The All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group (APDIG) and Design Council are delighted to be joint hosting a two-part joint roundtable programme across spring of 2022. Inspired by the potential of the 1.9 million designers in the UK and their importance in building our future society, this roundtable series will aim to engage with a wide range of stakeholders across the Design Economy.

Design Council’s Design Economy research programme aims to explore the current and future social, environment, and economic impact of design, as the value of design is not yet wholly recognised. To bring about positive change, collective action is necessary to build back better and create a healthy and sustainable society.

The roundtable will be hosted on 24th February 14:00-16:00 via Zoom, chaired by Barry Sheerman MP, co-Chair for APDIG. Speakers include: Minnie Moll, CEO of Design Council; Indy Johar, Founding Director of Dark Matter Labs; Lord Deben, Chair of the Climate Change Committee; and Jane Davidson, Former Minister of Environment, Sustainability, and Housing for the Welsh Government.

This first event will aim to understand the role of design in the future ambitions for our society conceptualised through this interactive workshop and start considering the nature of the policy recommendations that would help us achieve this aim. This workshop will also aim to consider how design sits within our current economic systems and how the latter may be adapted to create the conditions for design to flourish. The final roundtable will then take place in late April, which will build upon these critical discussions around value and think look to UK-wide policy change, mapping out this landscape across devolved nations.

This is a closed roundtable, however if you are interested in attending please email shiza.naveed [at] policyconnect.org.uk