Richard and Anja will be featured speakers at the the Slovenian Month of Design Conference being held in Ljubljana on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 October 2008.

"If the service economy is the defining paradigm of our current reality, then why", Richard Eisermann and Anja Klüver ask, "are we so bad at designing and delivering good ones?"

Poor experiences abound - are designers responsible? Or have they just not been invited to the party? "With designers ever more keen to be involved in upstream strategic thinking, how," they ask "can we make sure to not ignore those areas where a designer's skills make a significant impact: at the sharp end of service delivery."

Prospect looks at the role of design in the conceptualisation and creation of services as well as explores the methods and tools available to realise brilliant experiences. Looking at the issues from a user-centred perspective, we see how people might be involved in service co-creation and in the design of their associated communities, reinforcing the notion of "The Story Economy".

October 23-24, 2008

Venue: Ljubljana Castle, Ljubljana, Slovenia

EXPERIENCE IN DESIGNING SPACES, BODIES AND MINDS

This year, the Month of Design Conference offers a venue for interdisciplinary dialogue on the role of design in the contemporary world, focusing on the experience as a body/object, as a place and as a concept/mind. What is it that we experience when we long for & use something - at work, play, when shopping, communicating, eating, driving... and what is it that they are trying to sell to us when we are looking for new experiences?

Month of Design Conference tackles the issues of design and experience at three levels:

Designing bodies - How are objects created through design?

Designing space - How do real and virtual spaces intertwine?

Designing mind - How do images enter our minds and become needs?

The Design Conference 2008 will feature a pool of design professionals, managers and internationally renowned lecturers, who will discuss the ways of manoeuvring through the world of experience shocks. Ljubljana looks forward to hosting designers, fashion editors, theorists of desire, agents of consumerism, creators of web platforms, web designers, architects, interior designers, marketing gurus and consumer rights activists.