Valencia welcomed the sixth Spanish National Congress of Design Association (6_ENAD) September 20-21 with a focus on how design-driven solutions can be a driver of regional development on the public agenda.
Nearly 200 representatives from across Spain met at the Feria de Valencia and Las Naves to renew the dialogue and collaboration between public and private agencies within the design sector and beyond. Attendees also explored how design thinking can raise competitiveness and employment, as well as improve social cohesion and living standards.
The project Designscapes, through the intervention of its consortium member Econcult of the Universitat de València, brought along three heavyweights in Europe’s design sectors for the purpose of initiating debate on Spanish design policy by sharing the experience from Finland, Lithuania, and the UK. The three European design experts are Mrs Audronè Drungilaitè, member of the board of directors of The Bureau of European Design Associations (BEDA) and executive director of Lithuanian Design Forum, Mrs Jo Ward, designer and investigator at PDR international Centre for Design and Research, UK, and Mr Petteri Kolinen, CEO of Design Forum Finland.
Through four parallel interactive workshops, a number of positive conclusions were reached. Some reflections can be summarised as follows:
The Econcult team also took this opportunity to conduct a formal introduction at the Congress of the current Designscapes’ Open Call for pilots, which prompted much interest and commitment to submit applications to the Designscapes project.
