Session #1 “Echos between Australia and Brazil – Creating virtual Design Thinking learning experiences”

In a discussion with GDTA President Uli Weinberg, Ricardo Ruffo and Reinaldo Campos from Echos Innovation Lab in Brazil shared how they are creating online Design Thinking learning experiences between Australia and Brazil.

Ricardo Ruffo – Global CEO and founder at Echos  

Ricardo Ruffo is a born entrepreneur, educator, speaker and explorer. He is the founder and global CEO of Echos, an independent innovation lab driven by design and its business units: School of Design Thinking, helping to shape the next generation of innovators in 3 countries, Echos – Innovation Projects and Echos – Ventures. Naturally curious, love gets ideas flying off the paper. He always tries to see things from different angles to enact better futures. In his free time, spend exploring uninhabited places around the world surfing..

Reinaldo Campos – Partner & Head of Learning Experiences at Echos

Partner at Echos, where he has been Head of Learning Experiences since 2015, Reinaldo participated in several teams as a consultant and instructor in innovation and training projects with corporate clients in the media, health, finance, education and civil construction, among others. Among the main projects is the Google News Initiative Design Accelerator with media and communication companies in Asia-Pacific.

More Spotlight Events

Can Güvenir: “Design Thinking for Social Impact: A Case Study on Collaborative Public Service Design”

The last online session took place on November 21st, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. (CET). We welcomed our speaker, Can Güvenir, Design Manager and lecturer at Yaşar University.

GDTA Session#11 with Tecnológico de Monterrey

At this GDTA session on June 15, 2021, Alejandro Rodriguez, Associate Director for Industrial Design Department at Tecnológico de Monterrey, and his team talked about “Education and Design Thinking: How Tecnológico de Monterrey is applying Design Thinking across all their campus, education and innovation.”

GDTA Spotlight with V&A Dundee – “Entangled Values: The Power of Networks”

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”.

June 2024: GDTA Spotlight with Jenni van Niekerk

Join us for a free session of the GDTA Spotlight on Tuesday, June 18th at 9.00 am SAST / 7.00am GMT for “Connecting the African Design Thinking Community: An Emergent Learning Network” with Jenni van Niekerk!

March 2024: GDTA Spotlight with Prof. Jochen Schweitzer, & Prof. Sihem BenMahmoud-Jouini on “Transform with Design: Creating new Innovation Capabilites with Design Thinking”

Transform with Design presents examples of creative organizations across industries and geographies, and recounts the stories of how they adapted design thinking to build their innovation capabilities. Written by leading industry experts and design-thinking scholars, the book features ten anecdotal experiences by professionals who detail the implementation of design thinking as it unfolded for them. Contributors share how they navigated the many barriers and obstacles they encountered along the way and describe their experience from early beginnings to the present, revealing valuable lessons for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

GDTA Spotlight – Design Thinking Africa

At our GDTA Spotlight session on July 29th, Hoda Mostafa and Reham Niazi from the The American University in Cairo as well as Richard Perez, Phuthehi Masilo and Lucille Roberts from the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at UCT talked about “Building a global virtual d-school: Co-creation and collaboration”.

GDTA Spotlight Special – Value-Based Engineering with Design Thinking

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. […]

GDTA Spotlight with Dr. Martin Schwemmle of The Future Company

Martin Schwemmle: “Future Skills Navigator: Upskilling Humankind For a Better Future”

GDTA Spotlight Special: Value-based engineering with Design Thinking

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.

Session #2 with Linlin Shui, Communication University of China

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.

GDTA Spotlight with Dark Horse Innovation

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.

February 2024: GDTA Spotlight with SNS Institutions

In our talk on February 20th, 2024 four educators from SNS Insitutions Coimbatore, India shared their insights on Design Thinking in education starting with K12 to PhD in several streams. SNS had recently crossed 25yr mark with nearly 14K + student fraternity and nearly 37k+ alma mater. The Design Thinking Framework is applied to improve the quality of teaching methodologies to increase student engagement. For this to come true, one measure introduced is 3P Culture: Purpose, Process, People.

GDTA Session #9 with Observatory “Design Thinking for Business” at Politecnico di Milano

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“.

GDTA Session #8 with The Design Thinking School at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

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.

April 2025: GDTA Spotlight with Michael Lewrick

Michael Lewrick, bestselling author of The Design Thinking Playbook and AI and Innovation, leads an inspiring session exploring how Artificial Intelligence is transforming Design Thinking practices worldwide.

GDTA Spotlight with Penn State University

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.