The iconic design conference and event Design Indaba has announced it will use 2021 as a year to plan and execute multiple Do Tank projects. In turn, they will be launching the Design Indaba Inside offering. The Design Indaba Conference and Festival will not take place in February 2021; instead, organizers will take the time to plan for 2022. Social distancing requirements combined with the physical limitations of Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town made the event unfeasible.
Offering an explanation for the change, Design Indaba founder Ravi Naidoo states: “It makes no sense whatsoever to cut and paste a pre-Covid model onto a post-Covid world. So, we’re taking the time to do some healthy exploration to generate a future model that can continue to usher in a better world through creativity, which is the very premise of Design Indaba.” Instead, the Do Tank will continue its upliftment projects - over 200 different ventures to date. Notably, these include the Design Indaba 10 x 10 Housing Project, Arch for the Arch, and instrumental involvement in the development of the Zeitz MOCAA over a period of 10 years.
Naidoo goes on to state that, “many people have asked us if we are planning a virtual conference for next year. While we did of course consider this route, we ultimately felt that it would dilute our experiential, theatrical event and we really did not want to reduce it to a series of talking heads on a screen. That, coupled with the Webinar fatigue everyone is expressing, led us to the conclusion that we would not want to do anything in half measures or disappoint expectations – our own and that of our community.”
The Design Indaba team has also launched the new Design Indaba Inside offering, which creates capsule Design Indaba events within companies. Design Indaba Inside takes the form of tailored, stand-alone workshops. The aim is to problem-solve specific issues that a company is dealing with and create bespoke solutions. Due to the coordination and preparation required, Design Indaba will be able to accommodate only eight Design Indaba Inside events in 2021.mIn addition to Design Indaba Inside, Design Indaba’s regular offerings will continue.
The #DI2020 series will be available via Design Indaba’s YouTube channel. Find out more at www.designindaba.com.
News via Design Indaba