Global Experts Talk Service Design Trends at Sarasota International Design Summit

SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The emerging discipline of service design will be the focus of several exciting panels and presentations at the second Sarasota International Design Summit, scheduled for Nov. 5 - 7 at The Ritz Carlton, Sarasota and the Ringling College of Art and Design Campus in Sarasota, Florida. Several of the world's leading authorities in the field will discuss the state of the new discipline and its growth potential in the United States and abroad.

"Service designers must consider how to create value within the systems that link people to people, people to products, and people to organizations," said Dr. Larry Thompson, president of Ringling College of Art and Design and host of the Sarasota International Design Summit. "Theirs is a challenge that requires intense focus on the customer experience as the point from which all service offerings proceed. Every step on the customer journey must be thought through carefully and with great empathy for the ultimate consumer of the product or service."

Prof. Birgit Mager of the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany - one of the world's foremost authorities on service design and head of the university's Center of Service Design Research - will join Dr. Thompson and Shelley Evenson, Director of Graduate Studies for Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design, in an opening night conversation about the state of integrated design and business education in the US and abroad. The three will share some of the initiatives underway to expand industry and academic partnerships in this exciting new discipline.

Other service design presentations will populate the Summit agenda on Nov. 6 and 7. On Nov. 6, Charlotte Baker, chief executive officer of Digital Hands, a global provider of monitoring and remote help desk support for laptops, PCs, and other technology assets, will discuss how her company has reinvented the tech support model with a strong focus on customer experience design.

On Nov. 7, Oliver King, founder of the UK-based service design consultancy Engine, will be joined on stage by Beth Viner, senior business development lead for the Smart Space division of IDEO, for a discussion centering on concrete examples of how service design practice is transforming public and private enterprise. King will offer examples of how his firm has helped businesses develop meaningful and profitable connections with their customers by creating propositions and experiences that resonate most with customers' needs. Viner will discuss the work her firm is doing to help businesses understand and get ready to serve the expectations of the most demanding and fickle customers ever: a group demographers call Millenials or Tweens, children born in the 1990s.

The 2007 Summit theme, Designing for Life, will showcase visionary thinkers and practitioners who are using the power of design to solve lifestyle issues and global challenges. As in the inaugural Summit, held in Oct. 2006, the focus will be on design's impact on the development of new products, services and business models.

Hosted by the Ringling College of Art and Design (http://www.ringling.edu), in partnership with Fast Company Magazine (http://www.fastcompany.com), the Summit showcases the College's commitment to expanding the role of design and design thinking in all walks of life, and its innovative approaches to training students in the business of art and design.

    Other key areas of focus in the 2007 Summit include
    -- Human Centered Design
    -- "Baby Boomer" Product and Service Design
    -- Social Entrepreneurship and the New Philanthropy
    -- Sustainability and Alterative Energy

The Summit will feature keynote presentations, breakout sessions, pre- conference workshops and tours, parties, exhibits, and plenty of time for participants to meet informally or participate in semi-structured discussion groups that afford them the opportunity to share expertise and form relationships with other attendees.

    A sampling of other speakers confirmed to date include:
    -- Constance Adams, space architect, NASA's International Space Station
    -- Valerie Casey, co-head, IDEO Software Experience
    -- Homaro Cantu, chef, chairman, and founder, Cantu Designs
    -- Valerie Fletcher, executive director, Adaptive Environments
    -- Mary S. Furlong, president and CEO, Mary Furlong & Associates
    -- Fred Kent, founder and president, Project for Public Spaces
    -- Miranda Magagnini and Peter Strugatz, co-CEOs, IceStone
    -- Tim Sarnoff, president, Sony Picture Imageworks
    -- Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief, METROPOLIS Magazine
    -- Tom Wujec, founder and principal consultant, Autodesk.

Sponsors of the 2007 Sarasota International Design Summit include Fast Company Magazine, Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, Herald Media Group, The Luxury Marketing Council of Florida, METROPOLIS Magazine, HP, Target Corporation, Whole Foods Market, Insignia Bank, Herman Miller, Digital Hands, SRQ Magazine, ASD, At Large, Inc., OneGlobeNetwork, MakeRain and Willis Construction.

Venues for the Summit include the Ritz Carlton, Sarasota and the Ringling College of Art and Design campus. Special conference rates of $239 per night are available at the Ritz Carlton, Sarasota, the Summit host hotel, and $169 at the Hotel Indigo in Sarasota through Oct. 5.

Tickets may be purchased online. Full conference registration fees are $695 through October 15 and $795 from October 16 through November 3, when online registration closes. For more information, visit www.sarasotadesignsummit.com.

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