Gathering the best-in-category designers and thought leaders within a panel series, Design Conversations aims to facilitate the discussion of changes, challenges, opportunities and directions revolving around design’s various sectors such as the workplace, retail and hospitality. Here’s a teaser on the line-up for Singapore Indesign 2017:

How Can We Future-Proof the Workplace Against Uncertainty? 

The commercial sphere is shifting under our feet. Now, more than ever before, organisations require adaptability to volatile, unpredictable conditions. Workplace culture aside, fundamentals about the very nature of work are changing as new technologies make an impact. How can the physical workplace best keep up with change? Does agile working equate to future-ready, agile workplaces? How can adaptability be designed for a future that’s hard to predict?

Bricks to Clicks and Back Again: What Matters in Retail Design

What are the most important sites for retail today – the physical store, the online store, the pop-up, social media, or a combination of all these? How will technology alter retail and retail architecture even more than it already has? When does a physical retail experience make an impact, and why is it so important that it does? This session will explore what’s driving retail’s shifting ground, what consumers want, and what it all means for retail designers.

What Does ‘Luxury Hospitality’ Mean Today?

Is simplicity now more valuable than gilding? Does wellness outshine indulgence? Does mindset transcend jetset? How and why have consumer expectations changed in the luxury hospitality arena, and how is the hotel industry responding? This session will explore the demands and expectations of the new consumer, and how notions of ‘luxury experience’ are being flipped and redefined.

Louis Poulsen Patera pendant

Interacting with Light and Data

Technologies for and around lighting continue to develop, with potentially game-changing effects on how we interact with and experience light. But what is the take-up rate? What do clients, building users and designers want today when it comes to lighting design? What’s most important to each stakeholder group? How is new technology altering our encounters with light? And how well are the experiential qualities of lighting surviving the technological evolution?

SGID FUTURES DEBATE

Disruption is a Dirty Word (for Designers)

Overused buzzword that’s lost all meaning? Or enduring phenomenon that designers and architects should consider more deeply? ‘Disruption’ is a word that some love, and some love to hate. But what exactly is disruption, and in what ways does (or doesn’t) it affect how and what we design? The SGID Futures Debate is a forum where designers can argue for and against the topic, with the winning team decided by the audience. We’re enlisting four of Singapore’s most progressive designers (two teams of two), and we’re expecting a sparking exchange!

We are revealing the list of speakers in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Register online, here, and follow us on Instagram (@indesigntheevent) and Facebook for more updates!