Design/Management Thinking 24 Conference
BALANCING EXTREMES: The tensions in design
June 19-20, 2012, Portland, Oregon, USA
Gerding Theatre at the Armory
 
 
There's still time to register for BALANCING EXTREMES! Join us June 19-20 in Portland, Oregon for on-point presentations, discussions, and interactive sessions from a broad cross-section of today's most forward-looking business and design leaders—and, tap into their success!

Be a part of today's most forward-looking and dynamic design leadership event. Register today and join us in Portland for two full days of learning, collaboration, networking, and fun!
 
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DMI President Search

DMI is seeking an exceptional leader to become its next president. DMI's current president, Karen Reuther, has announced that she will step down at the end of June. "I have made the personal decision to resign from my position as president of DMI and will be returning to a creative role where my passion for designing great products and experiences is best aligned. I will remain an active contributor to DMI and specifically look forward to chairing the annual fall conference in New York City this October with a great team of co-chairs."
 
According to Gianfranco Zaccai, President & CEO, Continuum, and Chair of the DMI Board of Directors, "We are grateful for the leadership provided by Karen Reuther as President of DMI for the past year. She has built on the legacy of the past while seeking to make DMI ever more relevant and compelling on both the global and local stage."
 
The job search will be led by Tom Lockwood, past president of DMI and Founding Partner of Lockwood Resource. The new president will provide leadership for DMI's overall vision, research, education programs, events and publications as DMI expands globally. Qualified candidates will have extensive experience in managing design, a graduate degree in the field or a related field or equivalent experience, a deep understanding of the field, and the enthusiasm to provide visionary leadership to the organization and the design management profession. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2012.

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There are a number of topics that leaders of design regularly engage with. How can I measure the effectiveness of design to prove its value? What are the best ways of managing a process in which everyone wants involvement but few have deep skills? What is the best model for accessing great design (internal or external; roster or pitch)? One topic is mostly absent, and may be the most important of all: the pursuit of beauty.
 
When designers stick to the language of commerce, speaking only in terms of short-term effectiveness, we run the risk of undermining our profession. We also risk the long-term health of our organizations. It is only by building deep emotional bonds with consumers that our brands will thrive, and delivering beauty is a key way to bring this about.
 
Beauty is a fundamental human need, and one that the world of art and design has, for the most part, rejected since the birth of Modernism. Evidence of humans pursuing beauty can be found throughout history. The earliest evidence of pride in making beautiful objects can be found over one million years ago, in our pre-history and before Homo sapiens even walked the earth.

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Organized by DMI – The Design Management Institute
Hosted by MassArt – Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

 
Keynote Speaker: Roger Martin
Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; author, Fixing the Game
 
DMI is pleased to announce that Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, will be the Keynote Speaker for DMI's 2012 Research Conference. Roger is generally recognized as one of the top business leaders of our time and has gained wide recognition for his books, including Fixing the Game and The Design of Business. The conference is shaping up to be DMI's most successful academic conference ever, with nearly 200 abstracts received from the call for papers. The review process is now almost complete with more than 80 papers accepted for full presentation. DMI is also in the process of awarding scholarships thanks to a grant from the NEA. The goal of the conference is to create an inclusive conversation among academics from a variety of disciplines including business and design management to examine the ways in which design thinking can inform innovation currently and in the future. If you're interested in the latest design management and leadership research and thinking, you won't want to miss this landmark event!
 
Co-chairs:
Erik Bohemia, Reader in Three Dimensional Design Studies, School of Design, Northumbria University
Jeanne Liedtka, Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia - Darden Business School
Alison Rieple, Professor of Strategic Management, Westminster Business School
 
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NEW AMBITION:
Delivering the promise of design
 
DMI Design/Management Annual 37
October 24-25, 2012
Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City
 
CO-CHAIRS:
Pamela DeCesare, EVP Design Management, Sterling Brands
James DeVries, Creative Director, Harvard Business Review Group
David Kuehler, Portfolio Director, Innovation Capability, Procter & Gamble
Karen Reuther, Creative Director, Cast Collective

 
Get ready for the next iteration of DMI's tremendously successful New York City conference! Last year, the conference was the most successful in its 37-year history. 210 high level professionals, executives, consultants, and educators immersed themselves in two days of fast-paced learning, interaction, and networking. Evaluations were highly enthusiastic: Great content!" A very rich learning experience." I thought the speakers, topics, train of thoughts, were incredible." Don't miss this year's premier design/management/leadership event! Look for theme and speaker updates very shortly at dmi.org/nyc.
 
   

• Re-envision your optimal business model based on best-practice strategies
• Transition your team from order-takers to strategic advisors
• Create a tiered work segmentation system that levels the playing field and empowers your in-house creative and marketing teams
• Understand the best financial management tools and structures that demonstrate value

The seminar will empower leaders with tools and systems, enabling them to demonstrate their team's value in tangible terms that corporate executives will understand and appreciate.
 
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DMI Night Out May Report
In May, 700 participants gathered in 11 cities on five continents for the second round of DMI's extremely popular Night Out series. Despite the diverse and far-flung nature of the events, they were all united under the common topic of Inspiring Design Entrepreneurship." The wealth of experience and talent of the local DMI communities inspires and encourages more face-to-face connections in our virtual world. Find out what you missed, view photos, videos, and reports from the May Night Out events. DMI's next Night Out will be held in September, learn how you can host an evening in your community!
 
DMI and ABEDESIGN Announce Partnership
DMI and ABEDESIGN, the Brazilian Association of Design Companies, have announced a partnership that will result in greater cooperation between the two organizations and will bring DMI membership benefits to ABEDESIGN's members. The two organizations will also collaborate on the development of conferences and content for each other's publications. The partnership will run initially for two years and is aligned to the goal of ABEDESIGN that strengthening alliances with international design institutions is essential for Brazilian design development. The agreement marks another step towards DMI's goal of expanding our international network and broadening participation.
 
 

Webinar:
 
Design Process Change Improves Brand Experience?
Mathieu Turpault, Partner and Director of Design, Bresslergroup
Rob Tannen, Director of Research & Interaction Design, Bresslergroup
June 13, 2012, 1PM ET
 
From multitouch phones to gestural interface gaming systems and radio transmitters embedded in everything from passports to pets, the connections between people and technology are becoming stronger. Using case studies and best practices, Mathieu and Rob will share cases for integrated design and its impact on product branding, information on emergent technologies, effective testing of multisensory interaction, and how to modify your NPD processes and deliverables to fully integrate digital and physical interface elements. The presentation is geared toward senior product and interaction designers and design directors.
 
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Interested in presenting a webinar? Contact DMI for info.
 
 

Seminars:
 
Building Great Internal Design Organizations
Thomas Lockwood, PhD, Founding Partner, Lockwood Resource
September 13-14, 2012, USA
 
"Excellent packaging of all the relevant elements of design management that experienced design managers are looking for."
—John L. Guenther, LWS Industrial Design Competency Manager, Hewlett-Packard
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Design Research and the Customer-Driven Strategy
Darrel Rhea, Founder & CEO, Rhea Insight
September 20-21, 2012, Seattle, USA
 
"This is the single most valuable, relevant, timely and enabling seminar that I have ever attended. In just two days, we learned tools and methods that will be immediately usable in my job."
—Jeff Lopes, UX Director, Autodesk, Inc.
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Improving Design Decision Making and Concept Evaluation
Jeremy Alexis, Assistant Dean and Professor, IIT Institute of Design
October 11-12, 2012, Chicago, USA
 
"The emphasis on core principles made this seminar incredibly useful. It fed my understanding and set me up for informed and effective action."
—Philip Hartley, Senior Design Strategist, Smart Design
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Brand Together
Nicholas Ind, Writer and Partner, Equilibrium Consulting

Presented at the recent Collective Design" conference in Helsinki, April 25-26, 2012. Complete video has now been posted for exclusive access by all DMI members and all conference participants.
 

 
Most organizations would like to get close to customers, reduce risk, and create successful products and services. Using new research, Nicholas Ind shows how businesses can capture the imagination and ideas of customers to co-create innovations and reenergize brands. This will challenge some of the preconceptions about customer participation, the role of design, and the responsibilities of managers.
 
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Designing with Complexity

By Rob Tannen, Director of Research & Interaction Design, BresslerGroup
DMI Review, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2012
 
Frequently, what is called simplicity may in fact be interpreted as clarity. In other words, your perception of complexity depends on whether you are the designer or the user.
 
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