Events and Conferences

The annual Design.Different season is a series of events that highlight the work of the researchers within the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. Each month, one member of Centre staff is given free reign to host an event of their choosing, drawing on an international network of expert guests from across academia and industry. The events are an opportunity for the researchers to share their work in progress, and pick each others' brains to take their research forward.

Currently underway, the 2023 Design.Different season has featured speakers from as far afield as Poland and California and prompted more conversations and questions than they have answered.

Design.Inclusive with Patricia Moore

To kick off our 2023 season of events, we had the pleasure of welcoming inclusive design icon Patricia Moore to the RCA for a special in person conversation with Rama Gheerawo, in which she looked back on the lessons she has learned during the course of her incredible career.

Design.Healthcare: Honouring personhood in a healthcare setting

Tom Stables, Industry Project Designer, hosted the second event, a conversation about representing and maintaining the personhood of someone receiving care in a healthcare setting.

Design.Value: The missing connection of design and politics

Innovation Fellow Ve Dewey hosted this event, which explored the dynamic between design and politics, how it currently stands, how it could be changed and evolved, and what is needed for this evolution.

Design.Convenience

Hosted by Professor Jo-Anne Bichard, Professor of Accessible Design, this event drew on the premise that there is an inherit convenience necessary in cities and urban spaces, in order for people to move around safely and effectively. However, what may be convenient for one person may be inconveniencing another. The question, then, is how to design cities that are inclusive of all.

Design.Resilience

HHCD Design Reseacher Madelaine Dowd hosted this event, which examined how, in a world where technologies are constantly advancing and providing dynamic new capabilities, humanity can look to thrive alongside technology. It asked the question 'with tensions around artificial intelligence's rapid rate of development, is humanity keeping up to ensure it still serves people needs?⁠

Design.Wisdom

What is wisdom? How does it impact us as a society and as individuals? Should we design with wisdom in mind?

This conversation will investigate the intersection of wisdom, age, and design. Join Dr Dilip Jeste, a world leading expert on wisdom and author of the book Wiser: The Scientific Roots of Wisdom, Compassion, and What Makes Us Good, and Design Age Institute Director Colum Lowe for a conversation facilitated by DAI Knowledge Exchange Fellow Carly Dickson.

“Wisdom not shared is wisdom not gained but lost”

— Dilip Jeste

The panel will explore if and how sharing people's unique and diverse experiences of getting older can help us design a world that works better for everyone. Jeste’s research identified that there is an inverse relationship between wisdom and loneliness - the wiser we are, the less lonely we are. Using this as the starting point, the panel will consider what role design can play in supporting the exchange of wisdom between people of different ages and whether this could simultaneously contribute to combating loneliness, ageism, and generational divides.

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More on the 2021/22 season here

In 2001, we founded the conference series Include, focusing on Inclusive Design and bringing together practitioners, academics, business leaders and policymakers. The first Include was held in 2001 and 2019 marked the tenth in the series. Include is a unique event that brings together those interested in inclusive and people-centred design.

The first six conferences were held at the Royal College of Art, however in 2013 and 2017, the conference was held in Hong Kong under the Include Asia brand as part of Knowledge of Design Week 2013. Include 2019 took place in Detroit in partnership with Design Core at the College of Creative Studies.

Visit our Include Publications and Proceedings page to view the back-catalogue of conference proceedings, newsletters, books and electronic resources.

Centre staff are available to deliver lectures on a variety of topics based on our four areas of interest Age and Diversity, HealthcareInclusive Design for Business Impact, and Inclusive Design for Social Impact.

Lectures can be tailored to a variety of needs and audiences.

Centre staff regularly feature at academic conferences, business forums, and as part of research or teaching engagements. Lectures cover methods, processes and case studies around Inclusive Design, Design Thinking and Creative Leadership.

The Centre also supports conferences organised by other organisations, either through partnership or content provision. Major collaborations have included:

• Healthcare network Salus on two conferences - European Healthcare Design and Healthy City Design.
• The International Association of Universal Design conference series.

We have also partnered with numerous other events, small and large. Please contact hhcd@rca.ac.uk if you wish to engage with us.

Alongside conferences, we also run and participate in seminars and workshops. We can partner with you to create a bespoke event or facilitate and produce small events on your behalf.

A highly successful format includes a four hour workshop using creative tools and methods to explore and map agendas for topics ranging from surgery to mobility, from autism to the office.

We have also delivered ideation events and internal workshops as part of professional development for government, business and the public sector, introducing people to the creative value of design.