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AIGA Gain Conference highlights design's critical role in revitalising business

New York (United States) - This October, AIGA's ninth biennial Gain: AIGA Design and Business Conference addresses how businesses operating in highly competitive yet slow-growing markets can deploy design to create new value and a higher profile.

27.09.2010 News

New York (United States) - AIGA's ninth biennial Gain: AIGA Design and Business Conference takes place 14-16 October, in New York City. This year's event, themed "Design (Re) Invents," addresses how businesses operating in highly competitive yet slow-growing markets can deploy design to create new value and a higher profile.

Gain has sold out each of the last three years and is expected to draw 1000 design professionals and design-savvy business leaders this year. The conference is presented by AIGA, the national professional organisation for the design field. AIGA's 21 000-person membership comprises graphic designers, brand consultants, design firm principals, web designers and corporate in-house creatives from across the United States.

The 2010 Gain: AIGA Design and Business Conference will focus on how design can recharge everything from consumer brands to comic books, from the way we eat to the way we interact. Through case studies and discussions moderated by conference moderator Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA, the field's brightest minds will show how they reinvented their businesses by employing smart design.

Speakers will include:

Gadi Amit, CEO of the industrial design firm NewDealDesign;
Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, founder and CEO, Teshkeel Media Group, and creator of the first group of comic superheroes born of an Islamic archetype, The 99, which has received critical acclaim from around the worldÂ—including praise from President Barack Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship;
J Allard, former chief experience officer and chief technology officer of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, who managed the technical development of the Xbox console and Zune media player;
David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, one of the most recognised independent advertising agencies in America and the group behind the award-winning Puma Index campaign;
Erica Eden, senior industrial designer at Smart Design and co-founder of Femme Den, a team of researchers, designers and engineers at the forefront of investigations into the connection between design and gender;
Jonathan Harris, artist, computer scientist and designer, who founded number27 and co-created We Feel Fine, "an almanac of human emotion" website that continuously measures human beings' combined emotional temperature through large-scale blog analysis;
Bjarke Ingels, founder of the architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG);
Jon C. Iwata, senior vice president, Marketing and Communications, IBM;
Larry Keeley, co-founder and president of innovation firm Doblin, a strategist who has worked for 30 years to develop more effective innovation methods, and a creative visionary whom BusinessWeek recently named one of the 27 most influential designers in the world;
John Maeda, artist, author, computer scientist and president of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) who served as associate director of research at MIT's Media Lab and works to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation;
Su Mathews, senior partner at legendary branding firm Lippincott, led the development and launch of Walmart's brand revitalisationÂ—a massive repositioning that contemporised the brand while retaining the values of its legacy and heritage;
Fiona Morrison, director of brand and advertising at JetBlue;
Marije Vogelzang, owner and founder of Studio Marije Vogelzang and Proef, and a pioneer in the field of eating design who creates provocative yet intimate new food rituals and art installations.

For a full line-up of speakers, complete speaker bios, and a detailed conference schedule, visit: gainconference.aiga.org

For more information, please contact:

AIGA
164 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
T: +1 212 807 1990
F: +1 212 807 1799

About AIGA

AIGA, the professional association for design, stimulates thinking about design, demonstrates the value of design and empowers the success of designers at each stage of their careers. AIGA's mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. AIGA's 21 000-person membership comprises graphic designers, brand consultants, design firm principals, web designers and corporate in-house creatives from across the United States. Founded in 1914, AIGA remains the oldest and largest professional membership organi ation for design, and is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational institution. For more information, visit www.aiga.org.

New York (United States) - This October, AIGA's ninth biennial Gain: AIGA Design and Business Conference addresses how businesses operating in highly competitive yet slow-growing markets can deploy design to create new value and a higher profile.