Spilling-the-beans on ‘DesignUp 2019’, with Baisam
Candid take from a crew member of Asia’s premier conference for DesignInTech
DesignUp involves a series of diverse events bringing practitioners, leaders & learners together, fusing insights from East & West. So what was DesignUp 2019 all made of? Here are some excerpts from our conversation with Baisampayan Saha, who has been a part of the organizing committee for a fairly longish time.
Read on, to find out the inside secrets of DUP#19
Q: You’ve been a part of the organizing committee of DesignUp for a long time now. How has DesignUp really transformed over these years?
Baisam: In so many ways, actually! For starters, the scale of the conference, in terms of number of participants, speakers and sponsors, has increased multifolds. The first designup event saw a modest 200+ attendees. Fast forward by three years, this time we had 1500+ attendees from designers to product managers to data scientists and more. So we are talking about a huge 200% growth! And wait, I almost forgot to add in the number of school children and curious parents who also attended special sessions.
Last year at DesignUp, we were sold-out and also received a waitlist of eager participants. This year it was even crazier! There was ‘FOMO vibe’, if I may put it that way. Very evident from the social media posts, people wanted to ‘not-miss-out’ the most happening conversations around design. We were trending on twitter for three days straight for ‘Southern India’. Not surprisingly, in Bangalore on 15–16 Nov, DesignUp held the №1 spot for close to 10 hours! On LinkedIn, we estimate crossing 1,70,000 views posted by various attendees and a few thousand likes on these. Instagram got its own boost with images, videos and stories.
Besides, we have also expanded to different geographies. This year, we took the plunge and conducted our very first DesignUp Asia conference in Singapore.
If I may describe the transformation in just a few words, I would safely say that DesignUp has transformed from being just another ‘event’ to becoming a ‘design festival’.
Q: How have the “design” conversations evolved?
Baisam: More than you and I would think! We had huge participation of both, product and design teams from various companies this year at DesignUp. That goes on to say that many organisations now understand the importance of ‘design’.
At MakeMyTrip, for instance, design plays a vital role in the product life cycle. Product team works in close collaboration with design team to come up with solutions for complex problems. So yes, the conversations have changed; from ‘let’s release and see how the feature works’ to ‘let’s do a user research to decide if the feature is even needed or not’. Candidly speaking, designers now have a ‘seat’ at the decision-making table. And that’s awesome!
We also had talks combining qualitative and data insights such as ‘the next 100 million users’ at the event.
Overall, discussions evolved from being very ‘design centric’ to ‘design + product + data centric’. Another intriguing talk was around how work-from-remote-location is actually quite efficient, contrary to the common belief. That was quite refreshing to know! :)
Besides this, there were talks from people of varied fields. Speakers included design gurus, entrepreneurs, social workers; all showcasing the innovative work they have been doing. For instance, Devika, who was a speaker at DesignUp, helps people from Kashmir. She helps them earn a livelihood by enabling them to sell their handicraft items. Interestingly, she facilitates recycling of plastic waste to create useful products. We even had a showcase for these products this year! This just shows how design can help alleviate people’s lives, in more than one way.
At DesignUp, we not just profess but also embrace inclusivity. We had a great line-up of both female and male presenters making the event truly holistic. So yes! Design conversations had changed and evolved for good…
Q: What exactly is your role in the organizing committee? And how do you manage it with your day job?
Baisam: I take care of social media posts besides being the incharge of the audio-video panel during the conference days. The first day of the conference is always stressful to get all the things right. Anything that goes wrong with the speaker keynotes on the screen would be my responsibility to fix it asap.
Whenever required, I volunteer for various tasks during the masterclasses. Getting the show running smoothly is the team’s responsibility. So, many of us end up playing multiple roles. This year, one additional responsibility that I took over was to create a platform for the design community to stay connected. A DesignUp Tribe website was created to facilitate this. It would offer membership plans that provide easy access to events, benefits, freebies and more.
Most of the work done pre-event are mostly after office hours. So it does get a bit too hectic with a day job in hand. Having said that, it’s the passion and charisma of the event and those involved, that keeps us going.
Tirelessly, if I may add…
Q: Tell us how you prepare for the event. Give us a sneak peak into the OC team’s dynamics.
Baisam: The main preparation starts a good three to four months in advance. But we do start thinking about the next year’s event as soon as the current event ends. We have several discussion groups for different agendas and usually most of the communication happens there. It’s a multi-dimensional project. Decisions on venue, keynote speakers, sponsors and more, are all taken very early in the process.
Some of the pre-event work involves reaching out to potential sponsors, interviewing speakers, managing logistics, finalizing goodie bag inclusions, social media plan.
Last but not the least is deciding the menu for the event. ‘The number and kind of desserts’ is a crucial discussion every year.
Why?
Well, love thy desserts! 😃 DesignUp
