In 2022, the Global Design Thinking Alliance (GDTA) set out to celebrate Design Thinking coming of age, as well as the discipline’s global expansion.
In September, the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam celebrated its 15-year anniversary with its Design Thinking ImpAct Conference – with students, alumni, project partners, friends, and family attending the two-day conference, along with more than 50 speakers.
All celebrations culminated with the third d.confestival – a Design Thinking conference-meets-festival hosted at the newly built HPI d-school building (funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation), home to the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town in October.
Over the course of three days, the d.confestival brought together a boisterous mix of change-makers from business, government, education, and social development to celebrate the success of Design Thinking globally and explore its potential for dialing up Africa’s creative potential to solve complex problems across the continent.
There were two big celebratory moments at the d.confestival: firstly, the GDTA celebrated its five-year anniversary of connecting the international Design Thinking community with members and delegates who attended.
Secondly, and with what was an African celebration of note, the official opening of the HPI d-school building was a momentous occasion as over 400 guests attended, explored the building and event experiences, and danced the night away to local talent, a night to remember. The building was officially launched by Prof Dr. Hasso Plattner and Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, UCT’s Vice-Chancellor, who unveiled the building naming plaque before the dancing began on 13 October.
On the last day of the d.confestival, it wrapped up with the announcement of the winning teams for the Global Design Thinking Challenge (a four-week hybrid challenge) to innovate and create solutions for the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal. As part of this Challenge, learners had the opportunity to create global impact.
Our speakers:
Prof. Uli Weinberg, GDTA President and Director at the HPI School of Design Thinking, Jenni van Niekerk, Program Curator d.confestival, Dr. Claudia Nicolai, Academic Director at the HPI School of Design Thinking, and Sherif Osman, Program Lead at the HPI School of Design Thinking.
On September 12th, 2023 we welcomed our speakers Jessica Menold, Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and also Dr. Matt Parkinson, Professor of Engineering Design and Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University.
Remember the experiments and challenges you faced while starting a new project? Before 2019, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu didn’t dream a small idea would turn into so many new research projects, competitions to encourage students to innovate and the first D-School in Romania.
Western University is a large, public university in Canada with 11 faculties and schools. Since 2013, they have slowly built up the presence of Design Thinking across the university.
In our session held via zoom on April 7th, 2022 at 4:00 pm (CEST) / 10:00 am (EDT), we welcomed our speakers Lynne Martin, Strategic Lead for Design for Business at V&A Dundee, and Annie Marrs, Lead Officer at UNESCO City of Design Dundee. Lynne and Annie talked about “Entangled Values: The Power of Networks”.
How passion, collaboration, and persistence turned an idea into a thriving business. Born from one of the first cohorts of the D-School Potsdam, Dark Horse defied the odds to become a sustainable business venture.
The D-School Potsdam is stepping into a new chapter! With a fresh brand identity and an updated teaching structure, they continue to push the boundaries of Design Thinking education. At the GDTA Spotlight: “Crafting Tomorrow”, Monika Frech, co-head of the academic program team shared
In our session held via zoom on March 10th. 2022, from 9:00 – 11:30 am (EST) / 3:00 – 5:30 pm (CET) via Zoom, we collaborated with the IEEE Standards Association and Vienna University of Economics and Businesss to talk about “Value-Based Engineering in Design Thinking”. For more information about the event, agenda and speakers please visit the GDTA Spotlight Special website. […]
After 16 years of running projects using Design Thinking, teaching it, living it, Arne came to some important conclusions. During this session he shared these moments of clarity and darkness and left participants optimistic, energised and proud to be part of the Design Thinking movement.
Martin Schwemmle: “Future Skills Navigator: Upskilling Humankind For a Better Future”
The Global Design Thinking Alliance, in collaboration with the IEEE Standards Association and Vienna University of Economics and Business, invited you to the GDTA Spotlight Special Edition “Value-Based Engineering in Design Thinking,” which took place on March 10th, 2022, from 9:00-11:30 am (EST) / 3:00-5:30 pm (CET) via Zoom.
At the GDTA Spotlight session on April 26th, 2023, we welcomed Dr. Linda J. Hickman, Associate of the London School of Economics. She talked about “Design Thinking for Startups.”
At our GDTA Spotlight session on May 23rd, 2023, we welcomed Guido Caicedo, Executive Director of i3lab, Dr. Sharon Guamán-Quintanilla, Academic Coordinator, and Isabel Alcívar, Lecturer and Design Thinking Facilitator. They discussed about “Turning freshmen into DThinkers.”
In a discussion with GDTA president Prof. Uli Weinberg and other GDTA members, Linlin Shui, Head of the Design Thinking Innovation Center at the Communication University of China (CUC), shared impressions from China during the Covid-19 pandemic and explained how CUC build a prototype for an online Design Thinking course in only two weeks.
At our GDTA Spotlight session on January 18th, we were welcoming our speakers Isabella Stranger, Gastón Roca and Yael Gitman from D-School Chile. They talked about how the first Latin American D-School came to life at the very core of a Chilean University, what they have built in 3 years of history, and what challenges they are hoping to tackle next.
At the GDTA PowWow on April 30th, 2021 Claudio Dell’Era, Associate Professor in Design Strategy and Director of the Observatory “Design Thinking for Business” of the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano talked about “Transformations in Design Thinking: from Creative Ideating to Critical Reframing“.
Adam Somlai-Fischer, Co-Founder of Prezi, shared how a personal challenge sparked a global storytelling revolution. Discover the magic of spatial visual storytelling, AI’s role in transforming presentations, and the impact of LLMs on visual thinking.