mcbw design sum­mit 2025

On 12 May 2025 we invite you to our Design Sum­mit — mcb­w’s flag­ship event. In excit­ing pan­els, inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned speak­ers will each high­light one of our annu­al themes. Togeth­er they will explore the con­tri­bu­tion that design can make to a dynam­ic, vibrant and demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety. We look for­ward to this year’s Cre­ative Explor­ers: Ezio Manzi­ni, Carsten Waldeck, Kim Dabbs, Alona Kharchenko, Ana Relvão and Tim Brown!

Ezio Manzi­ni

As pres­i­dent of DESIS, an inter­na­tion­al net­work of design labs and experts, Ezio Manzi­ni is a lead­ing voice in the field of sus­tain­able design. DESIS is com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing social inno­va­tions and sus­tain­able solu­tions through col­lab­o­ra­tive design on a glob­al scale. Manzini’s work is exem­plary in using design as a tool for col­lab­o­ra­tive cre­ation and social innovation.

“In the trans­for­ma­tion towards an eco­log­i­cal and more just soci­ety, a vibrant com­mu­ni­ty is a group of peo­ple who work coop­er­a­tive­ly and con­nect the planet’s long-term per­spec­tives with the short-term per­spec­tives in the here and now.” – Ezio Manzini

Carsten Waldeck

Togeth­er with his com­pa­ny SHIFT, design­er, philoso­pher, and inven­tor Carsten Waldeck will col­lect the 2025 Ger­man Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Award in not one but two cat­e­gories: in the Com­pa­nies cat­e­go­ry for their devel­op­ments in con­sumer elec­tron­ics, and in the Prod­ucts cat­e­go­ry for their new SHIFTphone8. Also, Waldeck’s engage­ment in his home region in the state of Hesse is proof of how design­ers and entre­pre­neurs can strength­en communities.

Waldeck’s Mot­to: “Do as much good as pos­si­ble while caus­ing the least amount of dam­age possible.”

Kim Dabbs

Inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed speak­er and author of the book You Belong Here, Kim Dabbs, born in Korea and adopt­ed by par­ents from the Unit­ed States, shows how empa­thy and over­com­ing bar­ri­ers can help us find our place in soci­ety, where we feel secure and appre­ci­at­ed. Her unique biog­ra­phy has forged her pas­sion for advanc­ing inte­gra­tion and understanding.

Alona Kharchenko

Alona Kharchenko is a co-founder and CTO of Devan­thro, a Munich-based deep-tech start-up that uses humanoid robot­ics to devel­op inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the chal­lenges of an aging soci­ety. In 2024, Devan­thro was the first enter­prise world­wide to deploy humanoid robots in pri­vate homes. Results of pre­lim­i­nary tests showed that close ties devel­oped among the care­tak­ers work­ing remote­ly, their clients, and the robots – not least thanks to design.

“Empa­thy in design works on mul­ti­ple lev­els – cul­tur­al­ly, social­ly, and among peo­ple. Robot­ics mak­ing their way into our dai­ly lives has cre­at­ed new liaisons and trust through shared phys­i­cal encoun­ters. There­fore, it is imper­a­tive that we see empa­thy not only as a step in the design process but also as a rela­tion­ship prac­tice that devel­ops through inter­ac­tion.” – Alona Kharchenko

Ana Relvão

Ana Relvão focus­es her work on gear­ing design towards society’s require­ments. She demon­strates how design excites curios­i­ty and helps cre­ate vibrant com­mu­ni­ties that inno­vate. One exam­ple is the J*GAST kitchen show­room locat­ed at Munich’s Blu­men­straße: Rather than empha­siz­ing authored design, it was devel­oped col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly – a con­cept made pos­si­ble only through man­i­fold perspectives.

“By chal­leng­ing per­cep­tions and cham­pi­oning explo­rations, we can open our mind to new pos­si­bil­i­ties. In this, design­ers are unique­ly skilled to trans­form curios­i­ty and the habit­u­al into some­thing extra­or­di­nary. Empa­thet­ic curios­i­ty may turn out to be one of our strongest tal­ents to cre­ate vibrant com­mu­ni­ties.” – Ana Relvão

Tim Brown

Tim Brown, for­mer CEO of IDEO, spear­head­ed design think­ing and showed ways to apply it to over­come com­plex chal­lenges soci­ety is fac­ing and inspire change with a clear focus on peo­ple. His vision of col­lab­o­ra­tive, curios­i­ty-dri­ven design demon­strates how design can con­tribute to cre­at­ing vibrant com­mu­ni­ties and encour­ag­ing inno­va­tion at diverse levels.

“By nature, design is an activ­i­ty dri­ven by curios­i­ty. The first step in every cre­ative process is a ques­tion and with­out an inter­est­ing ques­tion there would not be an inter­est­ing design solu­tion.” – Tim Brown

In the morn­ing, mcbw design sum­mit will be opened con­tex­tu­al­ly by a pan­el mod­er­at­ed by Christi­na Melander, Direc­tor of the Dan­ish Design Cen­ter and Pres­i­dent of the BEDA. The ensu­ing part will con­sist of six brief pre­sen­ta­tions select­ed from the pub­lic call for papers. Of the approx­i­mate­ly 80 entries, 11% came from out­side of Ger­many; 40% were sub­mit­ted by indi­vid­u­als, 31% by design agen­cies, and 15% each by com­pa­nies, insti­tu­tions, design weeks, and universities.

09:30 Open­ing
10:00 Welcome

• Intro­duc­tion: How to design a vibrant community
• Euro­pean Per­spec­tives Pan­el: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Euro­pean Design Cen­ters (speak­ers tbc). Mod­er­a­tion: Christi­na Melander, Direc­tor Dan­ish Design Cen­ter, BEDA president
• Call for Paper Ses­sion (tbc)

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Dia­logue Sessions

• Shap­ing Togeth­er­ness: design makes peo­ple coop­er­ate. Keynotes and Dia­logue Ezio Manzi­ni, Samuel Waldeck
• Inspir­ing Empa­thy: design points out the human fac­tor. Keynotes and Dia­logue Kim Dabbs, Alona Kharchenko
• Open­ing Minds: design awak­ens curios­i­ty. Keynotes and Dia­logue Ana Relvão, Tim Brown

17:30 Sum­ma­ry
18:00 Get-Together

*The design sum­mit will be held in Eng­lish and Ger­man. Simul­ta­ne­ous trans­la­tion into Eng­lish will be pro­vid­ed for non-Ger­man speakers.