Cabinet Secretary opens first V&A Dundee business innovation event
26 May 2016
The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work opened the first V&A Museum of Design Dundee business innovation event today (Wednesday 25 May).
Keith Brown MSP gave the keynote speech at Design Revolution, a special business event looking at how design can grow Scotland’s economy, held as part of the first Dundee Design Festival.
The Cabinet Secretary spoke to over 150 Scottish businesses and designers at the event, which looked at the value of design to the Scottish economy and how design thinking can transform businesses for the future.
Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, said: “I am delighted to be delivering the opening address today at this, the first V&A Museum of Design Dundee business innovation event. This has been an excellent platform on which we have heard how business can transform through the application of design thinking.
“This Government’s ambition for the creative sector matches your own, and we will take the same approach as with the economy as a whole. We recognise your success, entrepreneurship and competitiveness.
“We want to help you build on that, because wider policy goals in health, education and elsewhere will only succeed if we keep a laser-like focus on the economy and the need to help your businesses create jobs and generate revenue to invest in our future.”
Design Revolution featured speakers from the Design Council, the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, and the global UNESCO Cities of Design Graz in Austria, Helsinki in Finland, Shenzhen in China and Saint-Etienne in France.
The event was organised by V&A Museum of Design Dundee, Design in Action and UNESCO City of Design Dundee as part of the inaugural Dundee Design Festival which runs from Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 May.
Andrew Cameron, Design-led Business Innovation Programme Manager at V&A Dundee, said: “Supporting Scottish business growth and innovation is a key aim of V&A Dundee, as design and design thinking have incredible power to make companies more productive and profitable, and in turn to create many new jobs.
“Scotland’s history is full of design innovations that have changed the world, from the patenting of waterproof fabric by Charles Macintosh in the 1820s through to modern day drug discoveries and global hit video games like Grand Theft Auto.
“Through business innovation events V&A Dundee will be linking designers to companies right across Scotland, and looking at how design and innovation can be applied to any industry to sustainably grow our economy.”
Design Revolution is the first event in V&A Dundee’s design-led business innovation programme.
This programme of work will include business events and workshops, bringing designers together with small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as creating a range of design resources online for any business or aspiring entrepreneur to use.
Design-led business innovation is about applying design thinking to any area of business or organisational performance, focused on harnessing creativity to design new products and services, improve productivity and profitability, and sustainably grow businesses by connecting to new international markets.
When V&A Dundee opens in 2018 the new design museum will become the home of design-led business innovation in Scotland, including using its historical collections to inspire the next generation of Scottish entrepreneurs.
