The Real Trends: The Trends that “Really” Impact the Market – USA

Elisabetta Pasini and Lucia Chrometzka were invited to participate at DMI’s 32nd Annual Design Management Conference in Virginia, USA, held from 24 to the 27th of September 2007. As the conference title implies, Thinking Ahead, The Changing Role of Design and Design Management in Business, the focus during these four days was on the future impact of the design management on the company strategies.
Elisabetta Pasini and Lucia Chrometzka draw on the Institute’s permanent research programs, Genius Loci and Mindstyles Program, which are used to identify visions on the future of consumption and presented those trends that recent market history has proven to be “right,” to be “real,” and not just the result of the latest fad.
A portfolio of thought-leaders, such as Gianfranco Zaccai (President of Continuum), Lee Green (Vice President Worldwide IBM Values), James Woudhuysen (Professor of Forecasting and Innovation, De Montfort University) and many more, combined with group exercises, proposed reflections about the biggest opportunities and obstacles that the world of design, management and research will have to face. The goal was to help design managers become design leaders, and design leaders to become organization leaders of the future.
The conference attracted attendees from companies such as eBay, Fossil, VISA, Fitch, Kodak, Unilever, UPS, Novartis, Kraft, and Hasbro.