
Dear DESIS Network members
As you will know, we have always adopted the practice of organizing DESIS Assemblies side-by-side with conferences and, since the very start of our network, this has been done exclusively with Cumulus conferences.
Next year however, the DESIS Assembly will take place side-by-side with ServDES (Service Design and Social Innovation Conference), hosted by Politecnico di Milano from 18th to 20th June 2018: http://www.servdes.org/conference-2018-milano/
The deadline for contributions is 6th November 2017.
There are two main reasons for this decision, which has support from the ICC and Ezio:
-considering the high cost of flights, it provides a double motivation for DESIS members (outside Europe) to come to Europe because ServDes and DRS 2018 Limerick will take place within a week of each other (DRS on 25th–28th June 2018).
-there is a close link between service design and design for social innovation (I met several DESIS members at the last ServDES 2016 in Copenhagen).
I have discussed this with Anna Meroni (Polimi DESIS Lab) who is in charge of ServDES 2018, and she proposed the following:
-the DESIS assembly will take place on the afternoon of 18th June (before the ServDES official opening in the late afternoon).
-the main objective of ServDes is about service design, and this includes intrinsically social innovation. There won’t be a specific track about social innovation, but it will provide an opportunity for all DESIS members to discover different relations between their own personal work and the existing tracks.
Anna has also clarified that ServDes 2018 will place its focus on the dialogue between the academy’s research of service design with private and public actors: “Obviously there will also be the ‘classical’ academic conference, but it will be flanked and enhanced by a closer dialogue with the professional world”.
I will, of course, be working to develop DESIS activities for the next Cumulus Conference in Paris (April 11 – 14, 2018). We are very pleased to be continuing our longstanding relationship with Cumulus.
Looking forward to seeing you in Milan!
Carla Cipolla
DESIS Network coordinator