MCBW 2016 Reception

Munich lit­er­al­ly gave a warm wel­come to the guests at the MCBW 2016 Recep­tion on Feb­ru­ary 22; the spring-like tem­per­a­tures were a real treat for the more than 400 fans of design who gath­ered at BMW Welt. Dr. Silke Claus, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of bay­ern design, and Ralph Wieg­mann, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of iF, were among the speakers.

In his pre­sen­ta­tion, keynote speak­er Guil­laume Alvarez, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Steel­case, shared spe­cial insight into his indus­try, empha­siz­ing that design does more than rep­re­sent cre­ativ­i­ty, it cre­ates emotions.

David Pap­pie, Direc­tor of the Top Sec­tors at the Dutch Min­istry of the Econ­o­my, was invit­ed as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Nether­lands, this year’s MCBW part­ner coun­try. The cre­ative sec­tor in the Nether­lands will intro­duce itself at MCBW 2016 as a dri­ver of inno­va­tion for a bet­ter future. Cross-dis­ci­pline design that address­es social and eco­nom­ic issues will be in the limelight.

One of the guests of hon­or at the recep­tion was Ilse Aign­er, Bavar­i­an State Min­is­ter for Eco­nom­ic Affairs, Media, Ener­gy and Tech­nol­o­gy. She drew atten­tion to the excep­tion­al role of good design and stat­ed that the links between design and the econ­o­my are the key to self-con­fi­dent, dar­ing innovations.

Munich is the ide­al site for the country’s largest design-ori­ent­ed event of inter­na­tion­al renown.

Josef Schmid, Deputy May­or of the City of Munich, empha­sized the impact of MCBW on the region. He declared the event a show­case for cre­ativ­i­ty in the indus­try. Design Con­nects Visions for Econ­o­my, he added, is the ide­al mot­to for a show that fos­ters dia­log among cre­ative people.

The recep­tion was an excel­lent start­ing point for many pro­duc­tive dis­cus­sions. In a con­vivial atmos­phere, ideas were shared and momen­tum was kick-started.

One of the high­lights of the gath­er­ing was a unique fash­ion show titled twi­light Eden. Stu­dents of Deutsche Meis­ter­schule für Mode and of Design­schule München dis­played 39 gar­ments cre­at­ed from select FEDRIGO­NI fine papers.