Not your regular kind of camp
What a special moment these 48 hours have been. I just returned back to Milan after a great weekend in Berlin at the Service Experience Camp.
I attend many events related to design and entrepreneurship and I am always impressed with what they have on their agenda, but this time it was different, it caught my attention. Possibly because the theme had a personal meaning, maybe because the attendees were giving all they had or maybe because it was diversified. It was not a typical conference layout, with lots of space for new encounters where everyone was here to give and take something, share knowledge, co-create and learn, from all over the world.
I made new friendships, new contacts, and got exposed to reality as it is happening in different continents, being in the way research is done, processes led or deliverables disclosed.
Service design is the kind of emerging attitude that is slowly gaining interest among not only designers, but also bankers, strategists, consultants, psychologists and even governments. It is undeniably making its way into healthcare, city planning, education, hospitality and many others.
Throughout my stay, which was fully focused on ‘struggling for change’, I became convinced that design is really impacting our society, and hopefully make our world a better place to live in.
I had the chance to meet and listen to professionals, guests and attendees sharing their experiences, giving tips and co-creating tools and learning from one another by engaging everyone in the conversation. Thanks to the bar camps, which gave the opportunity for everybody to give a session: from ethnography to the refugee crisis, storytelling, to designing relationships, group therapy, public services, to mind games and design tools. Even a stage fight session was part of the program!
Bar campers were from different backgrounds, working in diverse companies such as Sennheiser, Future Gov, Fluxblau, SAP design, Fjord, BCG Digital Ventures, Futurice, Relevance Consulting and freelancers.
Key speakers were of course part of the event, such as Luis Arnal, founder of Insitum, discussing Mature v/s Emerging Markets, Louise Down from Government Digital Service on a different approach for designing public services, Klara Linder on energy services in Tanzania from Mobisol, Melanie Wendland from M4ID and Arne van Oosterom, founder of Design Thinkers Group with whom we created a movement for positivity, the Sparks movement. According to Arne, a movement grows when people believe in something that matters to them. (The full list is on the SCX website)
As I mentioned previously, I was happy to make new friendships, envision future horizons and have a great memory in a beautiful location with a nice mood. I am looking forward to the next editions to see the same faces and new ones. Thumbs up to the organizers Martin, Olga, Kristin, Mauro and Manuel who thought of everything to make the attendees feel at ease: Even phone chargers were on the menu!
