The New Possible
The Town Hall series for the The Design Exec Club gathers thought leaders from around the globe as they share their strategies, frustrations and insights on whats ahead.
In Town Hall #33 Mark Bergin, the Founder of DRIVENxDESIGN hosted a tremendous panel of some of the smartest people in Australian design with the focus on what our role is in creating a better future, how we can look forward in 2021 to a 'new possible'. With 2020 being today's focus is, how do we actually get BeyondZero?
Mark introduces the concept of BeyondZero by exploring the thought that "We found out that the net zero amount that everyone's talking about will still mean that the environment is going to warm up by 2.1 degrees. And that's probably not acceptable. We need to work out how to do better than that... when we talk about everything about how do you actually redesign tech stacks, so that you actually wind up with more efficient code, more efficient servers, more efficient solutions?"
Our own Amber Bonney was fortunate enough to be able to contribute to this discussion and offered these insights:
"Consumers are becoming increasingly more conscious of choosing brands and services based on a company's ethics, behaviours and community interaction. While traditionally attributes like heritage, scale and values were primary trust building factors, now we are seeing a much greater switch to humanities based purchase decisions. The big corporations, whether they've really liked it or not, are increasingly being forced to make changes and for international companies, these are globally mandated. What this results in, and what we are seeing change now, is an increase in powerful and well enforced policies that lead to significant behavoural changes with large scale global impact. These are the clients we choose to surround ourselves with - both big and small but businesses that are seeking to make a positive difference - people before profit."
"Changing consumer behavior, I think like anything this happens through repetition of messaging and consistency. It's about making sure that there's diversity in the type of businesses and brands that are talking to this, that they are reaching all sorts of audiences. This isn't about just reaching a priviledged few (a middle class white audience), this is about speaking to a broad cross section of the communication through repitition, focus and integrity."
Have a listen or read of the full discussion here
Check out the full list of contributors here:
Mike Biggs - Director of Innovation & Design at Telstra Purple
Celso Borges - Head of Experience Design at Tigerspike
Chris Bosse - Director of Architecture at LAVA
Dylan Brady - Conductor (Owner) at Decibel Architecture
Keeley Green - Director at Keeley Green Interior Design
Richard Henderson - Founder & CEO at R-Co Brand
Theodore Kerlidis - Director of k20 Architecture
Julie Ockerby - Creative Director, Principal & CEO at Meli Studio Australia
Betsy Sweat - Head of Asia Pacific at Restoration Hardware
Image credit: sourced with approval from the Design Executive Club 2020