We recently popped down to Melbourne for the day. We love Melbourne – it reminds Mel of Wellington, and Justin’s favourite AFL team, the Kangaroos is from there “Join in the chorus” and all that ; )

We caught up with Huddle’s Patti Hunt and Melis Senova. It’s great to connect with like-minded design types – in spirit, design philosophy and humour. We look forward to future like-minded pursuits in the upcoming future.

Some images from our recent trip

We also had the unexpected opportunity, thanks to Yoko Akama, to speak at the recent symposium hosted by Melbourne’s new Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) hub. This event involves such venerable institutions as Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and the University of NSW.

To quote the flyer “DESIS is an international network of designers, design educators and researchers with a commitment to design that creates positive change through partnerships with communities and organisations. The symposium will encourage interaction and enhance cross-institutional collaboration through sharing ideas, projects and knowledge.”

For us, social innovation is just as much about the small business owner coping with his/her BAS, as it is about providing urban renewal programs (as an example). Making a difference is about making a difference for and with people – at whatever scale.

Given our recent posts about ‘Businessifying Design’ and Six thoughts for the Centre for Public Sector Design’s future CEO we chose to tell the story of how we see service design acting as an agent of change; both for the broad range of citizens who interact with public services everyday, and for the large corporate entities that design and deliver these services.

What we took away from the trip was the synergy between academic focus on how design can make change happen, and the practical realities of making change happen in the complex organisations and entities that we deal with everyday.

We also took away the fact that you get a damn good breakfast at a damn good price! (shout out to The Green Refectory)

We’re looking forward to heading back there in a few weeks!