Building trust and good design - 5 Jun 2017

Welcome to June! If the year is progressing a little too fast for your liking, now's a good time to step back and reflect on your goals for the year and whether you're meeting them.

To help you with that task, Kate Niemöller of IQ Business highlights the current confusing ‘fake news' era and writes a follow-up to her recent Samra Conference presentation on fact-phobia vs credible data. She shares her personal favourite sessions from the conference and points out that information is a key indicator in the plummeting global trust deficit. As research professionals, there's nothing stopping us from questioning the content that passes our desks, or even barring it from being disseminated as a way to bring those levels of trust back up.

‘Dad is an authority figure most of us trust unquestioningly. In his latest #OrchidsandOnions column, now published in the weekly Saturday Citizen as he is acting deputy editor at The Citizen, Brendan Seery writes about ads that remind us to remember our dads as our heroes, especially fitting with Father's Day just around the corner.

Lastly, in the build-up to Loeries 2017, I also continue my jury president jabber. This time we chat to Pum Lefebure, co-founder and chief creative officer of Design Army in Washington, DC who is excited for her first visit to our shores to head up the design jury panel, as she has judged design competitions everywhere in the world apart from Africa. Click through for her views on why good design speaks a universal language, despite each place in the world having its own design sensibility.

Also remember that we're publishing a two-month content highlight burst to coincide with Youth Month and CSI Month this June and July - click here for more on how to showcase the nation-builders of our future and tell your CSI stories to our 464,000 readers and 50,000 social media followers.

Happy sixth month of the year!