DESIS Workshop: Enterprise and Employability (Sep 2013, UK)

Dates: 25-26 September 2013
Location: Lincoln University, UK
Website: http://desis-uk.org/wordpress/?p=366

This event will explore what lies beyond Higher Education DESIS projects. We seek to map the potential applications of the learning DESIS projects produce for students and understand the roles for and requirements of designers trained in design for social innovation and sustainability when entering the job market across the sectors involved in social innovation.

Hult Prize (September 2013)

Sponsor: Swedish billionaire Bertil Hult and the Hult International Business School
Competition: “startup accelerator for social entrepreneurship” based around a specific issue conveyed through in-depth case study
Prize: $1 million seeded into a new company that the winning team will run.
Eligibility: worldwide
Deadline : competition is more complex than most. It kicks off in September, worldwide, with 5-person teams affiliated to one university or college (an alum is allowed). There’s a regional competition component. There are online and offline components, as well as a live “accelorator” experience.
Website: http://www.hultprize.org/en/prize-2013/faqs/

Design Business and Service Conference (April 2013, Rome)

Dates: 18-19 April 2013
Location: Rome, Italy
Website: http://www.dbs-2013.com/
Deadline for proposals: 29 Jan 2013

This year’s guiding theme: Design(ing) Business and Services

Over the past decade, several conferences and interactive workshops have focused on managing as designing, on design management, business design and on changing the decision-making paradigm within the management field. Design is taught to management students and management to design students. Managers now can be thought of as designers, although they may not even be conscious about the design practices and methods they employ. In the midst of this development, the design of services has emerged as an important issue in professional conferences, in academic environments, and in the business world. Overall, it seems that the boundaries between professional claims are getting more and more fuzzy: Marketing departments are claiming that they have been developing services for years. Similarly, design thinking is moving through university departments and through corporate offices with the speed of a fashion fad.