PROVIDENCE – DesignxRI will be hosting a new, interactive half-day summit intended to bring together the design field, including industry upstarts, veterans, teachers and innovators to form professional connections.
The summit, called Spark Design, will be hosted on May 22 at South Street Landing from 2-6 p.m. Speakers and participants will address design-sector employee needs, sector trends, and the industry skill gaps from student to professional.
The summit will include a plenary session on the current state of, recent changes in and future of the design field, as well as smaller breakout sessions on various topics, as well as opportunities to follow up in dialogue groups and a closing reception.
Individual sessions will focus on the gaps between design education and the design profession, change in the design field as technology evolves and generational shifts in the design workforce.
DesignxRI Executive Director Lisa Carnevale said that the summit is designed to start conversations between designers, companies and educators to address the fast changing nature of the design sector, adding that many current design jobs are jobs that didn’t exist 15 years ago and that there are expected to be jobs coming down the pipeline that don’t exist now. A collaboration between different elements of the design field could help the industry and educators adapt faster and smarter, she said.
The summit is designed to create connection inside the ecosystem,” she added.
The summit also will feature a “match up” component as well, in which attendees may either participate in dialogue groups or sign up to match with a summit participant in a 10 to 15 minute session.
Carnevale also said that the summit’s participatory and networking elements are designed to strengthen the sector. “The more we create opportunities to fuse and connect the design workforce ecosystem, the better we’ll be in addressing a rapidly changing sector now and in the future,” she told PBN.
The event is also intended to attract entrepreneurs, collaboration partners and state leaders and partners looking to work with Rhode Island design talent, the organization noted.
Speakers for the event are yet to be announced.
More information may be found on the DesignxRI website.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
