This last weekend I got to participate in a design/innovation conference put together by RISD and Brown students, called A Better World by Design. This conference’s goals included bringing together a global community of innovators to the city of Providence, and to reach across different design fields, different cultures, and different ideas to unite under a common goal of making the world a better place. Spreakers shared inspiring stories, workshops gave helpful informations, and panel sessions opened up discussions.

The conference lasted 3 days, from last Friday to Sunday, and took place between the two school campuses. Speakers included Jan Chipcase, Teddy Cruz, William Drenttel, Vivian Loftness, and John Maeda, among many others. Though I still had classes to attend and homework to get done, I did my best to go to as many events as I could. I enjoyed the panel discussions best, where 4-5 speakers would open a dialogue on a particular subjects. Panel sessions I attended were about Information Design, Graphic Design and Business, and about Design and Activism. Though most of our school lives, we focus on our individual work in our majors, it was inspiring to see and listen to people from all sorts of disciplines. I learned a lot from these sessions, and became inspired to try to help the world with my own skills too. It is really important in this age to address and actively engage in design, technology, and enterprise to reshape our communities and work for our environment.

The following images are from the photo flickr pool for this conference.

In the auditorium at the first speaker session- I’m near the stairs with the beige and black shirt.

Design and Activism panel