Hasta La Ideas

In his opening remarks at this year’s Product Design + Innovation conference in London, Core columnist Kevin McCullagh challenged speakers and attendees to ‘cut through the hype’ so rampant in the industry in recent years, to identify the real opportunities for design in the growing number and increasingly complex fields in which it operates. Whilst many brands and corporations are wholeheartedly embracing design and its processes, a mounting wariness to the overblown claims and difficult to quantify results associated with the Design Thinking movement may indeed make hype dissection a key challenge facing the industry in the years to come.

In the charming surroundings of one England’s oldest cricket clubs, the two-day event saw spirited debate as some of the most heralded futures of products and manufacturing were subject to scrutiny: Internet of Things, connected mobility, additive manufacturing, the maker movement, product-service systems, premiumisation, the consumerisation of healthcare.

In an attempt to capture some of the hearty discussion that ensued, we’ve picked out five of our top PD+I highlights:

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