One of the coolest things at last spring’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) was a section of the hall devoted to ten young designers, who were displaying their prototypes in hopes of attracting a manufacturer or distributor. They were there under the auspices of the tony North Carolina furniture manufacturer, Bernhardt Design.
If you're in the New York area on November 16, you have an opportunity to hear Roger Martin speak about why businesspeople need to think like designers. The Rotman School of Management is hosting a conference about innovation, where Dean Martin will give an extended version of his talk at our Masters of Design event last week.
Fast Company celebrated our Masters of Design at a great event here in Manhattan last night. Many of this year’s winners showed up -- including Steve McCallion, the creative director of Ziba Design in Portland; Scott Wilson of Motorola; and Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger of Antenna Design. We saw lots of cool samples of the Masters' work, and there was lots of fascinating talk about the essential role of design in business. The high point of the evening, though, was a keynote address from Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Business in Toronto.
Here at Fast Company World Headquarters, we're looking ahead to . . . our brand new world headquarters. In March, we'll be moving downtown to 7 World Trade Center, the rebuilt version of a tower destroyed in the 9/11 attacks five years ago.
