What will it mean to thrive in the 22nd century and how will we get there?

This is what Professor Andrea Siodmok posed at our Melbourne studio’s recent Breakfast Talk, ‘Design as an agent for change’.

As a designer and social innovator, Andrea has been exploring potential answers to these questions and implementing innovative evident-based approaches to prompt people to think about how they may engage with the world and shape our future.

Andrea’s talk centered around the word ‘emergency’ and how - with changing just one letter - the word can become ‘emergence’. In facing the emergencies of today, Andrea looks at how we’re able to adjust to enable the emergence of new ideas of new business models of new possibilities, of new solutions.

Andrea spoke about the important role designers can play in shaping this transition to a new economy and bringing to life new ideas through collective practice.

Andrea is Dean at RMIT University's School of Design, and in 2021, received an OBE for public service in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

As an international design and policy expert Andrea is regularly invited to speak and write about innovation, advising governments, the European Commission, OECD - OCDE and the United Nations. A TEDx speaker, she has given over 100 keynotes across five continents including talks at Google and Stanford University’s d.school.