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With over 100 events on the programme, most with free access to the public, two main event hubs and collaborations with global and local brands, Open Design 2015 brings design and innovation to life. Its key features are the first Cape Town Maker Faire and Maker Conference, which will bring leaders in the maker movement as well as large organisations including Microsoft and DigitalGlobe together for discussions; Open Design Design for Tomorrow showcase and exhibition in collaboration with INDEX: Design to Improve Life®; Designing Careers programme, which explores the values and impact of design and as a viable career option for high school learners; TEDx Cape Town; Pecha Kucha and the popular Talk100 series, with international and local experts on design and innovation in health, technology, 'urban hacktivism', social development, education and other vital challenges that impact our future.
Through Open Design, the genius of innovative social design, service design, universal design and sustainable design has gained a firm place on the calendar of international design weeks. Event highlights include:
Open Design creative director Y. Tsai explains the rationale behind the futuristic theme: "Design is no longer the exclusive domain of the privileged elite. It touches every part of life, addressing basic human needs in multiple applications across every sector that make up our social fabric. It has been used to transform healthcare, business, transport, urban development, agriculture, education, housing, technology, music, public spaces, communication and technology ? among others.
"This approach, called human-centred design, is gaining a global focus for competitive business and socio-economic development," he says.
"Under this year's theme, the Open Design Cape Town Festival 2015 will explore the many ways we can use design and innovation today to secure a better future for tomorrow's generation. This year's programme gives us a chance to reflect on what we want our future world to look like. We're giving our visitors and collaborators a moment to come together to co-create that vision."
Open Design celebrates the values and impact of these as key drivers of economic, environmental and social development. It is the leading showcase of how human-centred design can improve living conditions, build human capital and drive job creation.
Open Design is open to everyone, whether they are new to design or already see design as critical to designing our future world. While some events are ticketed, most events are free to attend. It is advisable to register for each event on the website or on Quicket to book seats as numbers are limited. External event hosts can submit their own events on the Open Design website (www.opendesignct.com) and apply to be included in the 2015 programme.
Official festival partners include the City of Cape Town and the V&A Waterfront. Other Open Design partners include the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Danish Agency of Culture and the Cape Craft and Design Institute.
For more information and a full festival programme log onto www.opendesignct.com or follow @opendesignct on Twitter, @opendesignct on Instagram and Opendesignct on Facebook - hashtags are #Design4Tomorrow or #OpenDesignCT.