'Crossroads' will be the theme of 14th Pune Design Festival!

Pune is not just a hub for IT, Education & Automobile industry, it has also established its position as a hotbed for Designers with more than 40 professional design studios, 10 design institutes and several design teams within large IT & Automotive corporations.Since 2006, Association of Designers of India (ADI), Pune Chapter has been organising Pune Design Festival, a national level conference with speakers and delegates from around the world. It is India's marquee design event curated by design community to enhance the role of professional design practice.

Upcoming 14th Pune Design Festival will be held on January 10 and 11, 2020, at Hyatt Regency, with the theme ‘Crossroads’, to discuss how design is evolving across domains & disciplines and is on the cusp of its next big shift.

"The festival will span across a week of concurrent events in the city. The two day conference being our flagship, the week will also include Lexus Design Awards, hands-on workshops, visits to design studios, Design Expo, 6 parallel Forums focused on topics such as Branding, Gaming & Animation, Interaction Design & so on." informs Bala Mahajan, president, ADI Pune Chapter.

It will be a celebration replete with 30+ speakers across conference & forums for professionals, 10+ workshops and open talks for design aspirants.

Talking about the highlights from earlier years, co-convenor Ashwini Deshpande said, “Our stage has been graced by Bunker Roy, Dadi Pudumji, Resul Pookutty, all Padmashree honoraries, internationally renowned design thinkers like John Thackara, Ashoka Awardees like Sonam Wangchuk, Kiran Bir Sethi & Swapneel Chaturvedi. While we are proud of our Pune lineage, we are an international design festival. We have had speakers from over 10 countries and professional delegates from Bangalore, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai & Jaipur apart from Pune every year. Last year we also had media from Japan covering the festival. Attendees include professionals from design practice, industry, academia (60%) and students (40%).”

This year, Harish Bhat, brand custodian, Tata Group will be a keynote speaker. Spaceship designer & space entrepreneur Dr Susmita Mohanty, celebrity photographer Joseph Radhik, experimental letterist Kriti Monga are some of the other speakers.

"Since ADI is a not-for-profit Trust, we focus on being inclusive so that most number of attendees can benefit by our events. Pune Design Festival Conference & Forum passes have easy-on-pocket flexible options and Design Expo is open to public for free." adds Ashish Deshpande, president, ADI National Executive Committee.

(We got this information in a press release.)