Milan Expo, Design for Europe Seminar

This is the view from the meeting room in the EU Pavillion at Milan EXPO 2015 where this afternoon I will be chairing the event, 'Design-driven innovation for food industry'. This is co-organised under the umbrella of Design for Europe, by DG Grow of the European Commission with the Politechnico Milano and the Danish Design Centre. The programme can be found here.

We have great speakers lined up from both the food industries and design. The afternoon will be opened with a speech from Mark Niklas, Deputy head of Unit, Innovation Policy and Investment for Growth in the European Commission's DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Also presenting will be Beate Kettlitz, FoodDrinkEurope; Emily Boniface from the Nestle Product Technology Centre in the UK; Victoria Spadaro Grant, Chief R&D and Quality Officer of the Barilla Group and finally, Lotte Lyngsted Jepsen, Innovation Director and Partner of Hatch and Bloom, service designers in Copenhagen.

I am looking forward to seeing more pavillions after the event.

Design for Europe Conference, Brussels

Professor Lou from Tongji. No room for his Shanghai dot on the map provided! (Spot the orange dot on the right). We last met when he was a speaker with Ezio Manzini (as he will today) at the World Design Capital 2014 Cape Town conference on policy last October. Lou is closely involved in design policy developments currently building momentum in China.

Kick off of the Design for Europe Conference

Kick off of Design for Europe conference.

Leaving for Design for Europe Conference

Departing St Pancras for the Design for Europe conference taking place tomorrow in Brussels.

There is a great line up of speakers and the conference, organised by programme leader Design Council, represents an important step in further embedding design as a key factor for growth within the culture of the new Commission.

We already have design champions working hard within the Commission and this conference is an important platform to enable discussion that can lead to new actions - not only in Europe's industries, but also for the Commission itself as it moves towards the close of the initial funding programme for design under the European Design Innovation Initiative.

The deeper task is to disseminate design's unique role more widely across the Commission's Directorates. With the new VP structure in place - a more horizontal structure than was previously the case - the opportunity exists to achieve further strategic goals for design at the European level.

Luxembourg Design Awards Jury

On my way to Luxembourg to join this year's Luxembourg Design Awards jury.