The Design Group

Past events

Pivoting for Success

Dr Jay Bal

Most new businesses take between 3-5 pivots before they succeed in actually creating a business.

This event will explore the fundamentals of Business Pivoting and Pivoting activity based on a business case, followed by a Panel discussion.

The Panelists will share their real-life experiences in helping companies pivot, achieve product-market fit, and find solutions to external challenges.

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NFTs, Blockchains and Cryptocurrency

Steve StreetMore details

Diversity, Equality & Inclusion: What do we mean and why does it matter?

Steph Cutler

In this session we will take a deep dive into these familiar terms and discuss latest thinking and meaningful approaches.

We will ask:

  • why does diversity, equality and inclusion matter?
  • What are we actually talking about anyway?
  • How can we make a difference?
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Designing service-driven workflows: Building trust internally & externally

Tomisin Olaofe

In a world where customers demand ease and have become a staple in delivering value propositions, the resulting complexity that builds within our companies is often unspoken of. This resulting complexity often left unchecked, scales as the business scales, eventually leading to inefficient and unsatisfactory workflows, poorly managed relationships with stakeholders (employees, suppliers etc), and eventually poor customer experiences.

This workshop will give an overview of using tools to understand your business processes and how it affects customer experience and stakeholder relationships as they interact with your company or service. By understanding the current state of your business, a desired future state can be designed.

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Using Mindfulness to boost your Creativity

Dr Jennifer Udeh Yesim Kunter

In this session we will consider the concepts of self-care, mindfulness, and creativity. We will discuss why these concepts are useful for your work (and life). We will share practices that you can explore to support wellbeing, to (re)connect yourself and others to their creative self and develop ideas.

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Empowering professionals to be leaders: education as a tool for change

Dr Amber MacintyreProfessor Mairi Macintyre

Education is a term often restricted to formal understandings - school, college or university. In this session, hear about how an expanded concept of education can show its benefits for business leaders and professionals in various circumstances including embracing change, empowering activism, and increasing capacity.

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Customer experience and turning plans into action

Steve McLauchlan

The talk will focus on the critical link between strategic planning and operational execution where, to quote Thomas Edison, the American inventor, “vision without execution is hallucination”. The audience will be introduced to simple tools that help to understand gaps and weaknesses in service delivery and then identify solutions to operational problems.

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The Theatre of Business

Yesim Kunter Mario Barba

Join us at this session and uncover how empathy, trust and creativity can improve group cohesion, communication, and productivity in your business.

The session will be highly interactive involving visual presentations, interactive games, storytelling exercises, reflection, and also some networking!

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'Is it AI or Alien Intelligence?'

Steve Street

This session will paint a high level picture of how AI works, some of its capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and issues arising, as a basis for helping you think about what it may mean for your future and business.

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Unlocking the power of social media for your customers’ journey

Professor Mairi Macintyre Marianne Taniver Angela Yang Yue

This lively workshop will show how you can create bespoke graphics and filters to engage your customers in a playful and fun way.

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The Reality of the Metaverse + Snow Crash & Bored Ape

Steve StreetDr Amber Macintyre

An ever so slightly Christmas Story themed in-depth discussion and workshop on the trends and limits of AI, augmented realities, NFTs.. and what the continuing story of Digitalisation may mean for the way you see the future, you and your business.

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Becoming a Creative Leader

Professor Mairi Macintyre Yesim Kunter

Level up your professional identity and become the creative leader your business needs!

Leadership is critical for sustained success. There are many styles and theories. We will playfully explore your own professional identity and find out how to lead creatively in various areas in your business.

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