Smart Design set to speak at agIdeas, Australia’s leading annual design event

• Founding member, Dan Formosa, to give Design Master Workshop and join ABC Radio panel discussion on benefits of design

• Agnete Enga, co-founder of Femme Den, to talk on design and gender as part of the agIdeas’ Advantage Business Breakfast

Melbourne, Tuesday 13 April: Smart Design is pleased to announce that two of its designers have been invited to present at agIdeas, Australia’s most prominent annual design conference, which takes place 26-30 April in Melbourne.

Dan Formosa, founding member of Smart Design, a global design consultancy with studios in New York, San Francisco, and Barcelona, and Agnete Enga, Senior Industrial Designer at the firm and co-founder of their Femme Den initiative, will speak at multiple events during their weeklong stay in Melbourne.

"Australia has always produced great design work," says Formosa. "Smart Design recently set up a strategic partnership with Australia’s leading firm, Design + Industry, and we are thrilled to be working with them. We are also looking forward to meeting people in the Australian design community and sharing our thoughts on design – past, present and future."

Murray Hunter, founder and Chief of Design + Industry, is equally excited to have Formosa and Enga in Australia. "We have been collaborating with the Smart Design team on some fantastic projects over the last few years. Smart Design has a great global perspective and being involved in agIdeas and Australian Design in general is testament to this," says Hunter.

This year marks the agIdeas’s 20th year of bringing together 40 of the world’s creative leaders to share their insights with more than 10,500 designers, students, and business leaders. The Design Foundation organises the event.

As part of the celebration, agIdeas will hold its inaugural "agIdeas in conversation" on ABC Radio National, to spread the word about design across the country. Formosa will join Alex Alvarez, Amanda Henderson, Alan Saunders, and Ken Cato (founder and chairman of the Design Foundation) for a one-hour panel discussion on the topic ‘Design is Difference' – exploring the differences that design makes in business.

Enga, who is part of Smart Design’s internal group dedicated to understanding the complex issues around design and gender (Femme Den), explains her mission: "The topic of design and gender is a complex one. Smart Design has a long history of understanding how design can improve people’s lives, and our work around gender is the latest approach to meeting the needs and desires of today’s real women. Given that 80% of all purchasing decisions are made or influenced by women these days, it just makes good business sense to try and reach them in the right way."

She will be featured at the Wednesday, 28 April, Advantage Business Breakfast, which this year focuses on the topic of Women and Design. She will also present a main talk on the same topic at the Design Forum on Thursday, 29 April, at 9:15am.

In addition to the radio panel, Formosa will also conduct a daylong Design Master Workshop (which has sold out) and present a main talk at the Design Forum on Wednesday, 28 April, at 1:15pm.

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