companies grow is what excites her about working at Airbnb and in the Asia-Pacific region. Robin is from the U.S., with a family background from Taiwan & Hong Kong, and currently lives in Singapore.

Chau Nguyen is a practicing Industrial Designer and in his role as Senior Design Director he is co-leading the new LUNAR Design hub in Singapore, established by McKinsey & Company to service McKinsey clients throughout Asia.

With over 20 years’ experience in product design and development, Nguyen has held leadership roles, built design teams and delivered design and development programs across multiple industries for clients large and small. He has deep experience in managing the design & engineering process of complex integrated technology solutions and medical technologies products. He also has a passion for managing design teams and iterating the innovation process. Nguyen practices holistic system wide approach in design to deliver meaningful outcomes at the intersection of business, technology and user centered design.

The combination of LUNAR + McKinsey brings a compelling offering of business value creation through a full spectrum of services. From the depth and impact of McKinsey’s management consulting, business strategy and operations horsepower with LUNAR’s celebrated capability in design, engineering, development and design strategy.

Vicky Chen has more than 20 years in retail industry, with extensive experience working with major department stores as the major business decision maker. In September 2013, Koche Development Co., Ltd obtained the right to operate Hayashi Department Store. Vicky spearheaded the transformation of the oldest department store in Taiwan into a creative and local icon. Hayashi Department Store has achieved a balance between cultural restoration and commercial development in the journey rejuvenation of an 84-year old historical building. The emphasis on the culture and history of Taiwan has underpinned the department store’s retail strategies. During the process of business development, Vicky discovered the rich layers of history and the beauty of Taiwan. Despite facing challenges, she managed to present the very best of Hayashi Department Store. It is currently the oldest yet the trendiest and youngest department store in Taiwan.

Paul Gardien is a member of the Philips Design Board responsible for both the strategic development of the global design function and the Design Research & Innovation program. In his strategy role, he has been instrumental in transforming Philips Design from a service unit into a global function. The Design Research & Innovation program creates new design competences, future visions and new propositions for Philips and has won numerous awards. The drive in the program is to create meaningful and relevant propositions based on a solid understanding of how these will evolve in the future, while ensuring that the propositions land in the various businesses increasing their hit rate of innovation.

Gardien has spent his entire professional career at Philips Design, working in many different areas ranging from product-, multimedia- and internet design, to different management and development functions. He is and has been a member of various boards, juried in multiple renowned design competitions. He’s also a frequent speaker at international design and innovation conferences. Gardien studied industrial design engineering at the Delft University of Technology and holds a PhD in Design Innovation from the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Winy Maas Prof. Ir. Ing FRIBA HAIA (1959, Schijndel, The Netherlands) is an architect, urban designer and landscape architect and one of the co-founding directors of the globally operating architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, known for projects such as Expo 2000 The Netherland Pavilion, the vision for greater Paris, Grand Paris Plus Petit, and the Market Hall in Rotterdam. He is furthermore professor at and director of The Why Factory, a research institute for the future city. He is currently Visiting Professor at GSAPP Columbia, New York and IIT Chicago and has been at the University of Hong Kong, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, ETH Zurich, Berlage Institute, MIT, Ohio State and Yale University.

In addition he designs stage sets, objects and was curator of INDESEM (International Design Seminar) 2007. He curates exhibitions, lectures throughout the world and takes part in international juries. With both MVRDV and The Why Factory, he has published a series of research projects among them “Hong Kong Fantasies” in 2011 and the upcoming publication “Hong Kong Crazy Towers”.

In 2015 and 2011, he was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion and the Legion of Honour of France for his contributions to architecture and urban design.

Gijs van der Velden joined Joris Laarman Lab in 2009.

The Lab’s Bone Chair (2006) is widely praised as a modern design icon. Its work is in the permanent collections of MoMA, V&A, Centre Pompidou and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

In this Lab the future of digital production is subject of critical and visionary research. It developed a robotic 3D printer that can print big objects, out of the box, in metals and resins.

In 2014 this became: MX3D, Multiple aXis 3D printing. MX3D set out on a journey to 3D print a metal bridge over a canal in the Red Light District of Amsterdam.

“Designers who work with the subject ‘food’ are often called food designers. According to Marije Vogelzang, food is already perfectly and beautifully designed by nature. She designs from the verb to eat. She is inspired by the origin, preparation, production, waste, etiquette, psychology, history and culture of food. That is why she calls herself the world’s first eating-designer.

After graduating at the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2000, Vogelzang set her mind on creating a new direction in the design field. After developing and selling two experimental restaurants called ‘PROEF’ in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, she broadened her experiments and her vision to design out of the verb of eating. With 16 years of experience, she is considered a pioneer and the ‘Grand dame’ in the field of eating design (De Volkskrant). Now she works independently under her name.

In 2015, Vogelzang is named to Fast Company’s top 100 most creative people in business and a finalist of the World Technology awards Design section. In 2016, she is on the GOOD100 list of Good Magazine.

She recently became head of a new bachelor department named FOOD NON FOOD at the Design Academy Eindhoven and does guest lectures and workshops at design and culinary schools.

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA has dedicated her career to design of public places and spaces. From small, community buildings, to campus buildings for premier academic and research institutions, to groundbreaking new transit stations, riverwalks and recreational trails that connect vibrant neighborhoods; her exploration into the power of how architecture improves our daily lives has produced distinctive structures that have become cultural icons.

Her work has an international reputation in design of institutional and public buildings and has been exhibited and published in national and international journals, books, newspapers and web media.  Her building designs have received numerous honors including 4 Institute Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects and over 40 AIA Chicago Design Awards.  Her work has received significant sustainable building awards including two AIA COTE Top Ten Green Project awards.

Carol is the recipient of the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award and the AIA Illinois Gold Medal, both recognizing excellence in architectural achievement.

Ross Barney is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Following graduation, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica planning national parks. She currently teaches an advanced Design Studio at IIT and serves on their College Board of Overseers.

Tim Brown is CEO and president of IDEO. He frequently speaks about the value of design thinking and innovation to businesspeople and designers around the world. His talks “Serious Play” and “Change by Design” appear on TED.com.

An industrial designer by training, Brown has earned numerous design awards and has exhibited work at galleries and museums across the globe. He takes special interest in the convergence of technology and the arts, as well as the ways in which design can be used to promote the well-being of people living in emerging economies.

Brown advises senior executives and boards of global Fortune 100 companies. He is a member of the board of trustees of IDEO.org and serves on the Mayo Clinic Innovation Advisory Council and the Advisory Council of Acumen, a non-profit global venture. In addition he chairs the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Creative Economy and writes for the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and other prominent publications. His book on how design thinking transforms organizations, Change by Design, was released in September 2009.

Brown contributes as one of LinkedIn’s top 150 Influencers and serves as instructor for IDEO U’s Leading for Creativity course.

Janet Echelman is an artist who defies categorization. Her work intersects across the boundaries of Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, Material Science, Structural and Aeronautical Engineering, and Computer Science. She creates experiential sculpture at the scale of buildings that transform with wind and light. The art shifts from being an object to look at, to a living environment you can get lost in.

Recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Lectureship, Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces”. Her TED talk “Taking Imagination Seriously” has been translated into 34 languages with more than one million views.

In 1987, she studied at Hong Kong University on a Rotary International Fellowship after graduating from Harvard College. She lived in a Balinese village for 5 years, then completed separate graduate programs in Painting and in Psychology. This year she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Tufts University.

Hong Kong was the city of her first solo museum exhibition, at the Fung Ping Shan Museum in 1990.

Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher is the Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she has worked since 2008. Recent curatorial projects include, Typeface to Interface (co-curator) (2016); Lebbeus Woods, Architect (co-curator) (2013); A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living (2013); The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area (2012), and commissioned works by Claudy Jongstra (2016) and filmmaker, Mike Mills, about Silicon Valley (2013). She has published essays on the practice of Lebbeus Woods, A. Quincy Jones, Ewan Gibbs, and Tobias Wong. Dunlop Fletcher earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History from New York University (1993). She received a master’s in Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art from Bard College (1999), and a master’s in Architecture History and Theory from Harvard University (2004).

American architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang is the founding principal of Studio Gang, an architecture and urban design collective based in Chicago and New York. Gang is recognized internationally for her socially engaged design process that foregrounds the relationships between individuals, communities, and environments. Drawing insight from ecological systems, her analytical and creative approach has produced some of today’s most compelling architecture, including the Aqua Tower, Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, and Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Her current major projects include an expansion of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the next United States Embassy in Brasília, Brazil.

Committed to working on global and local issues, Gang brings design to a wide range of projects beyond architecture’s conventional boundaries. She collaborates and innovates with experts across fields on pursuits ranging from the development of stronger materials to fostering stronger communities. Through teaching, speaking, writing, advocacy, and advising, she engages with others to make a positive impact at multiple scales.

Wesley Grubbs is an artist, data visualizer and provocateur based in Oakland, CA. In 2007 he founded Pitch Interactive, a studio who’s focus is weaving code with design and statistics to find versatile solutions to communicate complex data for clients such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wired, GE, Esquire, Scientific American and Popular Science.

Built upon his experiences living abroad, degrees held in International Economics and Information Systems and his innate interest in the brain and cognition, Wes’ work focuses on revealing patterns about human behavior and how our actions impact our surroundings.

Pitch Interactive’s work spans illustrations, physical installations, projections, console game user interfaces, software applications, websites and textiles. Their work has been showcased at Fotofest Sensors exhibit, Houston, Texas (2015), Data Drift exhibit at RIXC The Center for New Media Culture, Riga, Latvia (2015), Tomas Van Houtryve – Blue Sky Days exhibit at the Bayeux awards for War Correspondents Festival, Bayeux, France (2015), the McKnight Artist Fellowship program’s 30th anniversary exhibition, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2012), Talk to Me at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011), Conversations Électriques at La Panacée, Montpellier, France (2011), Best American Infographics, the Data Flow books and many other internationally acclaimed publications.

Terry Guen is Millennium Park’s Landscape Architect. She is Urban and Ecological Designer, and Principal Founder of Chicago based Terry Guen Design Associates. Known for its “Design for Life” philosophy, TGDA, creates high performance ecological urban landscapes which transform downtowns and post- industrial sites into favourite livable places. “Design for Life” utilizes landscape green infrastructure to clean water and air, mitigate climate and storm flooding. It makes safe beautiful places to play, brings people outside, helping to revitalize local neighborhoods and economies. TGDA’s leadership of multidisciplinary design teams guides the integration of civil engineering, site design and architecture in creating supportive, productive, healthy places to live.

Terry’s work includes teaching, master plan and design, landscape construction oversight of plazas, parks, streetscapes, green roofs, campuses, institutional gardens, waterfronts, airports, and natural site restoration for large scale infrastructure facilities.

For leadership in design, Terry was appointed by President Obama and currently serves as advisor to the US federal Historic Preservation Council, and is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Since 2006, Sarah Herda has been director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation is the largest foundation in the United States committed to awarding project-based grants to individuals and institutions working at the forefront of architecture; it also produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Herda is credited with transforming the foundation’s headquarters, the historic Madlener House, into a world-class public venue for architecture exhibitions and building one of Chicago’s most celebrated public programs of talks, performances and other events. Alongside co-artistic director Joseph Grima, Herda organized the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, the largest international exhibition of contemporary architecture ever to have taken place in North America and visited by over 500,000 people. From 1998 until 2006, Herda was director and curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture, an experimental exhibition space founded in New York City in 1982. Before being named director of Storefront, Herda was director of the Center for Critical Architecture/Art and Architecture Exhibition Space in San Francisco.

Lorraine Justice, Ph.D, FIDSA, is currently the Dean of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The College houses six schools: Design, American School for Crafts, Art, Film and Animation, Photography and Print Media, with 150 faculty and 1900 students. Prior to joining RIT Lorraine was the Dean of the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), taking it to be the top 30 design schools in the world and top 10 in Asia. She is the author of China’s Design Revolution, MIT Press (2012). Lorraine consults for some of the top firms in the world, is a TED presenter, board member for several international design journals, and a Fellow of the Industrial Design Society of America.

Kastner, born in the Czech Republic, trained as a blacksmith and spent some time restoring historical metal works at a castle in Western Bohemia before moving on to natural materials design and sculpture. He founded Crucial Detail in 1998, shortly after his arrival in the US. He is best known for his Alinea serviceware concepts, which landed him on The Future Laboratory’s list of 100 most influential individuals in contemporary design.

He is also the designer behind The Porthole Infuser, a beautiful infusion vessel originally created as one of many custom pieces for bar chefs at The Aviary in Chicago. The Porthole has been featured in dozens of publications, including the cover of Food Arts Magazine, eventually finding its way into the world’s most prestigious bars, hotels, and restaurants as well as the Museum of Modern Art store in New York City. Kastner received the 2014 IHHA Global Innovation Award for Best Product Design and is the designer behind Team USA platter and tools for Bocuse d’Or 2015, helping Team USA win silver and reach the podium for the first time in history.

Mark Kelly is the Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), which presents and promotes high-quality free festivals, exhibitions, performances and holiday celebrations each year in parks, the historic Chicago Cultural Center and other venues throughout the city. He was appointed to the post by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in July 2016.

Kelly previously served as the Vice President for Student Success at Columbia College Chicago, where he fostered and oversaw an immersive arts experience for Columbia’s burgeoning student body, across its 100 different degree programs. For more than 30 years, Kelly served in numerous leadership roles at Columbia, supporting students who view the world through a creative lens in attaining a world-class education that blends creative and media arts, liberal arts and business.

Kelly has amassed more than 40 years of experience working as an academic administrator, with prior positions at Wayne State University and City Colleges of Chicago. Kelly is founder and chair of the Wabash Arts Corridor (WAC) initiative, framing the South Loop as a hub for street art, installations and spectacle, and is founder of the Halloween Gathering, an annual parade and festival celebrating Chicago’s cultural communities.

Trained as a journalist, Cheryl Kent’s work is deeply researched and is informed by her nearly 25 years as an architecture writer and critic. Her recent books have told the stories of heroic efforts to realize unique, monumental urban projects. She writes about more than architecture: she writes about the labor that brings it into being, the city into which it is fitted, the social context that gives it meaning and the wonder with which such miracles are received.

Kent’s articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Architectural Record, Metropolis. Progressive Architecture (for which she was the Chicago Correspondent), Design (London), The Chicago Tribune, World Architecture (London), Historic Preservation, and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

As the senior design partner of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Brian Lee has led award winning global efforts for urban mixed use projects, supertall towers, and smaller scale academic and civic buildings that have consequence and impact.

Lee studied at UC Berkeley and the Harvard Graduate School of Design and serves on both Dean’s advisory committees. His work was exhibited in the 2004 Venice and Beijing Biennales, featured at the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, and the 2015 Chicago Biennial.

Kevin McElroy builds brands with purpose, always striving to connect what a brand “says” with what it “does”. As VP, Group Creative Director at Razorfish, his sweet spot lies squarely at the center of opportunities that blend story with technology. Early in his career, he was granted a research assignment at The United Color of Benetton’s communication center, Fabrica, in Venice, Italy. From there, he’s propelled clients into the digital space with notable projects including the creation of the original Jeep social properties, the first 3D interactive audience theater game, the first vehicle sale exclusively attributed to Amazon.com (the Lincoln MKZ) and the revival of the iconic Foster’s “How to Speak Australian” campaign. McElroy’s penchant for redefining the relationship between digital and creative has built value for world-class brands including Harley-Davidson, Ford, Miller-Coors and Disney with work that has garnered recognition from the Effies, FWA, Cannes and a feature in CommArts.

Raaja is the co-founder and CEO of Bucketfeet where he oversees the company’s growth and development. Founded in 2011, Bucketfeet is a footwear company that collaborates with a global community of over 40,000 artists from 120 countries to design limited-edition shoes with the goal of sparking meaningful conversations to create a brighter world. Bucketfeet is redefining the $300B global footwear market by using new technology and its extensive artist network to increase speed to market for original artist-designed footwear products.

Prior to starting Bucketfeet, Raaja began his career in investment banking at UBS Investment Bank, followed by private equity at Prairie Capital. After four years in the finance industry, Raaja decided to pursue his lifelong dream of backpacking around the world for over a year before moving to Abu Dhabi. Raaja is a member of the Chicago Chapter of Young President’s Organization (YPO), the Economic Club of Chicago, and is an alumnus of Chicago Global Shapers (affiliated with the World Economic Forum). Raaja is a frequent speaker at many conferences and universities around the US and is an angel investor, primarily supporting other Chicago-based entrepreneurs. Raaja graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Economics.

Los Angeles-based illustrator Victo Ngai was raised in Hong Kong and went on to Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in illustration. In addition to being a Forbes 30 Under (Art and Style) honoree and a Society of Illustrators NY Gold Medalist, her work has received recognition from the New York Times, Communication Arts, American Illustration and many others. Victo’s biggest passions, besides drawing, are traveling and eating.

Katie Olson is the Director of Program Design at UI LABS. Part of UI LABS’ founding team, Olson helped the company grow to over 50 staff and 200+ corporate, civic, nonprofit and academic partners in under two years. She led the launch of City Digital, UI LABS’ urban infrastructure innovation program, which now features a portfolio of cutting-edge technology solutions such as underground infrastructure mapping and smart green infrastructure monitoring.

Prior to UI LABS, Olson implemented the Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s coordinated effort to assess and expand Chicago’s economy, at World Business Chicago. As the Plan’s “Neighborhood and Place-Based Assets” Strategy Manager, she developed initiatives to accelerate small business growth, increase broadband access and adoption, leverage recent transit investments, and build the capacity of anchor institutions’ supply chains. Olson also served in the Mayor’s Office as a Fellow in 2011. Before coming to Chicago, Olson worked for The Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based community development financial institution. 

Olson holds a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Political Science and Interdisciplinary Studies from American University in Washington, DC. From 2008-2010, Katie served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi.

Emmanuel Pratt is co-founder and Executive Director of the Sweet Water Foundation. Pratt is also the Director of Aquaponics for Chicago State University and teaches courses within the college of Arts and Sciences. While most of his early work was anchored in the field of architecture, Pratt’s work has since explored the role of art and social praxis as a key component of urban design, urban farming, and sustainability with a particular concentration on the creation of a new paradigm for 21^st century city planning. Pratt is currently one of the Loeb Fellows at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

An architect and engineer by training, Professor Carlo Ratti teaches at the MIT, where he directs the Senseable City Lab. He is also a founding partner of the international design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati. His work has been exhibited in several venues worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, New York’s MoMA, London’s Science Museum, and Barcelona’s Design Museum. Two of his projects – the Digital Water Pavilion and the Copenhagen Wheel – were hailed by Time Magazine as ‘Best Inventions of the Year’. He has been included in Blueprint Magazine’s ‘25 People who will Change the World of Design’ and in Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List: 50 people who will change the world’. He was curator for the Future Food District at Expo Milano 2015, and is currently serving as co-chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Future of Cities and Urbanization.

Zoë Ryan is the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to building the museum’s first collection of design, she is editing a book on the important role that exhibitions have played in architecture and design history.

Ryan’s recent exhibitions include: Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye (2015), Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects (2012); Fashioning the Object: Bless, Boudicca, and Sandra Backlund (2012); Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention (2011); and Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design (2010). In 2014, she was the curator of the second Istanbul Design Biennial, the Future Is Not What It Used To Be.

Ryan has authored and edited numerous publications, including: Building with Water: Designs, Concepts, Visions (2010). She served as Chair of the Jury for the National Design Awards in 2013, and she sat on the curatorial advisory committee for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. In 2012, Fast Company magazine named Ryan one of the 50 people shaping the future of design.

Mark Sexton is a founding partner of Krueck + Sexton Architects and along with Ronald Krueck, designs and manages all of the firm’s work. His belief that exceptional architecture can and does make a difference to people’s lives is a hallmark of the studio. His dedication to craftsmanship, material, and detail enables the firm’s built work to express the values of modern design with a timeless quality.

He is a member of the GSA Design Excellence Program National Registry of Peer Professionals, serves on the Board of Overseers for the IIT College of Architecture, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Advisory Design Council and is currently on the faculty of Northwestern University teaching an architectural design studio in the School of Engineering.

Mark lectures at diverse venues worldwide including universities, cultural institutions and conferences. Sharing the firm’s experience of collaboration, he has participated in symposiums jointly with clients, consultants and colleagues.

The firm has been recognized with numerous awards including AIA National and Chicago Honor Awards, Divine Detail and Interior Awards, Business Week/Architectural Record – Good Design is Good Business Award, Chicago Athenaeum Architecture Award, AIA COTE Top Ten Green Building, Landmarks Preservation Council Of Illinois and Design Build Institute Project of the Year. In 1997, Montacelli Press published the firm’s first monograph, Krueck + Sexton Work in Progress and currently the second monograph is in production with an anticipated 2017 release.

Mark Schwartz is the CEO and Founder of Product Development Technologies (PDT). Schwartz’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit laid the foundation for PDT’s success. Now a full service product development firm with over 120 employees and more than 100 awards for its work, PDT is a leader in its space. Under his leadership, PDT was twice named to INC 500’s Fastest Growing Companies List and has become one of the premier product development firms in the U.S. serving the world’s largest and most innovative companies.

Schwartz has grown PDT into a globally recognized innovator of a diverse range of products; from medical and laboratory devices, to consumer electronics and defense products, to fitness equipment and more. He also led the strategic partnership with Telefonix, Inc, which has resulted in the companies working together on aerospace programs, including equipment that is enabling in-flight connectivity. He uses his learnings and wide base of knowledge to mentor students in Northern Illinois University’s Social Entrepreneurship program and encourages PDT team members to be involved with startup and collaborative communities like 1871, where PDT has staff.

Mr. Speers is a 20-year industry veteran with extensive experience in real estate finance and operations management. He has served as the General Manager for Millennium Park since 2007. In this role Mr. Speers manages park operations, including project management, private event management, capital improvement identification and execution, operations development, and contract evaluation and negotiation. Mr. Speers also acts as a liaison between ownership, management, employees, contractors and vendors to coordinate training, employee development programs, and ensure that the park is run efficiently and professionally.

Before Millennium Park, Mr. Speers served as Director of Operations of the Citigroup Building/Ogilvie Train Station in Downtown Chicago. Prior to joining MB Real Estate, Mr. Speers worked in finance and management for JLL in Chicago where he oversaw the Xerox, Fidelity Investments and Harris Bank assignments.

Howard A. Tullman is the CEO of 1871 – where digital startups get their start and the General Managing Partner of G2T3V, LLC and of Chicago High Tech Investment Partners. He is a member of the National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE); Mayor Emanuel’s Chicago NEXT and Cultural Affairs Councils; the Innovate Illinois Advisory and Arts Councils; a member of President Preckwinkle’s New Media Council; an adjunct professor at Kellogg; and an advisor to many start-ups. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint College and Kendall College. Over the last 48 years, he has successfully founded more than a dozen high-tech companies.

Scott Wilson is an American design entrepreneur and Founder/Chief Creative Officer of MINIMAL, his award-winning product development and brand incubation firm that is the collaborative creative force and instigator behind many of today’s most disruptive and game-changing products and experiences. A former Global Design and Innovation Director at Nike, Wilson has been at the forefront of the product design field for the last decade. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious National Design Award for Product Design by the Smithsonian and White House, an award bestowed to the nation’s top designer each year. Renowned for simultaneously sparking the crowdfunding and wearables movement in 2010 by raising the first $1 million on Kickstarter, Wilson inspired designers and entrepreneurs around the globe to follow their creative dreams. He is a TIME Magazine Top100 Designer and was named one of Fast Company‘s Most Influential Designers.

Based in Chicago, Wilson and his team of multi-talented product, brand and experience designers and engineers work with large companies and budding startups alike to create thoughtful brand-building solutions across a diverse range of industries—from mobile, med-tech and consumer products, to lifestyle, furniture and environments. Wilson currently sits on the Board of Directors for mHUB, Chicago’s first hardware incubation and innovation center focused on supporting and accelerating Midwest startups.

A Speaker, Brand Evangelist and Psychologist, Oliver Baxter works with the Herman Miller Insight Group and is based in Dubai. The Herman Miller Insight Group is responsible for the commissioning, overseeing and presenting of insights into the latest thinking in workplace design and associated issues. Baxter uses his skills developed in over 15 years of teaching, 5 years of academic practice and 6 years of industry knowledge to: “help people create great places for more people to reach their potential”.

Having graduated from ESSEC Business School in France, Alice Black began her career in banking in New York. Black’s experience in the UK spans work in the public and private sector, in large, multi-site national museums as well as independent museums. Formerly Head of Strategy and Planning at the Imperial War Museum and Curator of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, Black has in-depth knowledge of museums’ strategic and operational issues.

In September 2007, Black was appointed Deputy Director of the Design Museum, with a brief to develop audiences and increase self-generated income. This brief was later expanded to include exhibitions and programming. Over the last eight years, Black has led the museum’s project to transform the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington High Street, into the new home for the Design Museum, and create the leading museum of contemporary design and architecture. The museum’s new home will reopen on 24 November 2016.

Jeremy Myerson is an academic, author and activist in design and innovation. Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art and a Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Institute of Population at the University of Oxford, he is also Director of the Worktech Academy, a new global knowledge network exploring the future of work and workplace. Myerson is a former journalist and editor. He founded Design Week magazine in 1986 and later, in 1999, co-founded the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, the Royal College of Art’s largest research centre, which specializes in innovation for ageing and healthcare. He is an authority on the opportunities for design at a time of unprecedented social, demographic and technological change, and the author of more than 20 books in the field. He speaks regularly at leading conferences around the world and sits on the advisory boards of design institutes in Korea, Switzerland and Hong Kong. He was recently named by Wired magazine as one of Britain’s 100 most influential people in digital technology.

Tina is an interior designer and architect with a diverse portfolio stretching across many contexts and continents, from hotel and restaurant design to high-end residential.

She began working in Asia over 18 years ago and has been involved with many iconic projects such as Hotel ICON, Mandarin Oriental, PMQ, Roppongi Hills and Futako Tamagawa.

Tina is currently working on two new Park Hyatt hotel projects in Jakarta and Auckland, for MNC Land and Fu Wah Group respectively, as well as a boutique hotel for the House Hotel Group in Istanbul. She is also the project leader for two new restaurants in Dubai.

She began working with D&D London for over a decade, including being the design lead on their award-winning South Place Hotel in the City of London and German Gymnasium in King’s Cross.

With every project, Tina approaches the brief by delving into its context, culture and unique history to create timeless spaces that tell a story, provide a sense of place and delight.

Tina studied architecture at Westminster before joining Conran and Partners in 1997, completing her MA in Architecture & Interiors at the Royal College of Art in 2000.

Philip is founder and CEO of UnGroup. He is a speaker, author and advisor on the future of work. With a focus on people and behaviours, he specialises in predicting the impact of emerging technology on the way we work, shop, consume leisure and live.

Philip has spoken at conferences around the world including the Wall Street Journal Europe CEO Forum on Converging Technologies, alt.office in the USA, Intel’s Global Trend spotting event and Corenet’s Global Summits. In 1994 he founded his business and wrote and published The Cordless Office Report. He has written a number of books on the future of work including The Creative Office, The 21st Century Office and Space to Work (all co-authored with Jeremy Myerson). He has also contributed to a number of other books including the Corporate Fool and the Responsible Workplace. He regularly gives keynotes, presentations and runs thinktanks and workshops for organisations in the process of change.

After years of professional experience in Japan and Malaysia as an architect of Noriaki Okabe Architecture Network, Takashi Niwa, a Japanese architect, joined Vo Trong Nghia Architects as a partner in 2010. In that same year, he launched the Hanoi office and become the director. His office mainly takes part in the projects within the Central and Northern Vietnam, China and Europe.

Vo Trong Nghia Architects uses natural and local materials whilst experimenting the natural resources such as light, wind and water. They engage in contemporary designs to explore new ways of creating green architecture for the 21st century, whilst maintaining the essence of Asian architectural expression. With the utilization of local materials and its surrounding greenery environment, energy consumption is reduced greatly. In fact, relationships between human and nature will positively recuperate within the Vietnamese urban environment where the country is currently facing deterioration of living environment and over-crowdedness. To add on, the popular bamboo architecture projects show another way to create spaces where people and nature can come together.

Takashi Niwa’s main projects include Farming Kindergarten (2013), Vietnam Pavilion in Milano Expo (2015), Naman Retreat (2015) and Nanoco Panasonic lighting showroom (2016).