5 Best Production Design Conferences you must visit every year

Grappus Info
Sep 4, 2018 · 5 min read

Much is said about several conferences, and then of course there are many that take special care to invite their delegates. Despite this, how many of us keep a track of the ones we should actually be following?

Worry not — here’s a list!

ASIA:

Singapore: Singapore UX Conference

Unfortunately, this year’s edition is already done! This conference, which generally runs end January to early February for one week, is one of the most consistently highly-rated Product Design conferences!

The island nation may be small but it is one of the biggest hubs of trade and business worldwide — not just in South East Asia, with its geographical proximity, livability, access to trade, connectivity and more — so right off the bat, with location, the tropical island nation’s leading conference is a mustn’t-miss!

This conference runs courses on product and user experience design, and how best to approach them. They describe UX Training as a “valuable investment” — which it really is! This will help you approach marketing, user design, product design and more.

They provide on-the-day courses, certifications, and all of their conference-based education, they say, is based on current research — so in addition to a good education on the courses you’ll be taking up, you’ll also get a good feel for the numbers involved in the current scenario of product design. And by that, we mean how research is working, what trends you might want to explore, and more.

The organizers also run a number of the same conferences parallelly in other countries — so you might want to explore that too!

LINK:

South Korea: The Asia Design Engineering Workshop, Seoul

A two-day workshop that runs usually towards the end of December, the Asia Design Engineering Workshop is again in another trade hub — its capital, Seoul! This conference, for which attendance is open, is slightly targeted towards a younger demographic — with student design competitions open for those who wish to participate.

But the competition is only one aspect of it. Multiple keynote speakers join this conference, which is a short one — but packs quite the punch into those two days! They discuss — and invite students to present innovative solutions to various design problems such as products, services, product-service systems, business innovation models!

Their generic is Business Innovation Design. Design for industry, service design, design and management, design and manufacturing, design and analysis, design methods and tools.

And you know what makes this one even better? Every year, while the core competencies they offer remain largely remain the same, they pick a different sub-theme every year.

LINK: http://adews2017.org/

EUROPE:

Italy: Salone Del Mobile, Milan

Hey, if you’re going to a conference about design, who better to advise you than the Italians, right? The birthplace of multiple art movements, the place that gave birth to the Renaissance — italy in the 1500–1600s gave birth to a whole new breed of philosophers, schools of thought, artists and new styles of art, and gave us some of the most beautiful works of art that we know today!

This conference, which takes place in the design hub of the world — Milan, is generally held towards the end of April for a 5-day period. Here, they discuss all the different aspects of design

Denmark: The Product Development Symposium (PDS)

Held in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, this is hosted by the Technical University of Denmark. With typical precision and concentration, the aim of this conference is clearly laid out. This symposium markets itself as an “opportunity for Industry delegates to gain insight into the advances in engineering design and product development research and practice.”

Like all conferences, every year this conference features a number of keynote speakers who are all experts in their fields — and you might be thinking, well, what else is new? Well, this conference also teaches on-the-spot tools you might need to be able to progress in product design, and teach attendees these methods and tools over the course of the conference they can go on to use in future.

This one occurs yearly in the second week of November — and early bird registration is still open for this one!

LINK: http://pd-symposium.org/

NORTH AMERICA

Canada: Design Content Conference, Vancouver

Of all the conferences we’ve told you about thus far, this is perhaps the most relevant to the atmosphere we are currently in in terms of business and economy. More of a web-focused one than the others, this conference sees experienced people discuss the top strategies taking place in their field. Here, you will hear from industry leaders about trends taking place within this craft and how they are shaping the future of the web.

This conference features industry leaders, experts in the field, and has some A-List speakers at the event. Bonus — they take you around Vancouver, too! How’s that for a great bonus?

LINK: https://designcontentconf.com/

United States of America: Seattle, Washington

Here we have the aptly titled “An Event Apart” — which does what it’s called! This conference, which is held in the American state of Washington, is quite the all-encompassing kind of conference. This symposium covers what’s trending and how the internet is changing over the years, making it extra-relevant to us — especially in the day and age where the internet is where most people do most, if not all, of their business, design, and entire business-related processes from start to finish!

Previous attendees consist of industry leaders, professionals working in the UX and design fields.

This conference also extends to anyone with an interest in the future of design, code, and content — so you get to cover several different aspects of product design, from end to end!

LINK: https://aneventapart.com/

At Grappus, we believe that conferences are way more important for networking than they seem. Visit www.grappus.com to learn more!

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