Hasta La Ideas

Now in its sixth year, the Service Design Network conference lands in the UK for the first time, following past conferences in locations from San Francisco to Berlin. The annual conference will be held in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, from November 18–29 of this year, at the Wales Millenium Centre, taking the theme of “Transformation through Service Design.”

In an organisational context, transformation is a process of profound and radical change. It’s about setting off in a new direction and reaching a greater level of effectiveness. As service design gains traction within a larger range of industries and sectors the practice must keep pace with developments in the application of this. Until now service design has been used primarily as a redesign capability at the front-end of the service. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

More and more Service Design practices and customer led approaches lie at the heart of good transformational programs and by fully understanding how service design connects with all areas of an organisation service design can support transformation on a much larger scale and achieve greater impact.

Held in partnership with the UK Chapter of the Service Design Network and PDR—winners of the 2012 Core77 Design Award in the Service Design category—the three-day conference will see a “fantastic series of talks, presentations and workshops” from a broad range of speakers, representing organizations from BBVA to Herman Miller to the UK Government.

Those of you who might be interested in joining the roster of presenters can see the Call for Contributions; attendees are encouraged to take advantage of early bird tickets, available now through July 31.

About the SDN
The Service Design Network is the global centre for recognising and promoting excellence in the field of service design. Through national and international events, online and print publications, and coordination with academic institutions, the network connects multiple disciplines within agencies, business, and government to strengthen the impact of service design both in the public and private sector.

The Service Design Network was initiated in 2004 by a group of ambitious and enthusiastic believers in the value of service design. In 2008 it was set up as a non-profit organisation acting as a forum for practitioners and academics to advance the nascent field of Service Design. Our purpose is to develop and strengthen the knowledge and expertise in the science and practise of innovation. The support of service design related networks, conferences, publications, workshops are some of the SDNs activities—but also lobbying on political and economical platforms is on the agenda of SDN.

About the SDN UK Chapter
SDN UK represents and connects the UK’s Service Design industry. Service Design is an established practice within the UK, with some great companies blazing the trail. SDN UK aims to connect the community and enable knowledge share at all levels.

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