From the beginning, this conference has been a meeting place for all design players, including politicians, design promotion organisations, schools, researchers, design agencies, companies, and professional organisations.
It offers an opportunity to share and compare ideas on past and future developments.
It circulates research results for studies led within the framework of European programmes, thus encouraging good design management practices and the integration of design in European policy.
It is backed by the European Commission, the Bureau of European Designers association and sponsored by the French Ministry for the Economy and the Ile De France Region.
General theme
How can we make innovation support policies and design support action coherent? Indeed, the following has been noted:
> an increased interest for user-based innovation (themes broached during the 2005 and 2006 reports), but low recognition of the potential skills design can bring;
> the convergence of a number of existing tools at a European level (intellectual protection, public markets, tax measures, clusters and centres, etc.);
> finally, the European Commission (DG for Companies and Industry) is preparing a summary report on these subjects, which should be presented in the spring.
