design management consultant david griffiths from the UK is always good for a news source. while visiting educational institutions in asia these days he still supplies the community with updates about interesting events to look after.
today david recommended a conference IWDS which takes in place in cardiff/wales in may this year. the title is: “International Workshop on Design Support” and the according website is: www.iwds.org.
earlier this week I reported about design related initiatives sponsored by governments and/or the european union (EU). well, this conference is another one ;-) beside this the conference is hosted by “Design Wales” funded by the “National Assembly for Wales” with support from the European Regional Development Fund.
“The event will facilitate knowledge sharing and networking for those involved in the support and promotion of the use of design within small and medium sized companies (SMEs). Participants will have an opportunity to learn of international initiatives, to establish contacts and to share the experiences of people who are operating in the same field and therefore face similar challenges.”
while I find this initiative highly interesting and the focus on SMEs highly relevant (look at an earlier post about SMEs realted research on this site from january 2004) it’s somehow disappointing that no member of the direct target group namely “SMEs” is invited as a contributor.
rather than seeking for an ideal match between the needs of SMEs and the range of services which design centers and researchers can offer, the conference somehow “preaches to the already converted”.
beside this I’m looking forward to hearing about the findings and results of this conference; it deserves our attention since it spends our money ;-)
