Good news: the programme of WDCD Live Amsterdam 2017 on Tuesday 23 & Wednesday 24 May is online and the ticket shop is open. Make sure to buy your tickets soon, because it’s going to be dynamic, informative and hilarious at the same time.

The game is on: we’re heading towards WDCD Live Amsterdam 2017 on 23 & 24 May in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ and we are thrilled to announce a completely new format. In comparison to previous years the conference will be even more dynamic, with more opportunities for the participants to interact and collaborate. In a festive and creative atmosphere, we will jointly attack the urgent issue of climate change. Together we will show What Design Can Do for Climate Action.

‘Designers are optimists, so we will approach the issue of climate change with lots of positivism.’

‘We’ll have Bruce Mau, and Donald Trump-lookalikes, a Climate Council, and Carnival,’ co-founder and creative director Richard van der Laken says about the upcoming event. ‘The central theme of climate change is a huge and highly important theme that needs the attention of the creative community. By choosing a theme like this, there is a danger that things will become very heavy and oppressing. But that is not the nature of the creative profession. Designers are optimists, so we will approach this issue with lots of positivism. Instead of worrying about the problem, we are going to attack this challenge with all the creative energy and inventiveness we can bring together at WDCD.’

Differentiated ticketing

With talks, plenary discussions, and two sessions of parallel interactive gatherings WDCD Live Amsterdam 2017 will be more dynamic and multifaceted than ever. The ticket differentiation goes along with this. You now have different options that vary from full passe partouts to a basic ticket for the plenary sessions only. While combining their personal ticket, participants can choose from a dozen workshop sessions every day at different prizes.

Van der Laken: ‘There will be many different sessions on different podia in the venue. We’ll have larger and smaller sessions in between the plenary gatherings. There too, you’ll see more dynamics. We will challenge our speakers to look at the climate change issue in new and different ways.’

Manifesto

‘During the conference we will work all together towards a Manifesto on the importance of creativity for finding solutions to climate change, that will be presented to politicians in the Netherlands and Europe. In our country we just had an elections campaign, during which climate change remained almost undiscussed. So a manifesto is more than needed here and we are extremely happy to get help in this from designer, innovator and author Bruce Mau, founder of the Massive Change Network, who will lead a workshop on manifesto writing that is not to be missed.’

Surprising line-up

The line-up of speakers and workshop leaders is, as ever, surprising and promising. The programme includes former mayor of Mexico City Marcelo Ebrard, recipient of the World Mayor Prize for his success with greening the city, IKEA’s head of design Marcus Engman, Harry Pearce and Naresh Ramchandani of Pentagram, amazing Brazilian top-chef Rodrigo Oliveira, the reputed design critic Alice Rawsthorn, author of Hello World, and 350org-founder Bill McKibben.

Join the creative carnival

Do we need to say more? Yes, of course, and we will in the coming days and weeks. But you might want to go to our ticket shop already, because there are limited places for the different workshops and master classes. Make sure you won’t miss your favourite one because it is sold out.

As Richard van der Laken puts it: ‘Let’s join forces at WDCD and in the distinctive way of our profession address the most challenging issue of our time. Join the creative carnival of What Design Can Do and make a difference.’

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