Thank you for the lovely responses to our last mailout. They were filled with so many good and relevant information that we had to have this newsletter so soon after the last one to be able to share everything!

First, we imagine that like most of you, we love to read a nice book in our free time. Recently Bettina read “Chagford Twins - The Quizling Question” by Sue Priest Davidson (who Bettina is very proud to have had as one of her students yonks back). It was a lovely surprise because while the book was originally written for an audience of 11-14 year olds, this book portrays a very interesting picture of the future, weaves in many of the challenges we  as humanity are facing, and also highlights some of the challenges around 'the dark side of innovation'. And then, not to forget, it offers a wonderful explanation about quantum mechanics! A very enjoyable and easy read.

Last Friday Bettina had the opportunity to attend a meeting of DESMA, which stands for 'Design + Management'.  Why mention it here? Design, Designers, Design Thinking are important tools / parts of the innovation journey.  Understanding how to bring them in, how to manage and integrate them successfully can make a big difference. Why might this perhaps be a challenge? Well, designers and managers can be a little bit like cats and dogs...  they don't often play well together...  

So, what is DESMA? DESMA is "an Initial Training Network in the area of Design Management funded by the European Commission’s Marie Curie Actions (FP7)."  What we particularly like is that it brings 4 different constituencies together: 4 universities (University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Aalto University, Finland; Imperial College, UK; Politecnico di Milano, Italy);  4 design consultancies (Veryday, Future Concept Lab, Live/Work, Engine), and 4 product and service organisations (Volvo Group, Philips Healthcare, Poltrona Frau / Cassina; LivingLabsGlobal). 

You can see, diversity in abundance!  Just the kind of diversity that is essential to create something truly new and different - at least there is the potential ...  So, we are very much keeping an eye on this project to see how it goes, and to see what can be learned from such highly diverse collaboration & keep you posted.

And here now the three events that are approaching so soon we had to get this mailout to you so quickly:  Indeed, we became aware of them at such short notice that we did not manage to secure discount codes for all of them.. However, it would not hurt to mention the connection with the ILF / Bettina, you never know, you might get a discount after all! 
 
 

Innovation as Culture
Date: 17^th September
Location: Academic College, Tel-Aviv-Yaffa