COLLECTIVE DESIGN: Conference Co-Chairs:

			Jaana Beidler Sr Color and Material Design Manager, Nokia Design is simply embedded in the every day life here in Finland. Something every Finn learns to appreciate since childhood and recognizes as a valuable tool to improve one’s life and the society with better systems and innovative products. Well-designed life is not a rare privilege but an every-man’s right and a collective mission.   This same attitude of multifaceted design has guided us in planning the DMI spring conference. I am excited and honored to invite you to Helsinki, a vibrant, small big city on top of the world. We have assembled a line-up of inspiring speakers: international design stars, local design professionals and exciting design surprises and newcomers.   Last year Monocle magazine selected Helsinki as the world’s most livable city in their quality of life survey. This year Helsinki is the Design Capital of the World! Helsinki and Collective Design is clearly on the roll! Come experience it with DMI!
			Marco Steinberg Strategic Design Director, Finnish Innovation Fund Our challenges today are increasingly large, shared, and bounded in ways that challenge today’s "geographies." Whether of nations, of specializations, or sectoral, our success will depend on our ability to transgress boundaries and build new communities of knowledge. The Arab spring demonstrated the transformative power of coming together and a successful resolution of the Euro-crisis hinges on collective action. More than ever our challenges today are about working together and across, to redesign. What topic could be more relevant than "Collective Design"?   Helsinki has been undergoing an exciting transformation the last ten plus years. When I was growing up people would talk about going to Europe, as if the city was somehow on the edge of the world far removed from the center of civilization. But more we are recognizing that Finland is not only Europe but also a new sort of center today. Successes in education and equal access to care; a deep Nordic tradition of bringing differences together; a city buzzing with a fantastic food revolution; pioneering design in the public sector; the birth of new arctic routes; and more make this simply the perfect place for DMI’s Europe conference.
			Karen Reuther President, Design Management Institute How does design deliver on the promise for a better life while meeting the rapidly evolving needs of today's business culture? Our globally diverse group of design and business leaders will come together in Helsinki, DMI's 16th European Conference, to share what happens behind the scenes and on the front lines in the public and private sectors, and what we can learn from each other. Surfacing, sharing and exposing what works and what doesn't in this exciting new world of Collective Design!

CO-CHAIR BIOGRAPHIES

Jaana Beidler
Sr Color and Material Design Manager, Nokia

Jaana Beidler recently returned back to her native Finland, after a twenty-year design career in the United States, leading the Color and Material Design initiatives for Nokia Mobile Phones and Accessories. Her global design experience includes industry-leading companies such as Nike, Patagonia, Esprit de Corp and Luhta.
 
Jaana is an inspiring design leader with strengths in translating consumer insights, material technologies and color innovations into successful creative vision, product strategies and integrated design process.

Marco Steinberg
Strategic Design Director, Finnish Innovation Fund

Marco Steinberg is Strategic Design Director at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) where he lead’s the Fund’s capability to apply design to help shape strategic improvements. Current initiatives include Helsinki Design Lab, a global initiative to help address today’s large scale strategic redesign & transformation needs; and overseeing the design of Low2No, a transitional strategy to create national carbon free urban development in Finland through the implementation of a large scale development project in downtown Helsinki.
 
Prior to Sitra, Steinberg served (1999-2009) as a Professor at the Harvard Design School where his work focused on developing strategic design processes, enabling more effective solutions to complex societal challenges. He was the Principal Investigator of the Stroke Pathways project: a strategic redesign of the stroke care delivery system, aimed at identifying strategic improvements in care through a systemic, inception to implementation, model. His work also included developing innovative organizational approaches to complex problem-solving and improved competitiveness through design. His research has extensively integrated with industry and government and he is the author and contributor to numerous books.

Karen Reuther
President, Design Management Institute

Karen Korellis Reuther is a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural design leader whose experience includes industry-leading corporations, twelve years at NIKE, design consultancies, owning a small design firm in Munich, Germany, and at Ziba, a worldclass design and innovation firm where she was Director of Consumer Insights and Trends. She is currently the President of the Design Management Institute, an international non-profit, connecting design leaders to the inspiration, knowledge, and community they need to succeed. Karen is a master connector, ensuring that insights translate to real and relevant solutions. As Global Creative Director at NIKE, she led the creative vision and implementation of design strategies from product creation to merchandising across footwear, apparel and equipment that leveraged the power and emotion of trend, color, and materials. Karen has a Bachelors in Industrial Design from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN and a Masters in Business from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.

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