After getting the confirmation from Kohei Nishiyama, founder of Japanese user innovation company cuusoo.com, I had little more than a month’s time to prepare and organize this “HK International Design & Innovation Forum” event.
You can read about the reason why I wanted to create this event in my previous post. I wanted to do something meaningful for the local design and technology communities, yet during the preparation stages, I encountered quite a few disappointments. For example, Youth.gov.hk, I sent them an info email like the one I wrote in my previous blog post, and all I got in response was this:
From: “enquiry@youth.gov.hk”
To: Nick Wang@
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 9:44:14 AM
Subject: Re: Design and Innovation Event
Dear Mr Wang,
We are sorry that the forwarded message has been send to us by mistake.
Youth.gov.hk
orz
And then there was the events & marketing department of the Polytechnic University School of Design. I blasted multiple emails to sdmktg@polyu.edu.hk, but never got any replies. Then, through the help of CCHK Creative Common’s Haggen So, I got in contact with one of the professors inside the School of Design, I dropped off a stack of posters for him to post at the school but when I returned a few days before the event, I found that none of my posters were posted! I really wanted the speakers to be able to share their experience and inspire young design students… so I barged into one of the classroom and spoke directly to the students inside, invited them to check out the event web page and spread the news to their friends! (I was one step short of kidnapping the students and dragging them to the event :P )
0427_06A LEGO hirng (by cloneofsnake)Besides blogging about the event, creating a web page, a directions page and an event sign up form, making sure my event page pops up as #1 in both Yahoo and Google search, I also tried my hands on some guerrilla marketing, like the job hiring posters above and a Youtube video! That was a first for me, kinda fun.
Finally, come the day of the event, picked up Kohei and had a quick dim sum lunch in TST, rushed to the JCCAC at 2, met up with Thomas and Douglas as they arrive, none of us prepared anything to talk about, the guests were relying on Thomas to lead them into different topics. I briefly explained to them one more time about the reason why I created this event, (to inspire the youths) and off I went on stage to start the talks. (Deep breath~~)
0502 02 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)While I was all nervous talking on stage, looks like the guest speakers were quite tensed as well.
0502 06 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)The talk was great, Douglas gave us a glimpse into their design process as a team within G.O.D. How he realized Hong Kong’s unique cultural importance, and later on, he spoke with Kohei about how G.O.D. could use cuusoo.com’s system to harness user innovations in Hong Kong.
hkdesigninnovationforum (by mancjew)As expected, there were lots of interests in cuusoo.com’s user innovations and designers collaborations model. The audience asked questions about “how cuusoo.com retain its users”, “how much cuusoo.com reward its users”, “how do you protect the artists’ IP? (Intellectual Properties)”… etc etc. The “protecting artists’ assets” is a typical concern for all artists and designers all over the world. I’ve heard the same concern when I was in New York. “Trust” is a big problem on the internet, I had a few long conversations with Kohei in regards to that in the days after. This is a personal interests of mine, solving this “trust” problem, and I’m continuing to work on a solution(s).
Douglas Young, Kohei Nishiyama, Thomas Crampton, Nicholas Wang (by 黛Daisy)Questions were predominantly business and money related, I was hoping Douglas and Kohei would talk about how they started out and how they struggled, ‘coz I think stories of unrelenting spirits are great motivations for people. One audience did ask Kohei about his decision to leave McKinsey & Co. to start his own biz. That was a good question. Kohei recounted that it was like social suicide! His colleagues all told him to think twice, as he wouldn’t be allowed back! The business was only in its most infancy stage, Kohei saw the potential (far into the future!), and took the leap of faith. The reward is that he has been doing what he loves for the past 10 years, and he’s happy to continue doing it till the end! I guess this is the kind of message I want the youngsters to have. Don’t just look at jobs that pay the most amount of money. Find your passion, follow it, don’t be afraid of failures and tough it out!!
After the event, we spread into small group discussions. That was cool, got to meet quite a few new people.
0502 33 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)After both Thomas and Douglas had left, Kohei stayed behind and discussed with a group of really enthusiastic folks.
0502 42 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)Kohei said he’s really impressed with the amount of interests and talents in Hong Kong. We are currently working on the details of a “first international project” on cuusoo.com. I’ll be posting the details up here later.
0502 45 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)Once again, I would like to thank G.O.D. and Douglas Young for helping to make this event come true, Thomas Crampton for moderating, Kohei Nishiyama for taking time out of his busy schedule to come spend an entire afternoon with us, and everyone who came and participated in the event! Thank you!
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遺失了的記事：2009年5月 | Daisy’s Digital Anthology — 2009-09-06 12:53:04
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香港國際設計創意研討會 HK International Design and Innovation Forum 你都可以設計俾住好D，無印良品，LEGO You can design for GOD, MUJI and LEGO too!
Thank you for coming and making this a great event! Please share your photos on Flickr tagged with “hkdesigninnovationforum” before Sunday night. Wacom is giving away 3 Bamboo Fun S drawing tablets and we will announce the winners here on Monday. And the winner is….. So what was the process I used and what was I looking for? I looked through the photos with Flickr Slideshow on all photos tagged with “hkdesigninnovationforum”. What I was looking for was not just beautiful portraits of the speakers, but a sense of “users participation”. After all, this was a “User Generated” event - so it is about “the people”, and that’s what I looked for in the winning photo. So, congratulations to se_ea, you’ll be contacted through Flickr mail about the prize. Thanks to everyone who share photos on Flickr. It is the best platform to share information from a photo to the world. (Facebook is only good for sharing photos with your “friends”, so it is not ideal to pool together photos for public events.) Finally, I’ve just created a cuusoo.com 空想生活 Hong Kong Group for those of you interested in design, user innovation and user generated products to stay connected with Kohei and cuusoo.com in Japan! Any other suggestions?? Let me know! Date: May 2nd, 2009 Time: 2:00pm - 5:00pm (Discussions begin at 2:30pm) **Address:**Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre 30 pak tin street, shek kip mei kowloon, hong kong HKDUG’s Nicholas Wang is proud to have the opportunity to gather two leading luminaries of Asian design to share their experiences with you. Kohei Nishiyama, founder of the Tokyo-based online design company cuusoo.com and Douglas Young, founder of Hong Kong design-based retailer G.O.D. Both Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Young have been hard at work pushing the design and innovation envelope for over 10 years, you will be able to hear about their experiences and what drives them to success. HKDUG的Nicholas Wang有幸邀請到亞洲設計界兩位傑出權威者將其經歷與大家分享。第一位是日本東京網上設計公司cuusoo.com的創辦人, 西山浩平先生。第二位是香港本土生活品味店「住好D」的創辦人, 楊志超先生。兩位大師致力推動並革新創意設計的界限已有逾十年經驗, 大家將可諦聽兩位的歷程及成功心得。 RSVP here! Kohei Nishiyama Since 1997, long before the Web 2.0 trend toward co-creation, Kohei Nishiyama has been running an innovative online product development community. The system, used by the design-centric Japanese retailer MUJI and soon to be rolled out globally by LEGO, has manufacturers working with consumers to design products - from inception to manufacturing. Started off as an ideal to make “people’s wishes come true”, cuusoo.com is now synonymous with crowdsourcing. Mr. Nishiyama will be sharing with us how massive online collaboration can create sophisticated design products. 西山浩平 遠於Web 2.0成為”共同創造”概念大趨勢前的1997年起, 西山浩平早已引入一個極具創意的網上產品發展社群平台。以設計為核心的日本零售店「無印良品」以及即將全球性推行採用此方式的LEGO集團, 讓製造商從始到末與消費者共同設計產品。由最初「想令每一個人也能實現所想」的理念, 至現今的cuusoo.com已成了「群眾外包」設計的俵俵者。西山先生將與大家分享如何透過網上協作創出精緻產品。 Douglas Young Douglas Young launched the Hong Kong-based homeware and accessories company Goods of Desire (GOD) in 1996 with a mission to bring better homegrown design into people’s lives. G.O.D., the acronym which sounds like “to live better” in Cantonese, started out by capturing Hong Kong’s icons and turning them into art forms and retail objects to be appreciated as affordable art. Mr. Young’s designs are inspired by Hong Kong’s unique cultural identity, they’re often iconic but with a twist, so people of Hong Kong can immediately identify with them, while putting a smile on their faces. Mr. Young has the foresight to begin collecting items of cultural significance more than 20 years ago, their G.O.D. Street Culture Museum is now a database for current and future designers to draw inspirations on. When Mr. Young learned of this meaningful event, he graciously accepted the invite and lend us a venue to make this happen. 楊志超 楊志超先生於1996年創辦本土生活品味店 「G..O.D」的宗旨是要將優質本土設計引進港人的生活。G..O.D, 廣東話俚語即「住好啲」, 意思就是要提升生活質素, 最初將一些香港代表物融入產品, 變為讓大眾可欣賞的廉價藝術品。楊先生的設計靈感源於香港獨特的文化身份, 往往以一些大家熟悉, 而加進了鬼馬元素的設計為材, 讓港人能即時發出會心微笑。早有遠見的楊先生在20多年前已開始蒐集具文化價值的物品, 住好啲石硤HEA街頭文化館現已成為各設計師攝取靈感的資料庫。身為本地設計界權威, 楊先生得悉此活動後, 慷慨地接受邀請並騰出場地以舉行是次項目。 Thomas Crampton One of Asia’s most influential bloggers and a career correspondent at New York Times and International Herald Tribune. Now Asia-Pacific director of Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Thomas draws deep experience from both the old and new media world. You can read his blog at http://www.thomascrampton.com. Thomas will lead Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Young in panel discussion in the first half of the event. All attendees will be invited to join in on discussions in the second half. 亞洲其中一位最具影響力的網誌人兼國際先驅導報及紐約時報記者, 現任奧美公共關係國際集團360 Digital Influence的亞太總監。Thomas Crampton先生是新舊傳媒界的資深人士。大家可到www.thomascrampton.com細閱其網路日誌。Thomas Crampton先生將會於活動時間的首半節主持有西山先生及楊先生發表意見的專題討論, 然後於後半節邀請在場參加者一起投入討論。 Nicholas Wang The organizer behind this event, Nick is an Internet and Social Media expert with experience at some of the largest Internet companies like Yahoo! and Microsoft MSN.com. Having spent half of his life living and working in the US, he envisions the loss of Hong Kong’s competitive edge if the people of Hong Kong continue to abandon long term investments in creative designs and I.T. expertise. Nick is now actively involved in the HKDUG - Hong Kong Drupal User Group, social media communities, and founded Sharingan Consulting as a mean to pursue his vision of a digital future of Hong Kong. 負責是次活動的節目統籌。Nicholas Wang是曾任職雅虎及微軟MSN.com等網絡鉅子的網絡科技與社會媒體專家。主要於美國生活的他預料香港人若繼續漠視創意設計和資訊科技這些長線投資便會失掉競爭優勢。Nicholas Wang現致力實現其對香港數碼未來的願景, 並活躍於香港Drupal User Group及其他社群媒體。 Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160525385437 Thomas Crampton’s Blog Entry: http://www.thomascrampton.com/hong-kong/meet-2-great-asian-designers-in-hong-kong/ Nick’s Blog Entry: http://cloneofsnake.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/hong-kong-international-design-and-innovation-forum Twitter tag hkdesigninnovationforum
香港國際設計創意研討會 Hong Kong International Design and Innovation Forum - Please visit the official site and RSVP here. Picture of Kohei Nishiyama, founder of cuusoo.com and creator of the Design-to-Order process. (Taken by Joi Ito shared on Flickr) (This is actually an email I sent out to my comrades, posting it on this blog to help spread the word.) Dear all, A friend of mine, Mr. Kohei Nishiyama, is coming to HK in the last week of April and I’m trying to create a “Design and Innovation” event on Saturday, May 2nd, so that he can make a speech and share his experience with the people of HK. Kohei is the founder of cuusoo.com, where consumers, designers and manufacturers are pulled together to make “wishes come true”! Users submit their “wishes”, designers transform these “wishes” into concrete designs and manufactures turn the designs into real products! They have partnerships with internationally well known brands like MUJI and LEGO. Thomas Crampton is a former NY Times reporter and he had recently interviewed Kohei while in Switzerland. I met with Tom on Sunday and he told me he has been trying to get Kohei to come to HK too, so he’s happy about the news and has offered to help me with the event. Check out his interview: http://www.thomascrampton.com/internet/kohei-nishiyama-co-creation-at-muji-and-lego/
