AGENDA

CoDesign Collaborative Week • April 25-29, 2022

Inspire • Educate • Transform

It will feature five days of events that spark conversation, inspire leaders, and educate professionals, working in all areas of design. Most sessions will be virtual, and made available after the program for asynchronous learning. There will also be evening receptions in cities around the U.S.
Seminars are IDCEC approved; participants can earn up to 28.5 IDCEC CEU.
 

JOIN US

 

Monday, April 25

WELCOME | 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

CONNECT • WHAT TO EXPECT

The Week’s Agenda

12:00-12:15 pm ET / 9:00-9:15 am PT

Description

Ren DeCherney is CoDesign Collaborative Week’s Emcee. She was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. She went as far across the country as she could go to get her undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she got a degree in Art History and French. She was an interior designer in Juneau for several years, working in a commercial firm and then a residential firm before getting a Masters in Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon.

After graduation she worked in Portland as a designer, where she took her firm PVC-free. She was then the Director of Industry Transparency at Source, where she implemented various features to help designers integrate sustainability criteria into their material selection and specification process. She’s quite possibly the only person who loves talking sustainability but doesn’t like being in nature itself.

Maria Villafranca is the Deputy Director at CoDesign Collaborative. She specializes in nonprofit management and has worked at a range of institutions that support creative producers from community-based organizations to large national arts funders. Most recently, she held leadership roles at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). She has a background as a writer, and believes strongly in the essential nature of cultural storytelling and inclusive design in communities. She has a BA in Art History and English from Rutgers University and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, two boys, and pug.

Photo of Ren DeCherney
Ren DeCherney
Director of Materials, Impact Group at the International Living Future Institute
Photo of Tracy Brower
Maria Villafranca
Deputy Director,
CoDesign Collaborative
TALK • WORKPLACE INNOVATION + BUSINESS

Opening Keynote

12:15-1:00 pm ET / 9:15-10:00 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Dr. Tracy Brower is a PhD sociologist studying work-life fulfillment and happiness. She is the author of the book, The Secrets to Happiness at Work as well as her previous book, Bring Work to Life. She is Vice President of Workplace Insights at Steelcase and a contributor to Forbes.com and Fast Company. Tracy is an award-winning speaker and has over 25 years of experience working with global clients to achieve business results. Tracy is an executive advisor to Like|Minded, Coda Societies and to the MSU Master Industrial Mathematics Program. She is a council member with CoDesign Collaborative and a committee member for her local United Way. Tracy’s work has been translated into 13 languages and it has been featured in TEDx, The Wall Street Journal, Work-Life Balance in the 21st Century (book), Globe and Mail (Canada), InsideHR (Australia), HR Director (UK), T3N (Germany), Real Estate Review Journal, Fortune.com, Inc. Magazine, HBR (France) and more. Tracy holds a PhD in Sociology, a Master of Management in Organizational Culture, and a Master of Corporate Real Estate with a workplace specialization. You can find her on LinkedInTwitterInstagramGoodreadsUnsplash or at tracybrower.com.

Ginger Dhaliwal is a seasoned entrepreneur with 15+ years of successfully working with startups in Asia and North America. She has led the product development from ideation to launch for several disruptive patented technologies in the healthcare, e-commerce, and fashion industries. In addition, Ginger was the founding member of Embedded Wireless, an R & D facility, and was instrumental in growing the company from 1 to 100 engineers with international offices in Malaysia, India, and the US. Currently, Ginger is the Co-Founder and CPO of Upflex, a B2B solution for on-demand workspace. Upflex strives to help businesses become more efficient, agile, and sustainable while giving employees access to a global network of workspaces.

Photo of Tracy Brower
Dr. Tracy Brower
Vice President of Workplace Insight, Steelcase
Photo of Ginger Dhaliwal
Ginger Dhaliwal
Co-Founder & CPO,
Upflex

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST SESSION | 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

WORKSHOP • SKILLS

The Passion/Skills Matrix Workshop: Pivot Analysis

1:30-3:30 pm ET / 10:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Millions of people around the globe are struggling to find the next career path to pivot into. With hundreds of career choices, how do you determine which one would fit you the best? How can you evolve your career? Despite all of the assessment tools out there, the Passion/Skills Matrix will help you understand what makes you singular. Beyond knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and identifying trending careers, the Passion/Skills Matrix will help you determine: what do you find compelling? How do your own experiences, and your own feelings around work and life, color your choices? This interactive workshop will help you determine what drives you and will help unearth the elements of a job that will best suit you.

As President & Founder of Yeh IDeology, Angela Yeh brings a unique business model to design recruiting. Her philosophy for Yeh ID is to design relationships: create deep connections with people that will help Yeh ID make the perfect match with talent and culture. With her BA in psychology and applied studies in MA Industrial Design, Angela’s developed an innate ability to understand people beyond the surface, see the potential in talent and cultivate synergistic teams that are prolific. Angela also actively participates in the design community as speaker and lecturer for industry events such as IDSA Int’l and District conferences.

Angela Yeh
Founder & CEO, Yeh IDeology
Q&A • SKILLS

Intellectual Property Basics for Design Professionals

1:30-2:20 pm ET / 10:30 am-11:20 am PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU/HSW

Description

You have worked hard to develop your skills and master the technical elements of your craft. Your work is getting noticed and you are making a name for yourself in your field. Your next challenge is to protect your work from unauthorized use and insure that you will receive the commercial rewards from your efforts and your brand. Are you ready?

This seminar will cover the basics of intellectual property law, including the nature and scope of protections available for your creative designs through copyright, trademark, and patent law. The presenters will cover what rights qualify for each type of protection, basic procedures to obtaining the benefits of each form of protection, the limitations of each type of protection, and your rights against those who may try to exploit the value of your work without your permission. You will learn the basic principles necessary to obtain and manage your IP rights, allowing you to promote your creative work and brand with the confidence that your rights will be protected.

Steven M. Cowley has over thirty years of experience handling complex commercial litigation, intellectual property disputes, copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent infringement claims. His clients include content owners ranging from individual authors and photographers, to large-scale companies. Mr. Cowley is a graduate of Harvard Law School and of the University of Connecticut. 

Julian A. Jackson-Fannin is an attorney in Duane Morris’ Miami office practicing in the area of commercial litigation. He has litigated complex matters in both state and federal courts. During his career, he has advised and represented companies of all sizes as well as individuals in a variety of commercial matters. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University College of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Florida A&M University Law Review, and a graduate of Emory University.

Steven M. Cowley
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Photo of Julian A. Jackson-Fannin
Julian A. Jackson-Fannin 
Associate, Duane Morris LLP
PRESENTATION • HEALTHCARE + SOCIAL IMPACT

The Impact of Climate Change in Young Adults’ Mental Health

1:30-2:00 pm ET / 10:30-11:00 am PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU/HSW
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

This research project is seeking to understand attitudes in young adults (18-24) regarding climate change and how it affects mental health and health behaviors. The presenters hypothesize that the environmental risk wrought by climate change and the national conversation on sustainability likely leads to a spectrum of beliefs, behaviors, and values regarding personal agency and resilience, which they are loosely defining as climate nihilism, climate ambivalence, and climate hope. Design probes were developed to explore connections between university students’ climate change attitudes and their health during the first phase of this research. Thematic analysis of probes (replete with elicitive drawing, etched stone, mapping, and writing activities) revealed a rich spectrum of climate change perceptions, eco-emotions, and key areas of impact.
Photo of Pam Pease
Sara Jensen Carr
Assistant Professor Architecture, Northeastern
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Miso Kim
Assistant Professor, Experience Design, Northeastern
Michael Arnold Mages
Assistant Professor, Art + Design, Northeastern
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Susan Mello
Associate Professor, Communications Studies, Northeastern
Photo of Pam Pease
Estefania Ciliotta
Design Strategist and Researcher, Center for Design

 

SECOND SESSION | 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT

PRESENTATION • HEALTHCARE + SOCIAL IMPACT

Design For Empowered Patientship: Mapping the Boston Healthcare Ecosystem

2:00-2:30 pm ET / 11:00-11:30 am PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU/HSW
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

The presenters want to map the healthcare ecosystems (Boston+Milan), and explore the co-design and co-production processes that contain evidence of patient driven innovation with the aim of analyzing them and expanding the frame of (what they define as) empowered patientship: enabling patients and their caregiving system to think, have a voice, and interact in a constructive dialogue with the cure and the care systems. They will observe and map different scenarios in which design plays a role in the interdisciplinary innovation process, mapping experiences and practices of products-services, technologies, organizational processes, initiatives, public programs or actions, and policies. They want to pinpoint and connect this emergent facts/knowledge to the actors’ system that produced them. Starting from the study and mapping of the Boston healthcare ecosystem, they’ll do a comparison with Milano’s one to clarify the nature of the empowered patientship and identify opportunities for strategic cross-connections and research initiatives through interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships. Starting from these assumptions, the Center for Design will partner with Polifactory, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano and Fondazione Politecnico Milano and Fondazione Politecnico US to constitute the Design for Empowered Patientship research and project-oriented platform. The scope of the platform is to map the actors, the core competences, strengths and weaknesses of the healthcare ecosystem in Boston in its relationships with design and then compare it with the Milano’s ecosystem. They’ll focus on the respective territorial contexts – Milano (and Lombardy), Boston (and Massachusetts) – to produce a knowledge base and the methodological common ground for a joint development of experimental and applied research, project and consultancy activities in the field of product-services design for patient innovation. Our ultimate aim is to promote a cure to care cultural, pragmatic and interdisciplinary transition in healthcare systems, nurturing a patient-centric development of new products-services to provide more agency and choices to patients and promote health equity and inclusion (meaning impact on individual satisfaction and community welfare).
Photo of Pam Pease
Paolo Ciuccarelli
Director of the Center for Design, Professor
Photo of Miso Kim
Miso Kim
Assistant Professor, Experience Design, Northeastern
Michael Arnold Mages
Assistant Professor, Art + Design, Northeastern
Photo of Maffei Min
Stefano Maffei
Professor at the School of Design, Politecnico di Milano
Photo of Pam Pease
Estefania Ciliotta
Design Strategist and Researcher, Center for Design

CHOOSE YOUR THIRD SESSION | 2:30 pm ET / 11:30 am PT

PANEL • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Building New Futures: Re-Learning Design

2:30-3:30 pm ET / 11:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Based on the book: The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection. Excluded from traditional design history and educational canons that heavily favor European modernist influences, the work and experiences of Black designers have been systematically overlooked in the profession for decades. However, given the national focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the aftermath of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, educators, practitioners, and students now have the opportunity—as well as the social and political momentum—to make long-term, systemic changes in design education, research, and practice, reclaiming the contributions of Black designers in the process.
Jennifer is a writer, educator and communications strategist currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design and Visiting Scholar at the California College of the Arts. She has also taught at the School Visual Arts and SUNY FIT. She frequently writes and lectures about design and social justice, and has been published in The New York Times, Eye on Design, DMI: Journal, and Core77. In 2020, Jennifer guest edited The Policing Issue for the CoDesign Collaborative. Her research considers the intersections of design and power, primarily through the intersectional lenses of race, gender, ability, and socio-economic status. Jennifer has worked for a number of design and design-adjacent institutions including Pentagram, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, and the AIGA. As a museum educator at the American Federation of Arts (AFA) in the 1990s, Jennifer led Art Access II, an initiative designed to increase museum attendance among under-served communities through education and community outreach. She earned her M.Ed. in Communication and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University where her thesis, “Space, Time, and Objects” proposed pedagogies of equity and access in the art history curriculum. Her forthcoming book (co-edited with Kelly Walters, Anne Berry etal.), The Black Experience in Design, will be published in February 2022 by Allworth Press.
Jennifer Rittner
Visiting Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design
Benjamin Boutros
Senior Materials Designer, adidas
Ramon Tejada
Assistant Professor at Rhode Island School of Design

 

LIGHTNING TALK • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

If You Dare . . . An Intro to Creative Risk-Taking in Cross-Disciplinary Design

2:30-2:40 pm ET /11:30-11:40 am PT

Description

Creative risk-taking is a state of mind. Seeing things differently, iterating and experimenting, is valuable even if it leads to failure. In a world of constant change, governments, entrepreneurs, educators and communities realize the importance of cultivating innovation to prepare young people to meet challenges in a future they cannot yet imagine. Innovation thrives in environments that both challenge and support students. They must learn to visualize ideas, make smart decisions and take actions that lead to sustainable solutions to unsolved problems. There is a conflict, however, between society’s desire to graduate innovative students and a culture of education that is increasingly risk-averse.
 
Pamela Pease has explored risk-taking throughout the learning ecosystem to address this disconnect. It aimed to differentiate between destructive risks (the first thing that comes to mind when a parent or teacher hears the word “risk”) and constructive risks (those responsible for most progress made throughout history—in science, medicine, art, and other fields of endeavor).
 
In this lightning talk, Pease will ask, how do we define creative risk-taking? Why is risk essential to innovation? What is the role of design in preparing students to take constructive risks?
 
Pamela Pease is a design entrepreneur, educator and researcher with a focus on creative risk-taking and innovation in K20 learning ecosystems. She holds a Ph.D. in Design (2018) and has 20+ years of experience as a design practitioner in the fields of fashion and graphic design. As founder of Paintbox Press, Pam creates books intended to introduce the next generation of aspiring young creatives to the world of design. She has taught studio courses at NCSU College of Design and UNC-Chapel Hill as well as various design camps and museum workshops targeted to middle and high-school students.
 
Photo of Pam Pease
Pamela Pease
Founder, Paintbox Press

CHOOSE YOUR FOURTH SESSIONS | Various Times

LIGHTNING TALK • VIBRANT CITIES+CIVIC INNOVATION

Digital Technology in the Service of Public Art: Reconsidering Visual Simulation in Advertising and Information Driven Spaces

2:40-2:50 pm ET / 11:40-11:50 am PT

Description

From the isolation of the pandemic to demands for social justice and more recent geopolitical tensions, the last couple of years have left us grappling with complex issues that continuously expose us, and challenge our relationship, to images. Digital technology, through the programming of original digital public art in the high traffic commuter environments of large cities, can help us re-focus and flourish by providing more sources of art and visual stimulation throughout environments that are typically more advertising or information driven.
Laurent Odde
Manager, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
WORKSHOP • SKILLS

Designed to Grow: How to Manage and Retain Top Design Talent

2:45-3:15 pm ET / 11:45 am-12:15 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

How might we maintain stability and grow our design organizations in a time of rapid change? We must commit to equitable professional development and world-class design management. Regardless of whether someone is a manager or an individual contributor, or whether they’re a designer, researcher, or content strategist, here’s how you can support, grow, and retain your design team:

  • Assess equitably using objective criteria, transparent ratings, and calibration.
  • Enable sustained, personal growth through skills development and internal mobility.
  • Support design managers by developing a baseline, making a plan, and making it specific to designers.

Joyce is an Associate Director of Product Design at Wayfair. She’s lived and worked in the U.S.A., Canada, The Netherlands, Japan, and Hong Kong, and started her career as a nano-engineer in semiconductor physics. In her spare time, she sings in a Renaissance choir.

Joyce Wong
Associate Director, Product Design, Wayfair
LIGHTNING TALK • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

What “Moves” You Is Definitely Not Your Car: How We Designed a Game That Reduces Individual CO2 Emissions by 32%

2:50-3:00 pm ET / 11:50 am-12:00 pm PT

Description

In the last few years, the debate among designers and sustainability experts has brought attention to many different behavioural change approaches and techniques and particularly on “gamification” processes able to better motivate and engage students or even nudge people (consumers) to more environmentally and socially responsible habits. But since 2011 most of the contradictions about “gamifying” boring or unpleasant experiences have been loudly shared by game designers and thinkers all around the world. It seems that the goal of changing people’s unsustainable behaviours can be achieved by designing brand new sustainable experiences instead of gamifying the unsustainable ones. This change of perspective has been deeply studied during the applied research MUV2020 (muv2020.eu), led by PUSH design laboratory within the Horizon2020 framework in the field of sustainable urban mobility. From June 2017 to February 2020 the research consortium has run a large user research project across Europe, developed a mobile app game, and completed several tests in more than 20 cities to study the value of different interactions in terms of engagement and sustainability impact. This contribution will extensively deepen the MUV App user research and game co-design, create real field data analysis on engagement rate, and enable us to better understand sustainable impacts.

Di Dio’s background is in architecture, energy, and digital services. He’s the co-founder of PUSH, a not-for-profit design lab working at the fringe of technology, sustainability, and social innovation. Since 2020, he’s also been an associate professor of design at the University of Palermo.

Salvatore Di Dio
Professor, University of Palermo

MAIN ROOM | 4:00 pm ET / 1:00 pm PT

TALK • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Closing Keynote

4:00-4:45 pm ET / 1:00-1:45 pm PT

Description

Danielle Elise is the Founder and Chief Community Officer of All Black Creatives. She’s passionate about the art of the gathering. For the All Black Creatives Foundation, she designs experiences for Black creatives to access career and design resources, experience creative community, and partner with creatives with brands like Instagram, Adobe, and Verizon to expand their knowledge and strengthen their professional portfolios and connections.

Originally from France, Gabrielle Mérite is an information designer specializing in empathetic data visualizations for truth-seeking, ethically driven organizations. Deeply passionate about social justice and humanity’s responsibility for one another, her work breathes life into numbers so that people can truly feel their importance. After receiving an M.S in Biology and working several years as a scientific journalist, she exchanged words for illustrations, to communicate analytic findings visually, with honesty and compassion. Since then, she has worked with organizations like the United Nations, UNICEF and WeTransfer, to help them uncover truths and share them with intention.

Gabrielle Mérite
Information Designer & Data Illustrator
Danielle Elise
Founder & Chief Community Officer, All Black Creatives

BOSTON IN-PERSON | 5:30 pm ET

BOSTON EVENING EXHIBITION TOUR

Uncovering: MFA Students’ Thesis Exhibition

5:30-7:30 pm ET
2.0 IDCEC CEU
Location: Northeastern University, Center for Design, Boston, MA

Description

CoDesign Collaborative Week attendees are invited to a presentation of the Center of Design at Northeastern’s MFA Students’ Thesis Exhibition, Uncovering.

“Uncovering” is the act of removing a barrier and revealing what was previously unknown; exposing what was formerly hidden from view. It is an act driven by curiosity and can lead to an enhanced understanding of traditionally shrouded topics. In the 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition, we use uncovering as a means to share our explorations into areas that we found meaningful, yet commonly overlooked. What happens when we seek to understand the elements of our lives that often remain covered, unnoticed, and unknown?

Design is intelligence made visible. — Alina Wheeler, author

Proof of Covid vaccine required, masks recommended. When you arrive, go to the first floor of Ryder Hall, the Center for Design is on the first floor, room 180.

Tuesday, April 26

WELCOME | 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

CONNECT • WHAT TO EXPECT

Introduction

12:00-12:15 pm ET / 9:00-9:15 am PT

Description

Ren DeCherney is CoDesign Collaborative Week’s Emcee. She was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. She went as far across the country as she could go to get her undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she got a degree in Art History and French. She was an interior designer in Juneau for several years, working in a commercial firm and then a residential firm before getting a Masters in Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon.

After graduation she worked in Portland as a designer, where she took her firm PVC-free. She was then the Director of Industry Transparency at Source, where she implemented various features to help designers integrate sustainability criteria into their material selection and specification process. She’s quite possibly the only person who loves talking sustainability but doesn’t like being in nature itself.

Photo of Ren DeCherney
Ren DeCherney
Director of Materials, Impact Group at the International Living Future Institute
TALK • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

Opening Keynote

12:15-1:00 pm ET / 9:15-10:00 am PT

Description

Garance Choko started her career as a concert pianist at a very young age. Later, when she moved to the United States to continue her performance studies, she pursued her passion for public administration and innovation. She earned her Masters of Public Administration from Cornell University. Garance has launched innovation firms, designed and implemented physical spaces, national and local health care systems, nation-wide public administration processes, and labor policies for institutions, corporations and governments in North America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. She is a proud board member at Sing For Hope.

Allan Fenner began his career providing arborist services in the field before quickly moving through the ranks. Today, he has more than 40 years of experience working with private, commercial, institutional, and municipal clients. Throughout his career, Allan has developed proficiency in preservation plans, design development construction, tree risk assessments, master planning, inventory analysis, and much more. Regardless of his current project, Allan works hard to minimize the detrimental environmental impact of his clients’ projects.

Jessica A. Petro is a Lead Designer and Landscape Architect at EYP. She works closely with EYP teams to align the built and natural environment to inform and respond to each other while addressing their clients’ program and mission. With multiple degrees and diverse backgrounds in the arts, business, fashion, and landscape architecture, she draws inspiration from many markets, industries, and the natural environment.

Photo of Garance Choko
Garance Choko
Founder & CEO, Coda Societies
Photo of Allan Fenner
Allan Fenner
Consulting Arborist
Photo of Jessica Petro
Jessica A. Petro
Lead Designer and Landscape Architect at EYP

 

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST SESSION | 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

LIGHTNING TALK • SKILLS

How to Fail Better

1:30-1:40 pm ET / 10:30-10:40 am PT

Description

Failure is a vital part of the design process. If we aren’t failing, we are limited to our comfort zone. Success depends on a willingness to experiment and fail. Because failure is unpleasant, many people go out of their way to avoid it, and miss out on opportunities. This talk lays out the benefits of failure, how to embrace it, and how to use failure to achieve your goals.

Jess is a lifelong learner driven by curiosity. A self-identified design evangelist, she is a marketing strategist by day and a volunteer leader by night. Jess serves on the Advisory Council of the CoDesign Collaborative and the AIGA Boston Board of Directors. She also mentors startups through Cleantech Open and MIT’s designx.

Jess Charlap
Marketing Manager, Perkins Eastman
PRESENTATION • VIBRANT CITIES+CIVIC INNOVATION

Facing Boston’s Civic Challenges through Human-centered Design

1:30-2:30 pm ET / 10:30-11:30 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

Join three undergraduate design students from Northeastern University as they discuss Scout, Northeastern’s Student led design studio, its history, body of work, and their partnership with the Boston Mayor’s office to resolve civic issues through human-centered design.
Margarita Barrios
Associate Teaching Professor, Northeastern
 
Noah Berkowitz
Scout Labs Director
 
Chloe Prock
Scout Labs Design Lead
Brandon Yap
Executive Director, Scout
 
 

CHOOSE YOUR SECOND SESSION | Various Times

PANEL • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Applying an Equity Lens to Data Visualization

1:45-2:45 pm ET / 10:45-11:45 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Data visualization can be alluring. It gives us the ability to translate complex information into simplified, easy-to-understand visual context. It has the power to inform us, shape public perception and drive us to action on important topics. However, when data is collected and reported carelessly, we run the risk of spreading meaningless or even harmful stories about the people, places or topics being reported on. Join our panel as we discuss ways that we can become better interpreters and consumers of information.

Dr. Christopher Daley has been conducting humanistic research for over a decade. He received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University, where he explored the role of money and technology in the everyday experience of young Cubans. At Fidelity, where Chris is now a Principal UX researcher, he focuses on designing scalable approaches to qualitative UX research, coordinating DEI research practices, and publishing thought leadership on ethnography. He currently resides in Chicago where he enjoys riding his bike along Lake Michigan when the weather permits.

Renae Geraci has been doing human-centered design research for over 20 years, working in industries that span consumer goods to enterprise software. She currently leads a UX Research & Operations team for Autodesk’s product development organization. Renae is a lecturer at Tufts University- Gordon Institute, Masters Class in Innovation & Management. She lives in the Boston area and is a CoDesign Collaborative council member. 

Dr. Jonathan Schwabish is an economist, writer, teacher, and creator of policy-relevant data visualizations. He is considered a leading voice for clarity and accessibility in how researchers communicate their findings. His book Better Presentations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks helps people improve the way they prepare, design, and deliver data-rich content and his edited book, Elevated the Debate: A Multilayered Approach to Communicating Your Research, helps people develop a strategic plan to communicating their work across multiple platforms and channels. His latest book, Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks details essential strategies to create more effective data visualizations. He is on Twitter @jschwabish

Aaron Williams is a data journalist, analyst and visualization expert tackling inequity in data and design. He’s a senior visualization engineer in Netflix’s Data Science and Engineering group and previously spent a decade as a data and graphics reporter—most recently at the Washington Post. He serves on the advisory board for OpenNews and is a board member of the News Product Alliance.

Dr. Christopher Daley
Principle UX Researcher, Fidelity Investments
Dr. Jonathan Schwabish
Founder, PolicyViz
Renae Geraci
Director, User Research & Operations, Autodesk
Aaron Williams
Senior Data Visualization Engineer, Netflix
WORKSHOP • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Pay Attention to Play: What Your Hobbies Can Teach You About Work and Life

2:00-3:30 pm ET / 11:00 am-12:30 pm PT
1.5 IDCEC CEU

Description

We often look to our hobbies to avoid burnout, but what if the things we do “outside of work” could give us the tools we need to experience less stress, and more success, in our day jobs? Aimee Dunne started lifting weights to escape the pressure of managing a startup, a divorce, and a milestone birthday. She soon realized that the skills she was developing in the gym were guiding her through transitions in her career and personal life. Whether it’s painting, board games, volunteering or some other avocation, there is a lot to learn from the ways we play. Participants will start to think differently about how the things they do “outside of work” can strengthen their ability to try new things, face challenges and take small steps to success.

 

Aimee Muirnin Dunne is an operations expert, speaker, best-selling author, and mentor who has built a career around her ability to ask the right questions and bring order to what’s messy. Her clients range from small nonprofits to global corporations, all looking for her singular insights on how to uncover obstacles and use their resources efficiently. She creates spaces within organizations where people can be vulnerable, share ideas, and set big goals, and then works with them to design a framework for growth. Aimee enjoys weightlifting, drawing, wandering the parks of St. Louis, and being the best aunt she can be.  She is a passionate social justice volunteer who gives her time to organizations that focus on creating a more equitable society.

Aimee Dunne
Public Speaker, Innovation Women
PRESENTATION • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

The Impact of Biophilic Design on Student Success

2:30-3:30 pm ET / 11:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU/HSW

Description

Recent research has focused on the positive effect of biophilic design in health care and workplace environments: however, there were no significant studies of the biophilic effect in learning spaces. This team of architects, educators and scientists are the first to test and present evidence of the impact of biophilic design on human stress reduction and enhanced cognitive performance in learning spaces. Attendees will leave this session with a new tool allowing them to transform current science into design that contributes to a better life for generations of students.

James Determan, FAIA is an architect, researcher and Principal at Craig Gaulden Davis in Baltimore and has designed learning space for 35 years. He leads teams of neuroscientists, educators and architects in research providing evidence that design has the power to enhance wellness and learning. This work is influencing designers internationally. 

Bill Browning, BED Colorado University, MSRED MIT, Hon. AIA, LEED AP., is one of the green building industry’s foremost thinkers. Terrapin Bright Green is an environmental strategies research and consulting firm. Browning’s clients include Disney, New Songdo City, Lucasfilm, Google, Bank of America, Marriott, the White House, Interface, and the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Browning is a founding board member of the USGBC. He is a coauthor of the Economics of Biophilia, 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, and Nature Inside: A Biophilic Design Guide.

Jim Determan
Principal, Craig Gaulden Davis, Inc.
Bill Browning
Partner, Terrapin Bright Green

CHOOSE YOUR THIRD SESSIONS | Various Times

LIGHTNING TALK • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

Upcycling Your Ideas

2:45-2:55pm ET / 11:45-11:55pm PT

Description

Every day, 4.6 pounds of waste are generated by an individual, based on the research from UA sustainability. All the waste will finally immigrate to the landfill or ocean, which will gradually damage the earth. As a designer, what can we do to confront growing environmental issues? How can we utilize design to create a better future? In this lightning talk, Zhu will share daily practices designers can do to turn waste into something fun and functional, including accessories, and small objects for fun. By adapting daily rituals with unwanted treasures, we, as designers can not only practice our design skills, but also help create a better and more sustainable future for all.

Ziyuan (Zoey) Zhu
Design & Researcher, MIT Office of Sustainability
STORYTELLER Q&A • WORKPLACE INNOVATION + BUSINESS

How Wayfair’s Design System Empowers Feature Teams to Dream Bigger

2:45-3:15 pm ET / 11:45 am-12:15 pm PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU

Description

How can design system teams empower feature teams to innovate and focus on the big picture? And how do design system teams convince feature teams to use them when they don’t technically have to?

Bobby Klucevsek
Senior Product Design Manager, Wayfair
LIGHTNING TALK • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

The Most Important Coding Lesson I’ve Ever Learned (and the Runners-Up)

3:15-3:25 pm ET / 12:15-12:25 pm PT

Description

This is the kind of talk every designer for whom coding is a great (and scary) unknown should hear. Starting with the runner-up lesson “everything is possible,” this lightning talk cycles through a series of mini-lessons that are disguised as tips Talia Cotton has learned (and taught) about coding-as-design, but are ultimately meant to inspire the audience to do something they wouldn’t otherwise see themselves doing within and beyond their design practice. Reflecting Cotton’s own experience and learnings as a woman who codes, the talk pleads not only that everyone can code, but that diverse backgrounds of coders are crucial for the advancement of the design industry. The talk is uplifting, informative, and provides a window into a world that is often feared but always attainable.
Talia Cotton
Lead Designer & Coder, Pentagram

IN-PERSON EVENTS | Various Times

NEW YORK CITY EVENING RECEPTION

DLR Group Open House + Cocktail Party

5:00-7:00 pm ET
Location: DLR Group, 33 East 33rd St., Ste. 401, New York, NY 10016
 
 

Description

Join DLR Group for an open house and cocktail party to celebrate their integrated designs across multiple sectors.
Attendees must show proof of Covid vaccine; no masks will be required. RSVP necessary as names will be provided to security. Parking is available at Champion Parking 33, 53 East 33rd Street.
AUSTIN EVENING RECEPTION

Coleman & Associates Studio Tour + Happy Hour

5:30-7:30 pm CT
Location: Coleman & Associates, Austin, TX 78737
 
 

Description

Join Coleman & Associates for a studio tour and happy hour at our unique studio and landscape architecture laboratory. Come socialize and enjoy a fun evening in the Hill Country.

PORTLAND EVENING RECEPTION

JE Dunn Construction Studio Tour + Reception

4:00-6:00 pm PT
Location: JE Dunn Construction, 424 NW 14th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
 

Description

Join JE Dunn Construction for an evening of light appetizers, wine, beer and networking in their Pearl District office.CoDesign Collaborative Week registrants will receive RSVP form.

Wednesday, April 27

WELCOME | 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

CONNECT • WHAT TO EXPECT

Introduction

12:00-12:15 pm ET / 9:00-9:15 am PT

Description

Ren DeCherney is CoDesign Collaborative Week’s Emcee. She was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. She went as far across the country as she could go to get her undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she got a degree in Art History and French. She was an interior designer in Juneau for several years, working in a commercial firm and then a residential firm before getting a Masters in Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon.

After graduation she worked in Portland as a designer, where she took her firm PVC-free. She was then the Director of Industry Transparency at Source, where she implemented various features to help designers integrate sustainability criteria into their material selection and specification process. She’s quite possibly the only person who loves talking sustainability but doesn’t like being in nature itself.

Photo of Ren DeCherney
Ren DeCherney
Director of Materials, Impact Group at the International Living Future Institute
TALK • VIBRANT CITIES + CIVIC INNOVATION

Opening Keynote

12:15-1:00 pm ET / 9:15-10:00 am PT

Description

Rania Adwan is the Oakland Police Commission Chief of Staff. As a transformation and change expert skilled at crafting frameworks for police reform, Rania is adept at engineering effective community engagement processes and facilitating city leaders to envision and plan for a better future.
As strategy and policy advisor to the San Francisco Police Commission from 2016 – 2018 and more recently supporting Oakland Police Commission’s efforts to revise OPD’s Use of Force Policy, she has shepherded successful transformations to strengthen operations and enhance organizational reputation.
Starting her career as a journalist and editor, Rania has built on her research and storytelling skills to develop compelling narratives, solve complex problems, and influence perspectives as a persuasive negotiator. She is a diplomatic and trusted confidante to public and private sector leaders with experience spanning the Middle East, Asia, the US, the UK, and the Caribbean. She holds an MS in Foreign Service and Security from Georgetown University and a BA in Journalism from Cardiff University.

Kristen Jeffers was one of the first people to bring the concept of Black urbanism to the internet and social media in 2010 by purchasing and launching The Black Urbanist, which in its 11th year continues to be a resource for Black urbanism at the intersection of feminism and queer/trans life. She is the author of the forthcoming A Black Urbanist Journey to a Queer Feminist Future a memoir/manifesto for Black queer feminist urbanism. She is the creator of the K. Jeffers Index for Black Queer Feminist Urbanism, a guide, measure, and data center to assess the thrivance of black queer feminist urbanist people globally and curator of the Black Queer Feminist Urbanist Book Cannon and School. Finally, under the banner of Kristpattern, she shares her own journey into sustainable fashion and invites others to do the same. A sought-after public speaker, workshop leader, and cultural critic, she makes her home with her partner just outside of Washington, DC, and is a proud and concerned native of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Photo of Rania Adwan
Rania Adwan
Chief of Staff, Oakland Police Commission
Photo of Kristen Jeffers
Kristen Jeffers
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Kristen Jeffers Media

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST SESSION | 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

WORKSHOP • WORKPLACE INNOVATION + BUSINESS

Happy Places: How to Design for Happiness and Fulfilling Work Experiences

1:30-2:20 pm ET / 10:30-11:20 am PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU

Description

Work can be a source of happiness, joy and fulfillment, and our places are a significant part of this process. Join us for a lively session where we’ll talk about what makes a positive, energizing experience and how to design places and experiences that compel people. Brower and Pollack will share new research and surprising perspectives on work and how it is changing—and how the work experience can be enriched. You’ll leave with a new view of design for places that stimulate us, nurture us—inspiring us to bring our best to our work and the people around us.

Photo of Tracy Brower
Dr. Tracy Brower
Vice President of Workplace Insight, Steelcase
Lauren Pollack
Work Experience Designer, Steelcase
STORYTELLER Q&A • SKILLS

Exploring Foresight

1:30-2:00 pm ET / 10:30-11:00 am PT
0.5 IDCEC CEU

Description

What is foresight? When do we use it? Why do we use it? How do we use it? Here the presenter will explore these questions and more with the aim to share, examine and explain the exciting world of futures thinking. Foresight is both a design practice and mindset. Understanding foresight methods, processes and strategies helps us to demystify the future, making the intangible tangible. We use it to better understand and become comfortable with uncertainties and to explore probable, possible and potential scenarios.
Some examples of foresight include 2050 Scenarios – which outlines four possible future; Designing for Planetary Boundary Cities – which highlights 20 regenerative actions that can be implemented to deliver more positive planetary outcomes; and [y]our 2040 – which focuses on facilitating regenerative futures through design, community and project creation.
Jonelle Simunich
Producer, [y]our 2040

CHOOSE YOUR SECOND SESSIONS | Various Times

LIGHTNING TALK • VIBRANT CITIES + CIVIC INNOVATION

Rethinking Space on our Main Streets and in Our Downtowns

1:45-1:55 pm ET / 10:45-10:55 am PT

Description

Cities and towns across Massachusetts and around the world have discovered the latent opportunities that existed in their public spaces to create more vibrant, socially connected, joyful communities. This session will look at how communities are getting creative in uncovering and activating their vacant and often underutilized spaces using public art and tactical urbanism while directly engaging with their communities.
Jonathan Berk
Vice President, Patronicity
PRESENTATION • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Designer-AI Collaboration for User Need Finding and Generative Design

2:00-3:00 pm ET / 11:00 am-12:00 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

This project imagines user-centered design processes where the latent needs of users are automatically elicited from social media, forums, and online reviews, and translated into new concept recommendations for designers. This project will advance the fundamental understanding of if and how AI can augment the performance of designers in early-stage product development by investigating two fundamental questions: (1) Can we build and validate novel natural language processing (NLP) algorithms for large-scale elicitation of latent user needs with cross-domain transferability and minimal need for manually labeled data? (2) Can we build and validate novel deep generative design algorithms that capture the visual and functional aspects of past successful designs and automatically translate them into new design concepts?
Becky Pittore
Lu Wang
Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
Madeline Wright
Paolo Ciuccarelli
Director of the Center for Design, Professor
Jenn Clapp
Estefania Ciliotta
Design Strategist and Researcher, Center for Design

 

Isabelle Carey
Tucker Marion
Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, Northeastern
Sophie Mailhot
Mohsen Moghaddam
Assistant Professor, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering 
WORKSHOP • WORKPLACE INNOVATION + BUSINESS

Hybrid by Design: A Zoomed Out Approach to Networking and Connection

2:00-3:00 pm ET / 11:00 am-12:00 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

This panel will discuss various ways of continuing to emphasize career development components such as these in the workplace, virtual or not, and how workplace leaders can support the onboarding of recent graduates with opportunities for network-building and career development, even as our world, and the design industry, continues to remain relatively hybrid (pandemic or not). This panel will include a short presentation and a Q&A session with several recent graduates currently working as designers with Hacin + Associates, an interdisciplinary design firm based in Boston’s South End, as well as a member of H+A’s leadership team. Audience participation will be facilitated and encouraged to share ideas around the topics presented.
Becky Pittore
Becky Pittore
Interior Designer, Hacin + Associates
Madeline Wright
Madeline Wright
Interior Designer, Hacin + Associates
Jenn Clapp
Jenn Clapp
Senior Associate / Studio Lead, Hacin + Associates
Isabelle Carey
Isabelle Carey
Architectural Designer, Hacin + Associates
Sophie Mailhot
Sophie Mailhot
Designer, Hacin + Associates
WORKSHOP • VIBRANT CITIES + CIVIC INNOVATION

Transformative City Branding

2:15-3:15 pm ET / 11:15 am-12:15 pm PT
3.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Place Branding is a great way to improve perception and increase economic development – it’s also a huge opportunity to involve the community. This workshop will highlight an extensive community process which spurred co-creation of a vibrant new brand identity for the City of Lancaster, CA. Although the city is home to amazing natural resources, arts and science, and on track to become the first zero-energy city in America, they had a much more negative perception than nearby towns with similar demographics and crime rates.
Robert Stribley
Alexus Merino
Manager – Assistant to the City Manager, City of Lancaster, CA
Robert Stribley
Brianne Terrell
Communications Specialist
Robert Stribley
Cliff Selbert
Partner, Selbert Perkins Design
Robert Stribley
Sheri Bates
Principal, Selbert Perkins Design

 

CHOOSE YOUR THIRD SESSION | 3:00 pm ET / 12:00 pm PT

LIGHTNING TALK • HEALTHCARE + SOCIAL IMPACT

Designing for Privacy in an Increasingly Public World

3:00-3:10 pm ET / 12:00-12:10 pm PT

Description

People are becoming increasingly concerned about their needs and rights to privacy online. As digital designers, we need to be aware of experiences, which undermine people’s privacy, recognize “dark UX patterns,” and learn to design transparent experiences, which enable people to understand how their information is being used online. Further, we need to provide them with visible access to privacy tools, as well as reminders to take advantage of them. In this talk, Stribley will discuss privacy issues in detail to draw awareness to them, as well as some simple solutions for combatting these issues. Attendees will leave with an understanding of the necessity of “privacy by design.”
Robert Stribley
Robert Stribley
Associate Experience Director, Publicis Groupe
LIGHTNING TALK • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATIONS

Community Connection: Using Your Craft To Support Others

3:00-3:10 pm ET / 12:00-12:10 pm PT

Description

Using your craft to support others – research shows that volunteering makes people happier. Leveraging your craft while volunteering can also help you build your professional skills and network. In this talk, Christine Den Herder shares examples of the different types of volunteering Wayfair promotes, why such opportunities are helpful to offer to your own teams, and how to find volunteer opportunities that leverage you and your teams’ professional skills.
Christine Den Herder
Global Head of Content Strategy, Wayfair

IN-PERSON EVENT | 5:30 pm ET

NEW YORK CITY EVENING RECEPTION

ThoughtMatter: “ARTMOSPHERE”

5:30-7:30 pm ET
Location: ThoughtMatter, New York, NY

Description

ThoughtMatter has cultivated an “Artmosphere” where curiosity is the
catalyst for imagination. They’re opening the doors of their Flatiron NYC
studio for an immersive tour sharing the living art gallery and hub of
creativity where the ThoughtMatter team thrives. They believe that art has a
great place in our hearts and that sentiment nurtures the perspective that
fuels their philosophy and work.

The tour will teach how the ThoughtMatter staff encourages each other to
create passionately and purposefully by highlighting the pieces in their
studio that light the way for inspiration. Attendees can engage in hands-on
activities led by their staff and Managing Partner Jessie McGuire will give a
brief talk.

ThoughtMatter requires all visitors, staff, and volunteers provide proof of
vaccination against COVID-19 to enter the building. Accepted proof of
vaccination includes the NYC COVID Safe app, NYS Excelsior Pass Plus app,
paper copy of vaccination card, or a photo/scan of the vaccination card.
Accepted vaccines include FDA approved vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech,
Moderna, and Janssen) as well as those on WHO’s list of authorized vaccines.

ThoughtMatter requires all visitors, staff, and volunteers to wear a mask at
all times. Do not attend if you feel you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-
19 or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, even if you
are vaccinated. By reserving a ticket, you are assuming the risks associated
with possible exposure to COVID-19.

Thursday, April 28

WELCOME | 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

CONNECT • WHAT TO EXPECT

Introduction

12:00-12:15 pm ET / 9:00-9:15 am PT

Description

Ren DeCherney is CoDesign Collaborative Week’s Emcee. She was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. She went as far across the country as she could go to get her undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she got a degree in Art History and French. She was an interior designer in Juneau for several years, working in a commercial firm and then a residential firm before getting a Masters in Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon.

After graduation she worked in Portland as a designer, where she took her firm PVC-free. She was then the Director of Industry Transparency at Source, where she implemented various features to help designers integrate sustainability criteria into their material selection and specification process. She’s quite possibly the only person who loves talking sustainability but doesn’t like being in nature itself.

Maria Villafranca is the Deputy Director at CoDesign Collaborative. She specializes in nonprofit management and has worked at a range of institutions that support creative producers from community-based organizations to large national arts funders. Most recently, she held leadership roles at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). She has a background as a writer, and believes strongly in the essential nature of cultural storytelling and inclusive design in communities. She has a BA in Art History and English from Rutgers University and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, two boys, and pug.

Photo of Ren DeCherney
Ren DeCherney
Director of Materials, Impact Group at the International Living Future Institute
TALK • HEALTHCARE + SOCIAL IMPACT

Opening Keynote

12:15-1:00 pm ET / 9:15-10:00 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Patrice Martin is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Holding Co., a lab redesigning how we care for each other in the 21st century. In collaboration with Pivotal Ventures and IDEO, The Holding Co. works with venture-backed startups, nonprofits, government agencies and corporations alike to build the solutions today’s families need to thrive.Patrice is also the cofounder of IDEO.org, the non-profit design organization launched from IDEO in 2011. Patrice built the organization into a thriving center for design thinking in the social sector through work with partners across the issues of reproductive health, financial inclusion, early childhood development, and more. At IDEO.org Patrice also created Design Kit, a digital platform teaching human-centered design, serving more than one million learners.Before founding IDEO.org, Patrice was a Design Director with IDEO where she led teams focused on large-scale systems change in the private and social sectors. Patrice is also on the Board of Directors of Juma Ventures and the Board of Advisors of Freedom Forward.

Karina Ruiz is a Founding Principal at BRIC Architecture. Karina has over 20 years of experience and has managed over $1 billion in educational projects throughout her career. Her belief that education shapes the future of this world, drives Karina to ensure that teaching and learning objectives remain the team’s focus throughout each project. She is actively engaged in the national dialogue on the intersection between pedagogy and design innovation. As principal, she brings an innate ability to inspire educational planning, build community engagement and design efforts that exceed expectations of clients and users.

 

Karina Ruiz
Founding Principal, BRIC Architecture, Inc.
Patrice Martin
Cofounder + CEO, The Holding Co.

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST SESSION | 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

WORKSHOP • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Embodying Information: Creating Somatic Experiences of Data Through Dance

1:30-3:30 pm ET / 10:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

The Embodying Information workshop will offer participants (1) an overview of the possibilities for engagement between dance and design, (2) practice-based experience with embodied modes of representing data, (3) an introduction to concepts and structures in dance that provide new opportunities in data physicalization. The workshop will include a warm up followed by a series of data movement activities and opportunities for reflection and collective meaning making. Warm up activities will serve to activate bodies and may include body scans and guided imagery techniques. During data movement activities, participants will experiment with elements of movement and the ways in which they can be mapped to traditional data representations. The workshop will include individual and group reflections with prompts aimed at probing connections with participants’ disciplines as well as a critical engagement with both the movement and data. For this virtual workshop, we ask that participants bring basic design supplies (e.g. a notebook, pen/pencil, camera/phone, post-it notes) and find a space they can comfortably move in within their camera view. We also encourage participants to leave cameras on for active engagement with the group. No past dance or data experience is required.
Ilya Vidrin
Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Theater, CAMD at Northeastern
 
Laura Perovich
Assistant Professor, Department of Art + Design, CAMD at Northeastern
 
Nicole Zizzi
Design Research and Communications, Center for Design
 
WORKSHOP • SKILLS

The Power of Sketchnotes

1:30-3:00 pm ET / 10:30 am-12:00 pm PT
1.5 IDCEC CEU

Description

In this 90 minute workshop, Krieg will lead participants through the process of Sketch Noting. Starting in the familiar world and principles of design, she will show a variety of techniques to create visual notes and demonstrate the power of listening and using visuals to capture information. The attendees will then have a chance to try sketch noting for themselves through a guided exercise, creating their own template and exploring which techniques work best for them. This workshop is open to all skill levels. Participants will need 2 pieces of paper and drawing tools of choice. (Colors markers, sharpies and graphite pencils are recommended.)

Photo of Angela Krieg
Angela Krieg
Visual Practitioner + Illustrator
LIGHTNING TALK • HEALTHCARE + SOCIAL IMPACT

Designing for Aging

1:30-1:40 pm ET / 10:30-10:40 am PT

Description

In this conversation, we’ll explore the renovation of a Continual Care Retirement Community (CCRC), a recently completed project that serves as an example of Designing for Aging. As the US population continues to turn 65, approximately 10,000 people per day, we can take great care in designing the spaces these individuals will inhabit in their later lives.
 
A CCRC is a community residence welcoming people 55+. These residential spaces tend to attract active adults interested in an age-relevant community with easy access to amenities (gym, walking trails, freshly prepared food, etc.), and healthcare. There is a vast range of offerings within the CCRC landscape, each catering to a different clientele.
 
Rao will dive into one example, seeing the before and after of the renovation process. He will share the design direction that guided the renovations and introduce the people he worked closely with from the CCRC side to help him deeply understand what mattered most to them. For Rao, that was the most invigorating aspect of the work; connecting with CCRC residents, hearing their stories, and bringing their wants and needs into the renovation of their home.
 
Questions we’ll explore:
• How has the retirement community changed in the last 5-10 years?
• How do current residents feel about being in a CCRC?
• How is design making an impact in this area?
• Where do you plan to age?
Photo of Ravi Rao
Ravi Rao
Lead Interior Designer, Taylor Design

CHOOSE YOUR SECOND SESSIONS | Various Times

PANEL • WORKPLACE INNOVATION + BUSINESS

Embracing the Future of Work: Designing for a Compelling Work Experience, and the Flaw of Averages

2:00-3:00 pm ET / 11:00 am-12:00 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

“The only certainty is that nothing is certain.” So said the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder and some 2,000 years later, it’s a safe bet he is still right. Join this panel for a spirited discussion as the presenters share their experiences navigating this new world of work and designing for a compelling workforce experience. They’ll share their perspectives and differing points of view; from what they are seeing out in the wild with their clients, to real world examples of how leading companies are realizing there is a need for Workplace choice.
Jess Klay
Vice President Brand & Design, Workhuman
Leslie Saul
Owner & Principal
Leslie Saul & Associates
Alfred Byun
Design Director of Strategy Lab, Gensler

 

Sun Joo Kim
Senior Management Consultant, Charrette Venture Group 
TALK • COMMUNITY + DATA VISUALIZATION

Women of Color as Accidental Entrepreneurs and REI

2:00-2:10 pm ET / 11:00-11:10 pm PT

Description

In this pre-recorded discussion, co-founders Sana Jafri & Qudsia Khan of BabyGami discuss their accidental journey to becoming entrepreneurs. At BabyGami, they believe that baby products shouldn’t add chaos to your life but enhance parenthood. That’s why they’re on a mission to build a way to minimize the things you need so that you don’t think twice about getting outside and enjoying the outdoors.
Sana Jafri
Co-Founder, BabyGami
Qudsia Khan
Qudsia Khan
Co-Founder, BabyGami
PANEL • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

Reimagining the Physical and Political Infrastructure of Education Systems – Designing Healthy, Resilient, Sustainable Schools and Communities

2:30-3:30 pm ET / 11:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Public schools are a central part of community infrastructure. They are the temples of learning for our future leaders, a nexus for community connections, and the symbols of our societal values. The COVID-19 pandemic, social and political divisions, natural hazard events (past and anticipated), and other occurrences have all revealed weaknesses and inequities in both the institutional and physical structures of public-school systems. School buildings have room for improvement with respect to indoor air quality, thermal, visual, and auditory comfort, energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction, and natural hazard and climate resilience. School teachers and staff, and the curriculum and programs they advance, are strained by new challenges associated with media literacy, and resistance to teaching more complete and nuanced views of history and current events, and the greater acceptance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The physical form and the institution of schools are inseparable when advancing sustainability in education. Quality school buildings provide enriching and inspiring learning environments for students and serve as sources of pride, support and connection for the communities where they are located, both in good times and during disaster recovery. Integrated elements of the physical infrastructure can create healthy indoor environments, support energy efficient, low-carbon operations, and enhance resilience in the face of hazard events, increasing their value to the community. Connected, inclusive, and resilient communities that value education are more supportive of investments in quality schools, recognizing the tangible and intangible benefits to individuals and the community at large. This session will explore bold new ways to imagine public schools, and how we might break down the barriers to excellence, considering design solutions for the school buildings, curriculums, and community connections required to make great sustainable education systems.
Photo of Alan Scott
Gerald Scrutchions
Public Educator, Portland, OR
 
Photo of Alan Scott
Alan Scott 
Discipline Leader, Sustainability, Intertek
 
Photo of Alan Scott
Ann Roland AIA, LEED AP
Partner, FXCollaborative, New York City
 
Photo of Alan Scott
Nada Maani
Associate Architect, Opsis ArchitectureInteriors &Planning
 
Photo of Alan Scott
Darien Clary, MPH
Sustainability Director,Austin Independent School District

 

 
WORKSHOP • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Backcountry Can Be Dope

3:15-3:25 pm ET / 12:15-12:25 pm PT

Description

The outdoor industry, and snow sports specifically, struggles with inclusivity and diversity. There is a lot of important work to be done in eliminating the many barriers to entry, but an overlooked part of the work to be done is designing products that are visually and culturally compelling to a diverse audience.
Chris Pew
Chris Pew
CEO and Designer, TREW
Ian Williams
Owner, Deadstock Coffee

IN-PERSON EVENTS | Various Times

SAN FRANCISCO TALK + TOUR + RECEPTION

Cell-grown Salmon – Designing for the Future: A PA Design Studio Talk & Tour with Astro Studios and Wildtype

3:00-6:00 pm PT
Location: PA Consulting | Astro Studio, San Francisco, CA

Description

Design and branding play a pivotal role in your brand’s image, business, and products. And for PA Consulting’s work with Wildtype, we also had to consider how brand strategy and design can change customer perception. Come hear Robin Marich, Creative Director at PA Consulting | Astro Studio and Aryé Elfenbein, Co-Founder of Wildtype, discuss the role that brand strategy played in bringing Wildtype’s innovative cell-cultivated, sushi-grade salmon to restaurants (and stomachs) across the U.S.

Afterwards, join us for a walk-through the design studio, engineering workshop and collaborative office space for a look into how PA Consulting | Astro Studio works. 

Proof of Covid vaccine is required.

Photo of Aryé Elfenbein
Aryé Elfenbein
Co-Founder, Wildtype
Photo of Robin Marich
Robin Marich
Creative Director, ASTRO Studios, Part of PA Consulting
BOSTON TALK + TOUR + RECEPTION

Behind-the-Scenes of Hydrow: A PA Design Studio Talk & Tour with Essential Design, Cooper Perkins, and Hydrow

5:00-8:00 pm ET
Location: PA Consulting | Essential Design, Boston, MA

Description

Learn how Hydrow, invented by former USA Rowing national team coach Bruce Smith, took a product from idea to market in this rare insider look. This session will feature stories from a team of designers, engineers, and industry experts that turned an experiential concept (rowing on water) into a competitive commercial offering (the next generation of home rowing machines). After the session, join us for a walk through our design studio, engineering workshop and collaborative office space for a look into how we work.

Proof of Covid vaccine is required.

Photo of Chris Evans
Chris Evans
Director of Engineering, Cooper Perkins, Part of PA Consulting
Photo of Bruce Smith
Bruce Smith
CEO and Founder, Hydrow
Photo of Richard Watson
Richard Watson
Partner, Essential Design, Part of PA Consulting

Friday, April 29

WELCOME | 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT

CONNECT • WHAT TO EXPECT

Closing Remarks

12:00-12:15 pm ET / 9:00-9:15 am PT

Description

Ren DeCherney is CoDesign Collaborative Week’s Emcee. She was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska. She went as far across the country as she could go to get her undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she got a degree in Art History and French. She was an interior designer in Juneau for several years, working in a commercial firm and then a residential firm before getting a Masters in Interior Architecture from the University of Oregon.

After graduation she worked in Portland as a designer, where she took her firm PVC-free. She was then the Director of Industry Transparency at Source, where she implemented various features to help designers integrate sustainability criteria into their material selection and specification process. She’s quite possibly the only person who loves talking sustainability but doesn’t like being in nature itself.

Maria Villafranca is the Deputy Director at CoDesign Collaborative. She specializes in nonprofit management and has worked at a range of institutions that support creative producers from community-based organizations to large national arts funders. Most recently, she held leadership roles at The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). She has a background as a writer, and believes strongly in the essential nature of cultural storytelling and inclusive design in communities. She has a BA in Art History and English from Rutgers University and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, two boys, and pug.

Photo of Ren DeCherney
Ren DeCherney
Director of Materials, Impact Group at the International Living Future Institute
Photo of Maria Villafranca
Maria Villafranca
Deputy Director, CoDesign Collaborative
TALK • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Keynote

12:15-1:00 pm ET / 9:15-10:00 am PT

Description

Eric Corey Freed is an award-winning architect, author, and global speaker. As Senior Vice President of Sustainability for CannonDesign, he leads the healthcare, education, and commercial teams toward better and higher performing buildings for over 20 million square feet a year. For two decades, he was Founding Principal of organicARCHITECT, a visionary design leader in biophilic and regenerative design.His past roles include Vice President of the International Living Future Institute and Chief Community Officer of EcoDistricts, both nonprofits pushing innovative new paradigms for deep green buildings and communities.Eric is the author of 12 books, including “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies.” In 2012, he was named one of the 25 “Best Green Architecture Firms” in the US, and one of the “Top 10 Most Influential Green Architects.” In 2017, he was named one of Build’s American Architecture Top 25. He holds a prestigious LEED Fellow award from the US Green Building Council.

Steve Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, a global innovation hub for entrepreneurs, corporations, and investors, with over 50 partners in 22 countries. He also a venture investor, founder of three venture-backed and two bootstrapped startups, and author of several award-winning books. These include “Make Elephants Fly” (Hachette), “Surviving a Startup” (HarperCollins), and “The Five Forces” (BenBella). He has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and provided consulting to many of the world’s largest corporations, including Qualcomm, Huawei, Bosch, Intel, Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC, Gulf Oil, Siemens, and Viacom. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of California and a master’s degree in film and television from the University of Southern California. He currently resides in California but spends most of his time in the air, visiting startups, investors, and innovators all over the world.

Kate Tooke is a landscape architect at Sasaki. Her project leadership, strategic thinking, design eye, and technical skills have been instrumental in the success of diverse projects ranging from master planning to site-scale work. As a naturally interdisciplinary thinker, she excels at collaborating across disciplines to craft elegant, contextual solutions to complex design challenges. Prior to discovering landscape architecture, Kate was a high school math and physics teacher in the Boston Public School system. Kate holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s degree in education from Lesley University, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Dartmouth College. She earned the 2011 National Olmsted Scholar award, the highest honor of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), for her work on urban schoolyards, and has since served on LAF’s board of directors. Kate remains active in the academic world through teaching appointments at the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as through volunteer work with local public schools.

Eric Cory Freed
Eric Corey Freed
Director of Sustainability, CannonDesign
Photo of Kate Tooke
Kate Tooke
Principal, Sasaki
Steve Hoffman
CEO & Chairman, Founders Space

CHOOSE YOUR FIRST SESSION | 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

PANEL • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

Unending Learning

1:30-2:30 pm ET / 10:30-11:30 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Led by ThoughtMatter Managing Partner Jessie McGuire, this discussion will question the current state of education and challenge the responsibility of designers, professionals, and parents. She will be joined by Founder and Executive Director of Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE) Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario,  and Assistant Professor at Rhode Island School of Design Ramon Tejada. They will explore civic responsibility and designers’ essential role in preparing the next generation. While breaking free from the status quo takes courage, they will discuss how engaging our curiosity and critical thinking is needed to reinvent ourselves for the future.

Marissa Guiterrez-Vicario
Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario
Executive Director, Art, and Resistance Through Education (ARTE)
Jessie McGuire
Managing Partner, ThoughtMatter
Ramon Tejada
Designer and Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design
WORKSHOP • SKILLS

Intersectionality of Identity & Design: The Power of Making it Personal

1:30-2:30 pm ET / 10:30 am-11:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Everyone of us is an intricate web of identities. These identities include those that we are born into based on genetics and culture, or who we love and what we choose, and experiences we have along our journey.
In a design culture that has historically told us not to make it personal, this presenter challenges you to ask, “why the F*CK not?” The moment they left their role as a senior apparel designer for a global brand, they found their power as a designer through aligning their complex identities with design. They have the ability to tell their personal story and share their complex identity through not only end-use design, but the process itself. So do you. In this conversation, they will share how their identities have challenged me in the corporate space, what it means for them to tap into the power of those identities, and how they have shaped their life now as the founder of a nonprofit.
Cora Lee Poole
Founder & CEO, UNDESTRUCTABLE
WORKSHOP • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Gameful Design with StudyCrafter

1:30-2:30 pm ET / 10:30-11:30 am PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU
Northeastern University, Center for Design Partnership
 

Description

This panel presents StudyCrafter, a free engine to empower users to create, play, share, and analyze gamified projects. It showcases how this platform has been used to speculate about post-covid world impressions, study supply chain decisions, develop innovative therapeutic solutions, make engaging surveys and experiments, and create impactful games. It also demonstrates how this platform empowers others to design, in particular users who may not know how to program or make games. It discusses the opportunities and limitations of StudyCrafter and how it and related authoring tools can help us achieve a more gameful world.
Casper Harteveld
Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Northeastern University
Giovanni Troiano
Northeastern University

CHOOSE YOUR SECOND SESSION | Various Times

LIGHTNING TALK • SUSTAINABILITY + EDUCATION

Equitable Design: Towards a Manifesto for Accessible Architecture

3:00-3:15 pm ET / 12-12:15 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

Designing buildings for equity is making them equitable to people with differences which extend to race, class, color, gender, disability, sexuality. Disability is a form of ‘Otherness;’ how society perceives Otherness is shaped to a large extent by design, and the sensibilities of designers in making spaces inclusive and attempting to reduce the distance from the Other. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was established over 30 years ago, thinking in the disability world has evolved. Disability is seen as natural – not as merely a problem to fix, but part of the human experience, seeking greater visibility and inclusiveness. We need to rethink accessibility beyond literally getting in the door, even beyond universal design and move from mere regulatory compliance to design that focuses on visibility and inclusion. While other differences (such as race, class, etc) can perhaps primarily be addressed by policy and operations, disability is one difference that building design can impact directly. How can our diverse abilities to interact in buildings be used to rethink design? We need to lay down a manifesto for Architecture.
Ganesh Nayak
Principal, Metier Consulting, Inc.
PANEL • PLAY + ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Design Thinking Applied to the Body and Identity

2:30-3:30 pm ET / 11:30 am-12:30 pm PT
1.0 IDCEC CEU

Description

The panel will explore applying design thinking to one’s body and identity. Exploring bodies and identities should be a playful process, even though self-reflection can be uncomfortable. Panelists will discuss how play, creativity, and design thinking have shaped them into individuals. All panelists are contributors to CoDesign Collaborative’s upcoming publication We Design: People. Practice. Progress. Click here to learn more about the book! 
Bakari Akinyele
Strategist, Designer, and Visual Artist
Marli Washington
Founder of gc2b
Leila Mitchell
Founder, LLM Design and Board Member and Content Editor, CoDesign Collaborative
J.R. Uretsky
Exhibition Manager, CoDesign Collaborative

IN-PERSON EVENT | 5:00 pm ET

BOSTON CLOSING EVENT + RECEPTION

Livable Proximity: A Design-Orienting Scenario | Closing Event + Reception

5:00-8:00 pm ET
Location: Cabral Center at Northeastern’s John D. O’Bryant African American Institute, Boston, MA

Description

Open to CoDesign Collaborative Week participants, this event closes the Center for Design’s Design Research Week and promotes the mission of the Center as a place and a space for interdisciplinary research at Northeastern.

The event features a lecture by Ezio Manzini on the themes of his last book “Livable Proximity” (EGEA 2022): The multifaceted crisis in which we are immersed requires us to practice new forms of proximity, that is, a new sense of closeness between us, human beings, and with the planet. Social innovation proves that this form of proximity is possible; Design can materialize this possibility through a widespread, long-lasting change – for everyone.

“Livable Proximity is a passionate and compelling call for a remaking of the city under a novel paradigm of relationality and care by one of the most accomplished design thinkers of our time. Manzini lucidly demonstrates why a novel practice of urban dwelling based on proximity is not only desirable and possible but essential for a functional, place-based, and Earth-wise human sociality. In Manzini’s skillful hands, ‘proximity’ emerges as a trope for a complex spatial, social, and cultural imagination of the city that challenges head on the increasingly individualizing and isolating tendencies of post-pandemic living. While anchored in enlightening analyses of Barcelona, Milano, and Paris, Manzini’s visionary architecture of proximity should serve as a guide for urban professionals and citizens worldwide wishing to counter the de-localizing and de-communalizing effects of the modernist ‘city of distance’. This eminently readable book will be of great value to urban planners and designers and to geography, anthropology, and urban ecology scholars, as well as to the growing cadre of citizens’ groups concerned with urban futures.”

– Arturo Escobar, Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; author of Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds

“Manzini redefines proximity for the digital age, revealing a delightful, creative, sociable way of living. New, yet familiar, merging tradition with technology. Feasible. Already in place in cities large and small across the world yielding communities where attention is focused upon social dimensions of interaction, not upon technology. A powerful, important way to live sustainably in the 21st century.”

– Don Norman, Professor emeritus, The Design Lab, University of California, San Diego; author of Design of Everyday Things

AGENDA:

5:00pm | Welcome
Elizabeth Hudson, Dean, College of Arts, Media and Design

5:05pm | Design and Research in the Pandemic, The first two years at the Center for Design
Paolo Ciuccarelli, Founding Director, Center for Design, Professor of Design

5:30pm | Keynote | Livable Proximity. A Design-Orienting Scenario
Ezio Manzini | Professor Emeritus, Politecnico di Milano. Founder of DESIS Network, Author of “”Design, When Everybody Designs””, MIT Press, “”Politics of the Everyday.”” Bloomsbury, and Livable Proximity (Egea)

6:15pm | Conversation | Design for Assembly. Public Spaces and Community Engagement
Ang Li (moderator), Architect and Assistant Professor, Northeastern University and Ezio Manzini

6:30pm | Reception
Food and drinks

7:30pm | Visit to the Center for Design
Showcase of research projects & refreshments

Proof of Covid vaccine required, masks recommended besides for drinking and eating (food and drink will be provided).

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