About BODW
Asia’s premier annual event on design, innovation and brands since 2002, Business of Design Week (BODW) organised by Hong Kong Design Centre gathers some of the world’s most outstanding design masters and business influencers in Hong Kong, inspiring global audiences on the strategic value of design and innovation. It provides a valuable platform for business and creative leaders to exchange ideas, network, and explore new business opportunities.
Summit Digest
What our speakers said
Organisations that have existing design capacity were able to respond very quickly and helped explored immediate solutions to pressing problems... it shows that investing in design makes society more resilient to unexpected shocks.
Tim Brown, 2020
Chair
IDEO · US
Creativity is influential because it infuses the essence of our tradition, the spirit of our time, the familiarity we recognise, the value we share. Creativity is cultivated by the perseverance of restraint, the economy of means, the silence of ingenuity, the realisation of hope.
Chi Wing Lo, 2020
Founder
DIMENSIONE CHI WING LO · Italy
This is an example of good design because its persistence can last a very long time. What assures that is the human connection, because humans last a long time. And some of these do change... but the persistence of understanding humans is the best way to bet on business investment, because it doesn’t move as much.
Jim Hackett, 2020
Special Advisor
Ford Motor Company · US
The people often bring really important value in projects and cultures, and what they see and their craftsmanship are only able to be passed on to the next generation by hand... so in the circularity of making, it is really important to have that as one of the first priorities, because people have talents and they’re also the most important resource that we have.
Elaine Yan Ling Ng, 2020
Founder
THE FABRICK LAB · HK
The only way to make sustainable places is to make the places that people love. You can’t tell someone that something’s sustainable and sort of show them data, because for public places, the data is whether people love it and want to be there.
Thomas Heatherwick CBE, 2020
Founder
Heatherwick Studio · UK
If you dream big and kind of throwing the goalpost way out there, even if you have to cut the corners or back off of the initial vision, you are still so far beyond people’s expectations.
Patrick Shearn, 2020
Chief Creative Officer
Poetic Kinetics · US
Easing passengers’ journeys and making them contactless will be key to the design of big airports and stations, making journeys secure and safe but also seamless and enjoyable because we’ve got to bring that enjoyment back into travel.
Paul Priestman, 2020
Designer, Co-founder & Chairman
PriestmanGoode · UK
There’s a danger of people predicting what people want as designers or artists... we need to work with the people we’re doing the work for – we should listen to people and then work together to make better works and improve our world.
Morag Myerscough, 2020
Artist/Designer
· UK
You have to be able to understand that sophisticated innovation, the kind of works, is inherently a team sport. You need talent from business schools, you need talent from engineering schools, and you need talent from design schools in order to get things right.
Larry Keeley, 2020
Innovation Scientist
· US
The climate condition is getting harsher and we need to think about the relationships between inside and outside. In addition to glass panels, plants, terraces and protective structures should be integrated into the ‘skin’ of an architecture.
