Trip to Hong Kong I: DesignInspire Expo

This December, I decided to step out of my comfort zone in Vancouver and spend a few months on the other side of the world. I have always wanted to live and experience Hong Kong aside from just travelling and going to tourist attractions. Aside from all the amazing food and activities, the city is one of the centres of design in Asia Pacific. Many international designers prefer this location to build their brands and business. Prior to my arrival in the city, I researched conferences that I can attend to gain more insights and be inspired by industry professionals. I discovered the DesignInspire Expo 2018 that was happening early December and was super excited to get to go!

DesignInspire is a 3-day international exhibition revolving around creativity and showcases from global designers, brands, and institutes. I am happy to share my experience at this event:

Workshop: Design Thinking in Action - Building an innovative future for Hong Kong

Having had a hard time finding this workshop, I sat down with a group of strangers who would be my teammates for the session. I met someone from Australia (Hong Kong’s neighbouring country) and several English-speaking people from Hong Kong. We greeted and got to know each other. The session was facilitated by a representative from MAKE Studios Asia. She taught us the basics of design thinking and how it can be applied to Hong Kong’s underlying environmental, political, and societal issues.

Following scenario based gameplay, we were guided through exercises that challenged us to come up with innovative ideas and concepts that can benefit Hong Kong. This session is great for anyone involved in entrepreneurship, social innovation, business transformation or driving cultural change. I wanted to meet new friends and apply design thinking in a different context and culture. Our challenge was to do with the environment, so we each shared an idea and merged the effective ones together. For the final idea, we came up with an event that invited people to learn and create their own outfits reusing parts of a fruit. Then, people can gather together to showcase their work and raise awareness for environmental issues that exist.

Speakers from MAKE Studios Hong Kong teaching design thinking

Workshop: Melbourne : Design Disruption

In this speaker panel, there were several designers from Melbourne sharing their insights on design disruption. They shared that disruption can happen through small improvements or drastic changes. Design is the force of innovation that has been changing society and humankind. The talk was short but very inspirational.

Workshop: Chat with Steve Leung on Creative Practices

Steve Leung is a renowned interior designer and he spoke about his experience and background during this session. The session was in Cantonese which was interesting for me since I usually listened to English ones. Steve Leung shared that young designers need to showcase their work through competitions and that Hong Kong is still a bit behind other countries. It was interesting to hear that when taking in new clients, don’t take in ones that don’t share the same values or it’s a request outside of your expertise if you know someone else can do it better. He also mentioned that when finding someone to hire, personality is definitely the biggest factor for him as many people can do good work. Hearing from an interior designer and business owner present to a young Hong Kong audience was fascinating.

Workshop: Global Design Trends

Providing unique product design and user experience are keys to some success of global brands and business. The speaker panel had designers from Korea and Hong Kong showcasing their latest work and the impact it has. From Korea, there was a product that used paper to make toys and structures. They wanted to be more environmentally-friendly and paper was a good material that can be recycled, unlike plastic. The toys were also affordable and can be given to people in developing countries.

The other one involved a change in education, offering products that made learning fun where you could put letters of a word together to form the actual visualization of the word. The last speaker from Hong Kong had a multimedia background and believed that memorable experiences come from a combination of media. This includes lighting, music, and visuals. I thought that was so true, my most favourite experiences often involved multiple senses. In attending these sessions, it further inspired me to create meaningful products and services.

Melbourne designers speaking about design disruption

Workshop: The Roadmap of Design Strategy for Hong Kong Manufacturing SMEs

Speakers from various business backgrounds were invited to discuss design strategy in Hong Kong. I was interested in hearing that design thinking is just becoming bigger in Hong Kong. Some speakers also mentioned about marketing changing drastically to follow the trend of digitalization. As someone who connects with what was being discussed, it further raised the importance of design for businesses. We can redesign supply chains to better serve customers. Design can be applied to various areas. The gathering of people to discuss the future of Hong Kong was a great experience to be a part of.

Workshop: FemTech HK 2018

In Hong Kong, technology that helps women is just becoming bigger. The product offerings are still quite small and could be a big opportunity for new businesses. My favourite speakers were the creators of iTbra from Cyrcadia Health that offered a detector of early breast cancer. An underlying issue that is often unspoken of, breast cancer is often detected late and the later it is detected, the harder it is to cure. The founders themselves went through tragic experiences so their work was very inspirational. My second favourite addressed the high levels of stress in Hong Kong. Through products that helped soothe the mind, the founders wanted to help people destress and live a healthier lifestyle. The product included ones that helped with breathing as well as making sounds that lower heart rate.

FemTech HK 2018

Summary of Event

The past two days were very enlightening. I met people from around the world and saw how Hong Kong was so diverse and filled with talented designers as well. The shared passion for design was exciting and the workshops were meaningful. There was work in robotics, interactive installments, 3D printing, smart products, and more. The highlight of the event for me was definitely seeing the great work from around the world including Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan. There were many shared values and principles that ignited conversations and knowledge sharing. Hopefully, I can attend more of these events that are quite hard to find in Vancouver!