Design Leads, We Follow – Relentlessly

About the Ahmedabad Design Week

Design needs to be celebrated, for it is a gleaming testimony of the ability of human beings to translate thoughts into patterns which can be understood and forged into applications to further enhance lives of all species. Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) is a global confluence of designers, thinkers, academicians, researchers, industry captains, and entrepreneurs who discuss, deliberate, and dissect the ‘application of design’ in various industries.

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Started as India Design Confluence and later rebranded to Ahmedabad Design Week, this annual confluence in it glorious journey of five years has impacted the landscape of design and art.
In the ever-evolving world of design, where the mind constantly explores uncharted territories, seeking fresh perspectives and innovative patterns that shape our reality, Ahmedabad Design Week shines as a distinguished & inspiring landmark.

Vision

To be a global beacon for design innovation, fostering a community where creative minds converge to shape the future by pushing the boundaries of thought, perspective, and application.

Mission

To celebrate and elevate the transformative power of design by bringing together designers, thinkers, researchers, and industry leaders to collaborate, inspire, and drive impactful dialogue that enhances lives and redefines industries worldwide.

Our
Workshops

Registration Closed

Collaborative Workshop

Exploring
Pedagogy | Sustainablity | Interaction Design

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Registration Closed

Art Installations

ADW
Installations

Wood Installation

Created by Bram Rouws and Vincent Roy

Wood Installation

Created by Bram Rouws and Vincent Roy

#ADW2020

Other
Attractions

Food Fiesta

Curated by Foodaholics in Ahmedabad

Vintage Car Exhibition

By Gujarat Vintage & Classic Car Club (GVCCC)

Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) is honoured to collaborate with World Design Organisation (WDO) and Association of Designers of India (ADI) this edition.

The theme of Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0 :- SHARED SIGNATURES

Design has always been a reflection of shared human experiences, where individual creativity converges with a collective purpose to leave an indelible mark on the world.
Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0, themed “Shared Signatures,” celebrates this spirit of collaboration and integration, emphasizing the transformative power of coming together to create designs that transcend boundaries. In an era where interdisciplinary collaboration is redefining the future, “Shared Signatures” highlights how designers, innovators, and thinkers from diverse backgrounds can unite to create lasting imprints—an ethos of co-creation through merging cultures, technologies, ideas and beyond. It will serve as a platform where minds converge, sharing their unique “signatures” to collectively design solutions that are not just innovative but sustainable, inclusive, and timeless.
Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0 invites participants to engage, inspire, and collaborate, leaving behind a shared legacy in the ever-evolving world of design—a testament to what we can achieve when we come together with purpose and passion.
Let’s craft a future where every signature is shared, and every creation tells a story of unity in diversity.

Guests of Honour

Dr. Thomas Garvey

President, World Design Organization

Pradyumna Vyas

President-Elect, World Design Organisation

Resul Pookutty

Indian sound designer

Pradyumna Vyas

Pradyumna Vyas is the current President-Elect for the World Design Organisation, after having served as a Board Member for the last two terms. He is the Senior Advisor of Design Promotion and Innovation at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He was the former Director of National Institute of Design (NID), India’s premier design institute. Prof Vyas acquired a Masters in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and was awarded an 'Honorary Master of Arts' degree in 2010 from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, United Kingdom. With more than 36 years of professional and teaching experience in different spheres of design, Prof Vyas had been associated with NID for 30 years, first as a faculty member and later on as the Director of the institute (2009 - 2019). Prof Vyas has been at the helm of design affairs and his illustrious career has been marked with several national and international milestones and accolades. His contribution in the formation India Design Council, 2009, was marked by Prof Vyas being nominated as its first Member Secretary by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, a post he had retained until his retirement from NID in 2019. During his tenure as Director, NID received the status of Institute of National Importance by the Act of Parliament. He assisted the Government of India during the setting up four new NIDs across the length and breadth of the country. Through India Design Council, he launched India Design Mark in association with Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) on the line of G-Mark. He has been conferred with multiple awards in recognition for his contributions to design education and promotion, to name a few, World Education Congress, 2015, awarded him for his 'Outstanding Contribution to Education'; he was awarded a 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by Times Education Icons 2017 along with being a jury member for the special awards screening panel at Good Design Award (G- Mark) by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan consequently in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. In 2019, he has been awarded the honor of 'Good Design Fellow', by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP), Tokyo. Prof Vyas was appointed as a ‘Distinguished Professor’ of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, China, at the Shanghai Global design Summit, 2019.

Why should ADW be on your “must-attend” list?

🞉 Network and learn from design visionaries, industry leaders and mentors from 21 + countries and more.
🞉 Tailored sessions, workshops, panel discussions and experiences to sharpen your design skills.
🞉 Discover fresh grounds of inspiration, creativity & innovation.
🞉 Dive into emerging trends and real-world applications forging a path toward futuristic learning.
🞉 Be part of a movement that nurtures creativity, amplifies potential and charts the future of design.It is about harnessing Collective Wisdom.

What is in store for you?

Inspiring Speaker Sessions
Hands-on Workshops
Insightful Panel Discussions
Captivating Studio Exhibitions

Immersive Art Installations
Thrilling Design Competitions
Engaging Design Tours

Mentors

Shri Pradyumna Vyas

President-Elect, World Design Organisation

Dr. Sunil R Parekh

SPoC Sustainability @ Zydus Group and Strategic Advisor @ Jubilant Bhartia Group

Shri Ritesh Hada

President - Karnavati University

Shri Pradyumna Vyas

Dr. Sunil R Parekh

Dr. Sunil R Parekh - Industry Experience: Senior Strategy Advisor with Zydus Life Sciences Group & Jubilant Bhartia Group, and Director in India’s oldest VC Firm-GVFL Ltd, iCreate and several Start-Up Incubators and Angel Funds. Co-founder: TechXchange (India-UK Partnership for Start-Ups), 2016.
48 years of work experience with corporates in India, Africa and the USA.
Delegate & speaker: UNFCCC Conference CoP-27, Egypt, 2022 | TedX | B20; S20 under G20 seminars. Also an empaneled Arbitrator and a fellow of the Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA).
Public Policy Work: Previously consultant at ADB. Current member of several national Industry Associations (CII, FICCI, GCCI, AMA, IDMA, IAN etc)
Awarded in Gujarat & Nationally:
- Outstanding Contribution to National Development OCND Award, 2014
- ‘ET ICON’ - Economic Times Award, 2018
- Power 100 Eminent Personality of Gujarat in 2011 & again in 2014
- Special Invited Member of OAU, Abidjan Meet (Organisation for African Unity, 1993)
- Founding member of Vibrant Gujarat team with then CM Modi, 2002
- D. Litt. Award 2023 by Karnavati University for Global Impact, Innovation and Leadership.
On the boards of several leading NGOs, academic institutions, Think Tanks & educational institutions.
Associated with the World Economic Forum WEF Geneva as a Founding Curator AGS.
Research & Publications: Contributed to the literature on Gujarat’s Industrial Development for Oxford Univ Press Publication OUP and ORF Foundation (a Brookings Affiliate).

Shri Umang Hutheesing

President, Hutheesing Design Company est 1881

Mr. Niraj Shah

Design Director and Co-Founding Partner, IDO Design Solutions

Venus Design Excellence Awards - 2025

The Venus Design Excellence Awards aim to honour eminent individuals who have made significant and transformative contributions to the fields of design, art, architecture, fashion, craft, and allied creative disciplines. These awards celebrate the achievements of living legends whose work has impacted society, inspired generations, and advanced their respective fields. The awards will be conferred during the Ahmedabad Design Week 2025.

Vision
To recognize and celebrate excellence in design and related disciplines, fostering a culture of innovation, sustainability, and heritage preservation in India.

Mission
• To honour exemplary contributions across diverse design and creative fields.
• To promote interdisciplinary dialogue and collaborations within the creative community.
• To inspire the next generation of designers and creative professionals.

Awardees

Pramod Agrawal

Chairman, Derewala Industries Limited

Prof. Lalit Das

Pioneer in Industrial Design Education

Rahul Mishra

Fashion Designer

Prof. Lalit Das

Pioneer in Industrial Design Education
Award Category - Design Education
Lalit Kumar Das, starting his academic career in design in 1972. He is among the first generation design educators who shaped the modern day design design scene in India. He pioneered Industrial Design education at IIT Delhi. He developed a programme that is an excellent blend of design sensitivities and industrial propensities. Very many of his students have distinguished themselves at National & International Design competitions and head design studios and educational programs in India.
Lalit Das did his B. Tech from IIT Kanpur. Thereafter he did his Masters of Technology in Design Engineering from IIT Delhi and then Master of Art in Industrial Design from the Royal College of Art, London.
Lalit has wide-ranging deep probing interests in design and man’s innate potential to design. He has worked and designed products for the office, home, industry. He has designed for the differently enabled like children with cerebral palsy and others who are orthopedically handicapped. He is the founding editor of Design for All India newsletter. He has also designed educational and research equipment. He has worked with artisans and has conceptualized distant education for artisans under the banner of IGNOU. He is deeply interested in sustainable approach to design and a non parochial non partisan framework for study of design. He has conducted the ergonomic studies for the Design of the Operational Control Centre for Delhi Metro, Bangalore Metro and Hyderabad Metro.
He has many publications to his credit. His doctoral students are in a variety of areas from emotion, sustainability, e-governance, image processing, Frugal Design, etc. He continues to supervise doctoral students at IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, DTU & NID. He has been engaging in the development of the National Design Policy and a member of the National Committee on Design and artisan development. He has widely travelled and has worked at the Industrial Design Centre, I.I.T. Bombay and at the Department of Fine Art, University of Manitoba, Canada.
He has served as a jury for many national level design awards. He has been an Expert Member in the ‘Science & Society’ Programme and Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) of Department of Science & Technology. He has in the past also served local commissioner in two IPR related cases by the Delhi High Court, He was also a member of Program Advisory & Monitoring Committee member of the Government of India’s Design Clinic Scheme for MSME that provides financial & design support to MSME for development of new product design.
He has delivered TEDX talks on enabling innovation, values that shape complex systems, He is deeply interested in Sustainable Design, Circular Economy, and Emergent Systems.
Post retirement, he was teaching at IIIT Jabalpur, School of Planning & Architecture, Lady Irwin College and IIT Delhi as a guest faculty. He was the guiding light in the setting of the Department of Design at Delhi Technological University as an Distinguished Honorary Faculty from 2018-2029. Currently he is the Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIT Bombay; Advisor & Visiting Professor for School of Design Mahindra University and Department of Design and Innovation at Jamia Millia Islamia University.
Ceramics is his hobby.

Dadi Pudumjee

Padma Shri Awardee | Puppeteer & Founder, Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust

Prof. Biman Das

Padma Shri Awardee | Eminent Sculptor & Visual Artist

Bose Krishnamachari

President, Kochi-Muziris Biennale | Artist, Curator and Scenographer

Ashoke Chatterjee

Former Director, NID

Vibhor Sogani

Product Designer

Ar. N. Mahesh

Founder, Iyer & Mahesh Architects

Ashoke Chatterjee

Ashoke Chatterjee
Former Director, NID
Award Category - Design Education
Ashoke Chatterjee is a renowned Indian designer, educator, and thought leader who has significantly influenced design education and practice in India. With over 25 years of experience, he served in various leadership roles at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, where he contributed as Executive Director and senior faculty. Chatterjee’s work has shaped India’s design landscape and continues to impact future generations of designers.
Beyond NID, Chatterjee has been involved with prestigious organisations like the Crafts Council of India (CCI), where he served as Honorary President for over 20 years, and continues as an Honorary Advisor. His association with institutions like the Centre for Heritage Management at Ahmedabad University, Gandhi Ashram, and the Indian Foundation for the Arts further highlights his commitment to education and social causes.
Chatterjee has been recognised with numerous awards, including the Sir Misha Black Medal in 1985 for distinguished Services to Design Education. In 2022, he received the Design Guru Award from JK Lakshmipat University, cementing his legacy in design education.
Chatterjee is also an accomplished author, with works like “Who Is This Shama Churn” and “Purana Purusha: Yogiraj Sri Shama Churn Lahiree: A Complete Biography” adding to his diverse body of work. His influence continues to resonate in the design field, where his insights and leadership inspire many.

Ar. N. Mahesh

Founder, Iyer & Mahesh Architects
Award Category - Architecture
Mahesh, a renowned architect based in Trivandrum, Kerala, is celebrated for his innovative approach to sustainable architecture. As the principal architect at Iyer & Mahesh Architects, he has overseen the completion of over 1,000 projects, totalling more than 10 million square of built space. His work is deeply rooted in the philosophy of integrating traditional materials, like timber with modern architectural techniques, emphasising sustainability and environmental harmony.
Mahesh graduated with top honours from the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) in 1972 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. With over five decades of experience, he has been a pioneer in bringing eco-friendly designs into the mainstream architectural landscape. One of his key contributions is the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Trivandrum, a project that earned recognition from former President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam for its design excellence.
In addition to his architectural practice, Mahesh authored Amazing Timber Resorts, a 300-page book documenting his innovative use of timber in resort architecture. He also founded the College of Architecture Trivandrum (CAT), which has become one of the most respected architecture schools in India, shaping the future of many architects.
Throughout his career, Mahesh has received numerous awards and honors, cementing his place as one of India’s leading architects committed to sustainable design and innovation.

Urmila Kanoria

Chairperson, Kanoria Centre for Arts

Ar. N. Mahesh

Urmila Kanoria

Chairperson, Kanoria Centre for Arts Ahmedabad
Born in 1942 and belonging to the Modi family, Urmila Kanoria grew up in Modinagar. From an early age, she inherited her love for welfare work from her mother, Dayavati Modi and was inspired by her father, a renowned industrialist and philanthropist, Gujjarmal Modi.
Married to the well known Kanoria family, Urmila Kanoria then started her life in Kolkata. She worked with various charitable organisations including Women's Interlink, Child Welfare and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. She was also exposed to art and culture and thus began her love story with Indian Art. Inspired by Santiniketan, it was Urmila Kanoria's dream to build a world renowned centre for creativity.
On moving to Ahmedabad in the early 80's, Urmila Kanoria undertook the herculean task of acquiring land and then building and starting the Kanoria Centre for Arts (KCA) in 1984. She was supported by the Late world renowned architect Balkrishna Doshi and Priyakantbhai Munshaw, Honorary Secretary of the Ahmedabad Education Society (AES).
In all of Urmila Kanoria's efforts she has had the unstinting support of her husband Kailash Kanoria, her son Saket Kanoria and her daughter Sangita Jindal, Chairperson of the JSW Foundation. Suggestions and ideas of the many individuals Urmila has come across in her travels within India and abroad have been implemented at the Centre with great success.
Urmila believes that "without art there is no life", and this motto so heavily embedded in the Centre has made a vast difference to the Ahmedabad art scene.

Guest Speakers at ADW 6.0

Manish Bhatt

Founder Director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi

Ajay Saran Sharma

Senior Vice President of Design Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Uday Dandavate

Co-Founder, SonicRim Ltd

Manish Bhatt

Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications Ltd. - the only Indian agency featured AMONGST TOP 16 - The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2015. Scarecrow is one of India's Largest Independent Agencies & one of India's fastest-growing ad agencies which has offices in Mumbai and Delhi and has handled communications of the brands like corporates like ITC, RELIANCE ADAG, RELIANCE INDUSTRIES, EMAMI, ZEE, DANONE, NESTLE, HENKEL, FUTURE GROUP, GENERALI, BARCLAYS, DBS, HOUSING.COM, PANASONIC, VIACOM, ZEE, DHARAMPAL SATYAPAL, BACARDI, RUPA, WAGH BAKRI, RELIGARE, CAPITAL FIRST, SHRIRAM, SBI, BHARAT PETROLEUM etc. Scarecrow had been crowned Agency of the Year at Radio Mirchi Kaan Awards 2014. Scarecrow was voted India's 2nd Happiest Agency Workplace, through a nationwide survey conducted by MONSTER.COM & AFAQS! Manish started his career as a Civil Engineer and has 20 years of experience in advertising. He has had a Creative Partnership with Raghu Bhat for 19 years. He worked at Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Contract, Ambience Publicis & Bates. He has won over 150 National & 50 International Awards / Finalists. He was ranked No. 2 (in 2006) & No.3 (in 2005) in the “Hottest Creative People from India” list compiled by Campaign Brief Asia Magazine, Australia. He is often invited to be part of the jury team at prestigious award shows like Cannes Lions, Adfest (Pattaya), Goafest (Abby) etc. He was featured amongst 63 prominent Gujaratis in a special list complied by Chitralekha Magazine, along with significant names like Narendra Modi, Ahmed Patel, Ashit Desai, Sanjay Lalbhai, Amit Trivedi etc.

Gaurav Joshi

Head of Design & Research, Disney+ Hotstar (India) & Disney+ (MEA,SEA)

Ankur Grover

Founder & CEO, TinkerLabs

Kadambari Misra

Co-Founder - Adira Thoughtful Gifting

Atul Khola

Lead Product Designer - CRED

Rohini Dandavate

Odissi Dance instructor & Facilitator of Intercultural Community Arts Workshops

Subrata Chakraborty

Art Director (For movies such as Padmaavat, Raazi, Haider, Gangubai Kathiawadi and many more)

Kriti Tula

Creative Director and Founder - DOODLAGE

Devina Kothari

Director, Zuan Labs LLP

Bose Krisnamachari

Artist, Curator and Scenographer

Kruti Shah

Co-founder, Chaal Chaal Agency

Savio Mascarehnhas

Group Art Director, Amar Chitra Katha

Gajesh Mitkari

Founder at Modak

Savio Mascarehnhas

Growing up with a galaxy of characters from Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha, Savio Mascarenhas subconsciously chose to belong and live in this Neverland. Thus for the past 28 years, he has spent most of his time with the comically indomitable and unarguably hilarious characters from Tinkle and the heroes and legends of Amar Chitra Katha. With a flair for drawing since childhood, doodling and sketching on the back pages of his and his friend’s notebooks Savio breezed through his educational journey. He is a commerce graduate with a post-graduation in advertising and public relations from Mumbai University. This led him into the world of advertising where he started his career as a copywriter. And as luck would have it, he got an opportunity to freelance for Tinkle, drawing comic gags called See’n’smile. That was the beginning of his life as a comic book artist, freelancing with Tinkle and eventually joining as a staff artist in 1994. While at Tinkle, Savio co-created some amazing characters like Mopes and Purr and Little Shambu with writer Reena Puri, Janoo and Wooly Woo with writer Vineeta Vaid, Super Suppandi and finally Shikari Shambu that he continued illustrating after the legendary creator of the legendary hunter, Vasant Halbe. the legendary Mr Vasant Halbe. Savio Mascarenhas is the Group Art Director at Amar Chitra Katha Pvt Ltd. He is also a TEDx Speaker on the use of visuals in learning. He has been sharing the idea of VAL (Visual Art Learning) with schools. He visits schools regularly conducting comic-making workshops for children.

Munwar Khan

Former Head of Design & DGM, OPPO Mobiles India | Current - Director, David Dunne Design Thinking Lab | Adjunct Professor, Woxsen University.

Juhi Santani

Principal Designer & Founding Partner Retale Design Solutions

Dhisti Desai

Co-founder and Design Director of Pineapple Design

Tribhuvan Babu Sadineni

Cinematographer

Nikunj Goyal

Design Lead: Gaming & Interactive Experiences - boAt Lifestyle

Painting Exhibition

Jhankhi – Holy Glimpses, Stories of Rajadhiraj

Tracing roots and reforms of Nathdwara Pichwai style

Date: 14th-15th-16th February 2025

Venue: Hutheesing Visual Art Centre

Featuring:

Vaidehi Shah • Koshali Sanghani • Zankhana Desai • Nirali Patel • Amit Shah • Monal Shah • Gaurang Shah

Curated by:

Priya Adhyaru Mehta

Craft Mela

Step into a world of tradition, artistry, and heartfelt craftsmanship at our Craft Mela. With 22-25 gifted artisans coming together, this special segment celebrates the timeless beauty of India’s iconic crafts. From the delicate hues of Blue Pottery to the enchanting world of Leather Puppetry and the playful charm of hand-made toys, each piece tells a story of skill, passion, and heritage passed down through generations. Come, meet the artisans, hear their stories, and bring home a piece of India’s soul, crafted with love and care. Let’s celebrate the hands that make these treasures come to life.

Dome-ain of Dreams An Immersive Exhibit

Experience the Future of Immersive Storytelling at Ahmedabad Design Week!

The Knownsense team is briging a state-of-the-art projection dome to life—an immersive visual spectacle featuring
– High-definition projections
– Multichannel sound

From enchanted forests to futuristic cities, from ancient temples to mind-bending geometric designs, the dome will transport you into mesmerizing worlds.

At the heart of this experience is Ahmedabad in Design—a tribute to the city’s rich design heritage.

A breath-taking fusion of art, technology, and imagination!

Curated by The Knownsense Studio

Himanshu Ghosh -Founder, Knownsense Studio

Knownsense Studios is a young multidisciplinary design company exploring and exploiting expertise of it’s heterogeneous set spanning across the vocations of animation, graphics, software and the unlikes.

It is on-the-go all the time with varied projects traversing from print to digital, branding, graphics, animation (2D, 3D), architectural walkthroughs, projection mappings, short films and much more. Creating dreams to reality and getting excited in doing things that they do best, is what makes the team at Knownsense so passionate about their work. Simultaneously with the verve to create something new, it is constantly trying to breathe-in exactly what the name suggests – Known Sense – in all its products and projects.

Domen

Panelists and Moderator

Niraj Shah

Co- Founding Partner & Design Director, IDO Design Solutions and Curator & Mentor, Ahmedabad Design Week

Rishav Jain

Associate Professor- Program Chair- B.Des, CEPT University

Hardik Gandhi

Architect, Men’s Sartorialist, Owner & Curator, I am Mr. – The Store

Niraj Shah

Niraj Shah is a multidisciplinary designer and strategist, co-founder of ido design and ido graph, with a legacy of over 22 years in interior and graphic design. An alumnus of CEPT Ahmedabad, he leads brand identity, strategy, and advertising at idograph.
A TEDx speaker, Niraj was on the Oscars Panel (2020) for Art Direction in India’s Academy Award selection. He has served as National Executive Committee Member (IIID) and Chairperson of IIID Ahmedabad (2017-2019). His work in cinema earned him the State Award for Art Direction (Gujarati film 'Bey Yaar', 2015-16), and he is on the Gujarat Government's Film Screening Panel for Subsidies.
With a Strategy Management degree from IIM Kolkata and Design Thinking & Innovation certification from MIT Sloan, Niraj is a regular speaker, moderator, and jury member at platforms like FOAID, Kohler Pecha Kucha, IDAC, and MIT Pune. He has mentored over 25 undergraduate theses as a visiting faculty at CEPT, UID, GLSID, NIFT, and others.
Expanding his creative pursuits, Niraj has ventured into fashion design (n.ido) and bespoke furniture (Fine Mettle). His firm, ido design, is a partner at FRDC Bangalore, recognized among the top 50 retail design firms globally.
Beyond design, he serves on the advisory board of BEQ & BN, is Director of Communications at Corporate Connections India, and actively mentors tech startups. He is also the CDO at We Hear Technologies and Co-founder at Uniconn. Currently, he is focused on Creativity Workshops as a coach and is soon pursuing a PhD in Creativity Research.

Priyanka Thaker

Architect, Artist & Founder, House Of Berserk

Vaibhavi Thakkar Desai

Proprietor & Principal Designer, TV Studio Designs & Consultants LLP

Ira Gosalia

Interior Architecture Photographer, PHXINDIA

Vyom

Sculptor & Artist

Ishita Sitwala

Architecture Photographer, The Fishy Project

Jwalant Mahadevwala

Founding Partner & Principal Designer, and Black Design Studio

Jwalant Mahadevwala

Jwalant Mahadevwala is the founding partner and principal architect/designer at andblack design studio. Jwalant along with his partner Kanika Agarwal started andblack in 2012 in their chosen city of Ahmedabad. The journey of last 12 years of andblack has been nothing less than a story of growth, strive and experimentation. Jwalant has pursued masters in Architecture and Urbanism at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London in the Design Research Laboratory. He furthered his professional experience at Zaha Hadid Architects in London for the next 4 years.
andblack design studio is an interdisciplinary design studio which works in the field of architecture, interiors, furniture design and art installation. In this journey of unapologetic attention to the design process, Jwalant has managed to complete about 70 odd projects ranging from architecture design of schools, farmhouses; interior design of homes and offices; along with unique furniture and art pieces. The studio focuses on use of parametric tools and physical modeling as the primary ways to evolve design. andblack tends to use materials like metal, wood, bamboo, paper, etc. in ways that haven’t been explored generally in the larger context of design in India. Jwalant’s research at the AA and his work at andblack has been widely published in National and International magazines and books.
“Everything that moves us, emotionally inspires us. We draw our inspiration from complex interactions present in nature. We strongly believe in collaborative work and for every project and try to bring in individuals with relevant expertise in specific aspects of design and construction. We pride ourselves in conceiving and delivering projects that can be both iconic and meaningful." - Jwalant

Ar. Surya Kakani

Principal Architect Kakani Associates & Dean Of Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University

Moksh Thapar

Designer, Artist & Co-Founder, Studio SmitaMoksh

Jwalant Mahadevwala

Guest Workshop Masters at ADW 6.0

Savio Mascarehnhas

Group Art Director, Amar Chitra Katha

Jay Thakkar

Senior Associate Professor & Head of Exhibition, CEPT University

Gajesh Mitkari

Founder at Modak

Savio Mascarehnhas

Jay Thakkar

Jay Thakkar is a Senior Associate Professor and Head of Exhibitions at CEPT University. He is also a Co-founder and Ex-Director at the Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC) at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India.
Jay Thakkar has co-authored "Sahaj: Vernacular Furniture of Gujarat" (2018, with Mitraja Bais, Samrudha Dixit and Ben Cartwright), “Prathaa: Kath-Khuni Architecture of Himachal Pradesh” (2013, with Bharat Dave & Mansi Shah) and “Matra: Ways of Measuring Vernacular Built Forms of Himachal Pradesh” (2008, with Dr Skye Morrison) and has also authored “Naqsh: The Art of Wood Carving of Traditional Houses of Gujarat – Focus on Ornamentation” (2004).
He is actively functioning in the creative and cultural industry and has worked on various art, design, craft and projects in India, Europe and Australia. He has been affiliated with different institutes and organisations in India, UAE, Europe, and Australia. He has curated multiple visual art exhibitions (nationally and internationally), conducted global collaborative research projects related to the creative industry, compèred conferences and seminars, organised visits and programs in the cultural sector, and planned and delivered art and craft workshops across India. In academia, he teaches at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels (related to multidisciplinary design, vernacular and traditional architecture, crafts and furniture) and has published and presented papers, delivered lectures, organised field research, developed multiple courses, strategised design curriculums and mentored many students. He is an advisor and panellist on various boards at the national and international levels.
His book 'Sahaj' was launched by Shri Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister of Gujarat. His other book 'Matra' won a Critic’s Choice Award – Best Written Work on Architecture 2009. This national-level award was presented by ArchiDesign Awards for Excellence in Architecture and Infrastructure, organized by the Foundation of Architecture and Environmental Awareness. The Government of Gujarat has chosen his book 'Naqsh' for ‘Swarnim Gujarat’ Celebrations.
He has received Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT)/Simon Digby Memorial Charity (SDMC) Research Award from the United Kingdom. He has received gold medals from the CEPT University and the Gujarat Institute for Civil Engineers and Architects (GICEA) for his research work.
He is passionate about creative education, reforming the cultural industry, integrating artistic narratives with design, and reviving the Indian craft sector.

Sheel Damani

Founder & Chief of Strategy and Innovation Practice, Fruitfly Design

Jay Thakkar

#ADW2025

Workshops

Drawn to Life

Savio Mascarenhas

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Design your Voice

Charumathi Muralidharan

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Storytelling Seed in the Age of AI

Sheel Damani

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Vibe Vault

Leon Bob James

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Crafting the Culture through Play

Jay Thakkar

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Branding Thyself

Gajesh Mitkari

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#ADW2025

Panel Discussion

Design Meets AI

ADI-Fireside Chat

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Brand New World : Gen Z and the world of interior design

IIID Panel Discussion

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Design: Timelessness in the Times of ‘Trending’

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Design: Where is the Heart

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#ADW2025

ADI Design Workshops

Button Masala by Anuj Sharma

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The Upcycling Economy by Renu Pokharna

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Print Design by Binoli Patel

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Publication Design by Nidhi Sah

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ADI - STUDIO WALKS

Get in touch with us

The
Venue

1) Karnavati University Campus

Adalaj-Uvarsad Road, At.&Po.: Uvarsad,Dist.: Gandhinagar,
PIN: 382422 Gujarat

2) Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre

Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus CEPT, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380009

Contact Us

mail@ahmedabaddesignweek.com

Evening Entertainment

Along with the specially curated speaker sessions, workshops and panel discussions, Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0 will be hosting an evening entertainment affair to mesmerize and engage the audience with Folk music, Serenading Sounds and Stories.

15th February 2025 (6:30 PM to 11:30 PM)
Venue :- Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar

Charumathi Muralidharan
Leon Bob James

16th February 2025 (7:00 PM to 9:00 PM)
Venue :- Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad

Charumathi Muralidharan
Leon Bob James and Preeti Das

Event Schedule

14th February, 2025 - Curtain Raiser to Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0

14
15
16

14th Feb, 2025 Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
10:15 - 10:30
Welcome ceremony
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

10:00 - 13:00
Binoli Patel
workshop
(Venue :- G Block G33 )

Nidhi Sah
workshop
(Venue :- Maker’s Den)

10:30 - 11:30
Rohini Dandavate + Uday Dandavate
Fireside Chat
(Venue :- G Block G26 )

Gajesh Mitkari
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

11:00 - 13:00
IDO Design
Studio Walk
(Venue :- IDO Design Studio)

Studio Carbon
workshop
(Venue :- Studio Carbon )

Clay Club Studio
workshop
(Venue :- Clay Club Studio)

11:45 - 12:45
Ajay Saran Sharma
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)

Kadambri Mishra
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

14:00 - 15:00
Dhisti Desai
Fireside Chat
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

15:15 - 16:15
Uday Dandavate
Book Reading
(Venue :- G-Block G35 )

16:30 - 17:30
Niraj Shah
DESIGN: WHERE IS THE HEART
(Venue :- Amphitheatre )

09:00 - 17:00
KCEIL – Design Your Voice with Charumathi Muralidharan
workshop
(Venue :- G block- AV room)

KCEIL- Vibe Vault – Design your own indigenous instruments. Learn how to play them with Leon Bob James
Workshop
(Venue :- G Block G28)

9:30 -
WDO Executive Committee Meeting
(Venue :- University Secretariat )

WDO Board Members
(Venue :- Visit to ADW )

WDO Board Members
(Venue :- Visit to ADW )

10:30 - 18:00
Craft Mela
(Venue :- Near F – Block )

DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh
(Venue :- Basketball Court )

Craft Mela
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

Painting Exhibiton
(Venue :- Rang Mahal )

Student Installations
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

15th Feb, 2025 Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
09:30 - 12:00
Inaugural + Venus Design Excellence Awards + Panel Discussion
(Venue :- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Convention Center)

12:00 - 18:00
WDO Board Meeting
(Venue :- University Secretariat )

10:30 - 13:00
Renu Pokharna
Workshop
(Venue :- G Block G34)

11:00 - 13:00
Digvijay Singh
Studio Walk
(Venue :- Digvijay Singh Studio )

14:00 - 15:00
Manish Bhatt
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)

Devina Kothari+Niraj Shah+ KIIF
Fireside Chat
(Venue :- G Block G28 )

Nikunj Goyal
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

14:00 - 16:00
Gajesh Mitkari
Workshop
(Venue :- G Block G26 )

Jay Thakkar
Workshop
(Venue :- Maker’s Den )

15:00 - 17:00
Indian Type Foundry
Studio Walk
(Venue :- Indian Type Foundry)

15:15 - 16:15
IIID Panel Discussion : Brand New World
Panel Discussion
(Venue :- G block- AV room )

Kriti Tula
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )

Munwar Khan
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

16:30 - 17:30
Kruti shah
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)

Niraj Shah
Design: Timelessness in the Times of ‘Trending’
(Venue :- Amphitheatre )

10:30 - 18:00
Craft Mela
(Venue :- Near F – Block )

DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh
(Venue :- Basketball Court )

Craft Mela
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

Painting Exhibiton
(Venue :- Rang Mahal )

Student Installations
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

16th Feb, 2025 Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
09:00 - 17:00
WDO Board Meeting
(Venue :- University Secretariat)

10:30 - 11:30
Ankur Grover
Speaker Session
(Venue :- G block- AV room )

Bose Krisnamachari
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )

Atul Khola
Fireside Chat
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box)

10:30 - 12:30
Savio Mascarenhas
Workshop
(Venue :- Maker’s Den)

11:45 - 12:45
Tribhuvan Babu
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )

Devina Kothari
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

13:00 - 16:00
Anuj Sharma
Workshop
(Venue :- UID Fashion Studio )

14:00 - 15:00
Design meets AI – ADI
Fireside chat
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)

Juhi Santani
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

14:00 - 16:00
Sheel Damani
Workshop
(Venue :- G Block G28 )

Gajesh Mitkari
Workshop
(Venue :- Maker’s Den)

15:15 - 16:15
Savio Mascarenhas
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

16:30 - 17:30
Gaurav Joshi
Speaker Session
(Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)

Uday Dandavate
Speaker Session
(Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )

16:30 -
Closing Ceremony ( 16:30 PM onwards)
(Venue :- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Convention Center )

10:30 - 18:00
Craft Mela
(Venue :- Near F – Block )

DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh
(Venue :- Basketball Court )

Craft Mela
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

Painting Exhibiton
(Venue :- Rang Mahal )

Student Installations
(Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

Lunch Break :- 12:45 PM To 01:45 PM

Partners

Event
Partners

Hosted by

Karnavati University

Experience Partner

Hutheesing

Powered by

DA group

Industry Partners

WDO

Education Partner

UID

International Associations

Cumulus

IFFTI

Knowledge Partner

ADI – Association of Designers of India

IIID Ahmedabad Chapter

IXDA

Immersive Experience Partner

knownsense

Glimpses of Previous editions

View More

Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0 Media Coverage

17 February,2025/Gujarati News 18

અમદાવાદ ડિઝાઇન વીક 6.0: ભારતના 20થી વધુ કારીગરોએ પરંપરાગત કલા દર્શાવી, દેશના સમૃદ્ધ વારસાની કરી ઉજવણી

16 February,2025/Rediff Moneywiz

Ahmedabad Design Week: 100+ Designers Showcase Creations

15 February,2025/Gujarati Jagran

Ahmedabad Design Week 6.0: શેર્ડ સિગ્નેચર્સ – સહયોગ અને રચનાત્મકતાની ઊજવણી

View More

Ahmedabad Design Week Previous edition Media Coverage

17 February,2024/The Blunt Times

Ahmedabad Design Week 5.0 :Day-II Concluded On A High Note At Karnavati University With Engaging Discussions And Deliberations

27 January, 2023/The Hindu

New QR code to have colours, will hold more data, says Japanese inventor Hara

26 February, 2022/अमर उजाला

सेना प्रमुख: जहां तक सेना का सवाल, हम जो कुछ भी खरीदते हैं, उसका 85% हिस्सा भारतीय कंपनियों से

View More

Past Speakers

ADW 1.0 ADW 2.0 ADW 3.0 ADW 4.0 IDC ADW 5.0

Peter Knapp

Chairman & Global Creative Director, Landor

Surya Vanka

Founder & Chief Designer, Authentic Design

Rasmus Holscher

CEO & Partner, Holscher Design

Cristhian Salamanca

India-LATAM Business Consultant, Designer and Speaker

Chris Messina

Inventor of #hashtag, Product Designer & Technologist Google I/O & TEDx Speaker

Peter Knapp

Peter Knapp is the Chairman and Global Creative Officer of Landor, a global leader in brand consulting and design. Starting in the London office he subsequently moved to the Hong Kong office for a few years where he had overall responsibility for steering and directing all branding programs in Southeast Asia. Now back in London, he works closely with the global executive team to establish Landor's creative vision. Specializing in integrated branding, he works to merge graphic, 3-D, digital, and engagement platforms to create total customer environments. Through his experience of over 20 years with Landor, he has accumulated a wide spectrum of industry experience in sectors including automotive, petroleum, spirits, financial services, telecommunications, retail and leisure and is widely known for his unparalleled expertise in airline branding. Peter drives successful strategy and design to produce inspired ideas for some of the world's largest global brands. His knowledge of integrated branding and design programs has helped him launch, reposition, and reintroduce hundreds of brands around the world including Adecco Group, BP, British Airways, Etihad Airways, Johnnie Walker, Land Rover, and M&S. He says his trick is to stay open minded and receptive as inspiration can come from any place at any time. He believes that creating conditions that allow creativity to flourish is essential for design and designers. Open discussions, inspiration and a good atmosphere are all vital. Peter would like to follow his passion and rebrand a football club or rebrand NASA. He believes it is important to maintain creative vision while keeping the client involved in the process to deliver original and relevant solutions. He is passionate about football, archery, astronomy and music that helps him create a buffer space from his job.

Surya Vanka

Surya Vanka is a designer, corporate leader, educator and author who has worked at the leading edge of designing physical and digital experiences for over 25 years. He has a broad industry experience including most recently as director of user experience at Microsoft. Surya is a leader in global design, best known for his path breaking work in user experience - creating industry-leading best practices in design. Surya has been an Associate Professor in Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a fellow at the prestigious Centre for Advanced Study. He is the author of two books on design, several publications, and has taught design in more than 20 countries. He is the winner of two Microsoft Engineering Best Practice Awards, a Microsoft Achievement Award, Accessibility Achievement Award, World Brand Congress Leadership Award and several industry recognitions. He has lead businesses to execute fast in ambiguous spaces, while experimenting with methods to harness unused creative capital within teams. At Authentic Design, he developed 'Design Swarms', a collaborative design thinking method that employs simple but powerful visual game boards. Design Swarms became so popular as a method, that workshops have been used in business projects by multiple of the world's leading companies to create innovative solutions for social challenges such as aging with independence, homelessness, the opioid crisis, refugee shelters, waterborne diseases, ocean pollution, and disaster relief. He initiated and was part of the core team that created the DMI Design Value Scorecard. Surya's mission is to unleash the creative thinker in every human to become a value creator. His work has appeared in numerous publications and news programs, including Form, I.D., Design Council, WIRED, Interactions, the BBC and National Public Radio. Surya chaired the hugely successful 50th Anniversary Conference of Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) in August 2015 in Seattle. Surya lives in Seattle and leads Authentic Design, a consulting practice that provides interaction design, user experience, strategic innovation and design capability development for clients around the world.

Rasmus Holscher
Rasmus Holscher is a Danish architect and designer who is developing solutions that improve, change and shape the future world for people in the public and private space. Rasmus is a Managing Partner at Holscher Design, a Scandinavian design studio that for the past 50 years has been collaborating with a long list of international companies like Phillips, JCDecaux, Geberit, Flos, d line, Coloplast, Royal Copenhagen and CISCO to create spellbinding design solutions. Their multi-disciplinary design team provides consultancy within the whole scope of design- from industrial products, graphics, packaging and interior to branding, digital and service design, to transform the client's vision into solutions that generate a measurable market impact. The solution should fit into the client's portfolio and match the brand. Their projects are often complex, the solutions simple, balancing form and function in equal aesthetic measure. Rasmus specializes in urban design, transportation and the integration of technology in modern cities and is dedicated to working at the intersection of architecture and product design. His designs are future forward, minimalistic with roots in the Scandinavian design tradition. He aspires to create innovative, pleasurable and meaningful products. He believes that solutions based on genuine user insights can empower, enrich and energize both people and brands. By relentlessly pursuing their philosophy since 1960, they have helped clients enhance the quality of life for millions of people globally. Their experience and competence makes them capable of creating value by design- for companies and customers in a large range of fields, such as Smart City, Smart Home, Health/ Well-being, Lighting and many more.

Cristhian Salamanca

Talk title: The Design of Better Humans

Description (draft): Designers have played an outsized role in shaping humanity's present reality, which is highly technological and abstract. Thanks to increased access to smart phones, voice assistants, and synthetic media, that's only going to increase. Our contributions will define the upper limits of human potential based on the design decisions that we make today. Thus it is incumbent upon us to expand our sources of inspiration to include ethics, cognitive, behavioral and emotional psychology, and humanism - while developing an opinionated stance on the appropriate and humane use of artificial intelligence.

Drawing from my experience inventing the hashtag and developing and designing social technology products for 15 years in Silicon Valley at startups as well as companies like Google and Uber, I will share my hard-won lessons and perspective and on what cultural changes are needed in our industry now and in the near future, and how you can contribute to the design of better humans.

Chris Messina

Talk title: The Design of Better Humans

Description (draft): Designers have played an outsized role in shaping humanity's present reality, which is highly technological and abstract. Thanks to increased access to smart phones, voice assistants, and synthetic media, that's only going to increase. Our contributions will define the upper limits of human potential based on the design decisions that we make today. Thus it is incumbent upon us to expand our sources of inspiration to include ethics, cognitive, behavioral and emotional psychology, and humanism - while developing an opinionated stance on the appropriate and humane use of artificial intelligence.

Drawing from my experience inventing the hashtag and developing and designing social technology products for 15 years in Silicon Valley at startups as well as companies like Google and Uber, I will share my hard-won lessons and perspective and on what cultural changes are needed in our industry now and in the near future, and how you can contribute to the design of better humans.

James ‘Jim’ Jeffers

Sr. Director & Sr. Principal Eng., Adv. Rendering & Visualisation Arch., Intel Corp.

Daniela Paredes Fuentes

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Gravity Sketch

Paul Sandip

Industrial Designer, Founder - Paul Studio

Anil Reddy

Founder & Design Director Lollypop Design

Yehuda & Maya Devi

Illustration ArtistCreator of the web comics "One of those days"

James ‘Jim’ Jeffers

Intel Achievement Award winner, Jim Jeffers leads Intel's Advanced Rendering and Visualization Team, developing open source rendering libraries like Embree, OSPRay, Open Image Denoise, and Open SWR used for generating animated movies, special effects, automobile design and scientific visualization working in tandem with companies like Disney and DreamWorks as wells as scientists like Stephen Hawking. Jim joined Intel in 2008 participating in the development of manycore parallel computing and the Intel® Xeon Phi™ product family, including co-authoring 4 Books on manycore parallel programming. He holds multiple patents in the field of video and image insertion and synchronization. His experience includes software design and technical leadership in high performance computing, graphics, digital television, and data communications. He is also a founding board member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Software Foundation. His notable work prior to Intel includes development for the Tech Emmy winning virtual 'First Down Line' technology seen on live American football TV broadcasts. Jim and his team are working closely with the U.S. Department of Energy to build the world's first exascale supercomputer, Aurora for the Argonne National Laboratory. Once completed, Aurora will be capable of an exaflop- that's a quintillion (or a billion billion) floating point calculations per second! Jim is a passionate, results-oriented technology and engineering leader with a unique combination of strategic vision and strong tactical delivery expertise. He has authored and presented on parallel computing hardware and software. Jim's expertise lies in high performance computing (HPC), scientific visualization, parallel computing, graphics and video device drivers, agile product development life cycle, and VoIP telecommunications.

Daniela Paredes Fuentes

Daniela Paredes Fuentes is the co-founder Gravity Sketch- a tool for sketching in 3D using augmented and virtual reality. She leads the development of the user experience in the digital and physical environments. Through user research and embedded analytics, she develops the interactions for the new 3D digital world. Daniela is an experienced innovation designer bridging science, engineering, and design as well as an entrepreneur pushing to turn promising ideas into successful realities. With a focus on finding new growth opportunities and strategic priorities, Daniela is shaping the future of Gravity Sketch. Prior to founding Gravity Sketch, Daniela graduated from The Royal College of Art and Imperial College London with a Masters in Innovation Design Engineering. Gravity Sketch is her university project that has bloomed into a successful business. Upon graduation, she started working as an Innovation Designer at Jaguar Land Rover where she was responsible for developing interiors technology that would combine smart materials and Artificial Intelligence to create alternative experiences for autonomous vehicles. This allowed her to take her graduation project to the next level and realize the true potential of the technology she had developed. Now, her innovation is used by some of the top automotive companies around the world, blockbuster film studios and many enterprising designers looking to expand their creative vision. Apart from being a finalist in the Furroshiki Textile Design Contest, Mexico-Japan, Mexico City (2009), she has been awarded the UK Women in Innovation Award (2019), MUJI Award (2014) and the First Prize at Hiperentrega, Mexico City (2007). Daniela believes her job is to create experiences that will seamlessly and interestingly marry the paradigms of a physical world and its digital counterpart. She is interested in the human aspect of technology and the incredible possibilities our digital identities can bring to future products and services.

Paul Sandip

Paul Sandip is an electrical engineer, cartoonist and a multiple award winning product designer. An alumnus of NID, Ahmedabad, Paul has designed over 300+ iconic everyday objects in 121 product categories for clients across 14 countries. His designs are led by consumer focussed incremental innovation and a refined sense of style. Known for his simplicity and original design thinking, he has been the winner of the prestigious Red Dot Award twice, besides 30 other international and domestic design awards. His work has been extensively featured across the globe in numerous exhibits like the Triennale Museum in Milan, Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt, Red Dot Award Show in Singapore, Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, Alliance Francaise in New Delhi and in the permanent collection of the Danish Design Museum, Copenhagen since 2009, as an example of Design to improve life. He has been invited by corporations like Apollo Munich, Hewlett-Packard and Dell to deliver his 'Design Thinking Simplified' workshops/ lectures. In 2004, he created the 'Spherical bulb holder' and 'Angular multi-plug' for GM Modular which are iconic best seller designs. Paul is involved in product development at LG Electronics, Whirlpool, Havells, Orient, Syska, Polycab, Bluebird and many others. He has developed medical/ diagnostic devices in association with Public Health Foundation of India. He is a jury member for the India Design Mark. He has spoken at TEDx events in India, been interviewed by NDTV Prime and showcased his works at Rashtrapati Bhawan. He is a mentor and judge for Designathon at Dell. He has been honoured by the Prime Minister of India as a Designpreneur in 2005 and the President of Taiwan in 2010. He is a registered industrial designer with the Government of India under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme. In 2018, Paul was selected to represent Industrial Design at the India?Italy Tech Leadership Roundtable in the august presence of His Excellency Mr. Giuseppe Conte, the Prime Minister of Italy and Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India.

Anil Reddy

Anil Reddy, a UI/UX designer, returned to India after 9 years in Auckland with a vision to put India as a 'Design Destination' on the digital space and has been on this mission since. Since the completion of his Master's in Visual Communication from the Design and Arts College of New Zealand, he has designed digital/web campaigns for Coke, Adidas, BP, Nissan, Sony Play Station to name a few while working with International advertising agencies like Ogilvy, New Zealand and TBWA, New Zealand. Upon his return to India in 2012, he founded Lollypop Design - a UI/UX design firm which till date has successfully completed more than 95 projects, serving over 100 clients across 10 countries. Its clientele includes names like Stanford University, Myntra, Swiggy, RKSV, Housing.com, UpGrad, Credit Vidya, Narayana Health, Deccan Herald, Paytm Money, cricket.com, and TapGenes. Lollypop Design are mainly involved in designing UI/UX for websites, applications, tablets. They are a tightly knit, experienced team of researchers, designers and developers who enjoy crafting great solutions. They digitally transform businesses through strategic consulting and end-to-end solutions. Their innovative tech-driven processes blend efficiency and effectiveness that drives value to any business. Anil believes design can empower people, businesses, society and world at large.

Yehuda & Maya Devi

Yehuda and Maya Devir are a married couple, Israeli comic artists and the creators of the popular web comics 'One of Those Days'. They Studied Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Yehuda found his love for drawing in infancy when he began painting on his bedroom walls and is particularly influenced by American comics. Maya, on the other hand is a realist artist. While he feels that Maya is a Goddess and spreads joy wherever she goes, she feels Yehuda can make ants look lazy. 'One of Those Days' is one of the most popular original web comics in the world with over 5 million followers. Yehuda and Maya create this adorable relationship comic about their daily domestic adventures, from ridding the house of roaches to trying to make cereal in the kitchen. Maya enjoying everyday life gives Yehuda all the inspiration he needs to create his cute, charming, hilarious and often relatable comics. They chronicle their relationship, from the silly to the mundane and beyond. Determined to share the joyful and challenging parts of their life together, Yehuda recently documented their journey to getting pregnant. He did so with his usual humour and wit, but he didn't sugar-coat the ups and downs of creating life-from memorizing ovulation schedules to playing alchemist with baby potions. They have been interviewed by ILTV Israel and featured in the Huffington Post.

Dr. Reet Aus, Ph.D.

Fashion, Theatre and Film DesignerFounding Partner, Aus Design OÜ

Gaurav Jai Gupta

Textile & Fashion DesignerFounder, Akaaro

Suhasini Paul

Toy Designer and TEDx Speaker

Dr. Reet Aus, Ph.D.

Dr. Reet Aus is a PhD-qualified fashion designer and environmental activist, a human rebel who founded REET AUS COLLECTION® and the brand THE UPSHIRT®. She is a pioneer in the field of industrial upcycling for fashion, and has developed the UPMADE® certification in order to pass on her knowledge to brands and factories. Her Doctoral Thesis was on the subject, 'Trash to Trend - Using Upcycling in Fashion Design'. She and her research team have developed innovative and working upcycling design methods which integrate industrial amounts of leftover materials back into design and production cycle on-site, without any need for down-cycling practices (like recycling, re-fibering, etc.). Such a method enables us to reduce the wasted virgin textiles by up to 52%, saving up to 88% of energy and 75% of water with each piece of garment. No stranger to accolades, in field of business Dr. Aus has been distinguished as one of the Top 20 Responsible Leaders in Northern Europe by the Nordic Business Report in 2017. She has also been conferred The Order of the White Star, class V in 2016 and has been identified as one of the Top 20 Women in Business by the Nordic Business Report in 2015. She has also been awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year of the Civic Society by Network of Estonian Non-profit Organizations in 2013, Environmentally Friendly Company by the Ministry of the Environment in 2013, Woman of the Year by the Association of Business and Professional Women Estonia in 2014 and Notable Young Estonian by the Junior Chamber International Estonia in 2014 among many others.

Gaurav Jai Gupta

Gaurav Jai Gupta is an alumnus of NIFT in New Delhi where he studied Fashion Design and Information Technology and the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London where he got a BA Honours in Textile design. His journey in Fashion has been very organic and unplanned. Before founding his widely acclaimed woven textile studio Akaaro in New Delhi, he was a freelance designer and educator with commissions from prestigious institutes like Central Saint Martin's School of Art and Design, London. He was the founding core member/ Head of Department of Textiles at Sushant School of Design. Gaurav was one of the finalists at The British Council's Young Creative Entrepreneur Awards in the Fashion category in 2009. He has since been invited to co-curate and showcase his work at the Bunka Salon in Tokyo alongside Datuk Jimmy Choo in the year 2009 by the University of the Arts London. His work also sits in the research archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is the only fashion designer to be featured solo on the cover of the magazine- India Today. Gaurav is the first Indian designer to be commissioned by The Woolmark Company to launch the Cool Wool Menswear collection for Raymonds in India in 2014. Inspired by music, cinema and photography, Gaurav's work is about creating moods. His achievements include collaboration with Swarovski in 2012 to develop hand-woven textiles interwoven with Swarovski crystals for AW 2013, Alchemy fashion Festival 2011 in London with British Council and BLOW PR, London Fashion week 2009, Woven Textile Designer AW2011 London, Hand woven Textile Designer SS2011 Paris, Woven Textile Designer 2008 among others.

Suhasini Paul

Paul is an Electrical Engineer and a post graduate alumnus of NID, Ahmedabad who has also done Management Program for Women Entrepreneurs (MPWE 2016) from IIM, Bangalore. She designs the surprise toys found inside Kinder Joy for Indian/global market, sport toys for Disney, India and break-time play things for ITC Foods. Suhasini is also credited with creating the strategies for promotional toys and merchandise for one of the most popular Indian animated characters, Chhota Bheem. She is the brains behind many board games for kids produced by FRANK. She is the first toy designer in the country to have her name imprinted on the games designed by her for Indian and global clients. She is the Toy Expert for Indian e-commerce giant Snapdeal since 2015. She has worked extensively on rubber wood toys and school furniture, both in rubber wood and blow moulded plastic. Her core strength lies in taking concepts to reality by connecting the right resources with the right people in her network. Her services as a toy designer are sought after by toy companies in India, China, Thailand, Italy, UK, USA and Germany. She has been honoured by the Prime Minister of India as a Designpreneur in 2005 and President of Taiwan in 2010. She has been featured on the cover of INDULGE Magazine by Indian Express in 2011 and in the Best of FEMINA in 2012. Ms Paul has also been a speaker at TEDx HP Bangalore in 2014 and appears on NDTV chat show, 'Bringing up Baby'. Her toy design process has been documented by Dell in their video series 'Design Circle - The Creative Journey'. In March 2018 her work was showcased at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, for the 14th President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind. As an educator, she is a visiting faculty member and juror at NID and NIFT.

Prof. (Dr.) P. V. Madhusudhan Rao

Head, Department of Design, IIT Delhi

Prof. Sudarshan Khanna and Surabhi Khanna

Designer, Educator, Pioneer-toy research & design (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)

Dadi Pudumjee

Padma Shri recipient; Puppeteer; President, UNIMA (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)

Adrian Light

Director, ONE20 Group Architects

Paul Budnitz

Founder & CEO, Superplastic

Prof. (Dr.) P. V. Madhusudhan Rao
P. V. Madhusudhan Rao is professor in departments of mechanical engineering and design at IIT Delhi. He also serves as head of the department of design. As a coordinator of IIT Delhi Design Innovation Center (DIC), he is also responsible for initiating and driving multiple programs in design, innovation & entrepreneurship. He obtained his PhD degree from IIT Kanpur. He was a guest researcher to US government's National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), USA multiple times. He was also visiting scientist to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and visiting faculty to Stanford University. He has several patents and design registrations to his credit many of which have been commercialized. He and his team’s translational research efforts have led to successful products and solutions which are presently in the national and international market and have made an impact.

Prof. Sudarshan Khanna and Surabhi Khanna

Prof. Sudarshan Khanna is Design Educator. He was the Principal Designer and Chairman of Education & Research at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and Head of Toy Innovation Centre. An internationally acclaimed designer and educator, he has helped establish several new courses and programs, including the Post Graduate Program in Toy & Game Design at NID. He has been Education Development Consultant with Learn Today, the education wing of India Today group. He has authored three books and many articles on toy design, culture and creative education. Over 15 educational TV programs have been made on his work related to toys, design development, culture and education. He has been invited as an expert by institutions in India, South America, Europe and Scandinavia and has conducted numerous workshops for teachers.

He was conferred 1996 National Award for his life time work for design-science among children by Department of Science and Technology. He is recipient of international BRIO Award 2013 for his lifelong contribution for research and innovation for toy design and development in India. Prof. Sudarshan Khanna is the past president of ITRA (International Toy Research Association) and founder Chairperson of “Toys for Tomorrow???- vision-action international forum. Prof. Sudarshan Khanna was the Ravi J Matthai Chair for design and education innovations at National Institute of Design, India. Professor Sudarshan Khanna has been conducting workshops for teachers, trainers & students, relating value of design methods and creativity as part of the innovative learning process.

Surabhi Khanna is a designer, educator. She has a Masters in industrial design from NID, India after graduation in architecture. She is a Faculty at National Institute of Design Haryana (NIDH), Kurukshetra.

Since 2010, she has been working on projects and workshops related to heritage, innovations, culture-based design. Surabhi has developed courses and electives related to playful design concepts for students of design and architecture. She has conducted design & education workshops for teachers, trainers and children at several organizations and schools in India and other countries.

Dadi Pudumjee

Dadi D. Pudumjee, India’s modern creative puppet artists and directors started puppetry as a hobby in Pune. Later he graduated in economics and then joined the NID-National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, in the department of Visual Communication. Here he joined the puppetry section run by the late Meher R. Contractor of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, where he developed his hobby of puppet theatre and made it his professional practice.

Pudumjee was also the founder and artistic director of Sutradhar Puppet Theatre – India (1980-1986); and founder and director of Ishara Puppet Theatre, Delhi (from 1986). Today, he is the managing trustee of the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust and additionally the curator of the annual Ishara International puppet festival Delhi, which hosted its 17th season in 2019. He has created puppets for many TV shows and serials, exhibitions, pavilions, dance shows, operas and celebrations. Dadi Pudumjee and the Ishara puppet Theatre Trust have performed, presented papers and conducted workshops in Japan, Australia, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, Scotland, Canada, USA, Brazil and Mexico. For his contribution to puppetry Awards Awarded

The Padamashri national award, in 2011

Sangeet Natak Academy- for work in puppetry, 1992

Sanskriti Pratisthan award for puppetry, Delhi

Delhi Natya Sangh award in Puppetry

Delhi Parsee Anjuman cultural award

Adrian Light

Adrian Light has worked in Architecture since 1988 and is currently the Managing Director of ONE20 Group Architects in Australia and Great Britain. He graduated with honours from UTS in 1994 and completed a masters (By Thesis) in the area of “Bodily (im)positions??? – A phenomenological re- casting of space and architecture in 2001. Adrian has specialized International competence in the design of buildings of all scales including several award winning designs and revolutionary sustainable projects. Adrian was the lead designer for the International Broadcast Centre for the Sydney Olympic Games.

More recently, Adrian has been designing environmentally sustainable buildings. One of his most notable projects is the conversion of the Skipping Girl Vinegar factory which was featured on the TV Series “Grand Designs??? and “The Living Room??? and is the subject of a documentary on Architel TV. It won the 2017 Sustainability award in the Heritage category amongst other awards. The project was revolutionary in its use of zero waste during construction, where every material was either re-used recycled or re-purposed. Adrian was recently one of 5 nominees for a lifetime achievement award in sustainable architecture. Lately he has been interested in the nature of uninhabited and un-designed space and the question of when does Space become Architecture.

Paul Budnitz
Paul is a well-known American entrepreneur, artist, designer, filmmaker, photographer, author, and database programmer. He has founded over a dozen companies including his current venture, Superplastic, the world’s premiere creator of animated synthetic celebrities, toys, and apparel; art toy brand Kidrobot; luxury bicycle manufacturer Budnitz Bicycles; and Ello, the social network for creators. Over a dozen of Budnitz’ designs appear in permanent collection of MoMA, and his films have won awards at film festivals around the world. He wrote backend software that runs most of his companies, is the author of four books, and lectures on creativity worldwide. Budnitz studied art at Yale University and currently splits his time between New York City and his home in Burlington, Vermont.

Katerina Kamprani

Architect / Designer

Miguel Wilson

Toy & Product Designer

Johnathon Strebly

President, International Council of Design

Mahendra Chauhan

Head of Design - Watches, Wearables and Accessories, Titan Company Ltd

Anita Savicka

Director, Anita Sondore Inc.

Katerina Kamprani

After studying architecture and never completing her post-graduate studies in design, Katerina Kamprani started a personal project called “The Uncomfortable???. Balancing humor, art and design, she analyzes and redesigns everyday objects in order to make them deliberately inconvenient. She has presented her work to several design conferences and has participated in exhibitions throughout Europe. Katerina’s artwork has had an impact on many different levels and has been used for editorial, advertising and educational purposes.

website: http://www.theuncomfortable.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katerina.kamprani/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theuncomfortable

Miguel Wilson

Miguel Wilson is an Illustrator, Toy Designer and Product Developer based out of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. With over 10 years of experience in the art industry Miguel has created a unique portfolio of toy design work as well as a discipline approach to managing projects while promoting a healthy lifestyle.

He has designed and managed projects for some of the largest brands in the world including: Hasbro, NETFLIX, Sony, CAPCOM, SOTA Toys, Bandai Namco, Fandango and Natsume.

Johnathon Strebly
As a design director, mentor, and advocate for creativity at the local, national, and international level, Johnathon provides environments where innovative thinking is encouraged through system and service design. Johnathon has directly influenced organizations navigating the unique challenges of today’s design environment by developing, implementing and sharing his experience within curriculum design, advisory committees, consulting and programming for agencies and educational institutions. As President of the International Council of Design (ICoD), Johnathon brings decades of experience and involvement in the applied arts, encouraging growth and change in creative industries, challenging and contributing to the contemporary fabric of design today, and tomorrow. He founded the brand strategy and communications agency The Notice Group in 2000, is the former Director of Creative Services for HCMA Architecture +Design, past president of the Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), previous GDC National Ethics Chair, and past president of the Vancouver Chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC). He was also a founding committee member, organizer, and co-host of CreativeMornings Vancouver. Currently Johnathon is contributing his experience in advocacy, diplomacy, inter-governmental, organizational and departmental relations, as the Chief of Staff for the Squamish Nation, the largest First Nation in the Province of BC, Canada.

Mahendra Chauhan

Mahendra Chauhan has 11 years of experience as an industrial designer. He is currently the Head of Design - Watches, Wearables and Accessories at Titan. Among his responsibilities include creating product lines for all the brands/Subbrands of Titan, Fastrack, Sonata, Xylys and Nebula. He also leads an entire team of more than 30 designers, engineers and support staff to create stunning products which resonates with millions of consumers in India and abroad.

Mahendra’s work has won international accolades like the Red Dot Design Award, Rado Design Excellence Award and the Philips Award for Innovative Lighting. Besides this Mahendra is a Gold Medalist in B Architecture, Design Boom Shortlist For 'Bibulb', Tata Inno-vista Global Award for Design Honours-2013, Good Design Award, Japan Design Council-2014.

Mahendra is a also member of India Design Mark Jury, speaker at CII Design Summit and speaker at India Design Mark-Bangalore

Anita Savicka

Anita Savica is a Latvian jewellery designer and owner and Creative Director of Anita Sondore Ltd.

She is the recipient of many international awards and has showcased her designs globally.

Riga based jewellery designer ANITA SONDORE creates trendy Fine Contemporary Jewellery. All pieces are designed in Latvia, produced in Italy. At the heart of the brand is the distinguished Roman school of jewellery, where the creator of the brand developed her mastery with the Ermini family, as well as with the Parisian brand, Van Cleef & Arpels, Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School, Firenze, Italy. In the Year 2017 Anita advanced her skills by obtaining Master’s Degree in Jewellery Design at Arts Academy of Latvia.

Fine Jewellery created by ANITA SONDORE is bold and beautiful, inspired by the opulence of Northern Europe’s imperial cultural heritage but interpreted with a modern sensibility. Luxury, unique rings, earrings, pendants and necklaces, all handcrafted in 18k gold, enriched with sparkling diamonds, make a powerful statement about the women who wear them.

“My jewellery, in a fairly direct way, tells my own story – it’s a mirror of the time. They are personalities, individuals, living, breathing, ringing, with an idea, with a message from the heart,??? explains Anita.

The key message of the ANITA SONDORE’s brand is – the court painter. Since the past days, court painters have been those that have recorded important historical events, faces and moods. Today, ANITA SONDORE continues to do this- to present today’s people, events, faces and hearts.

Currently ANITA SONDORE jewellery is available at Harvey Nichol’s Luxury Department Store in London, Mozafarian Jewellers’ Boutiques - Dubai, Simonelli studio in Rome, Italy, Grand Hotel Kempinski and Grenardi in Riga as well as private collections all around the world.

Manish Kukreja

President, TAITMA

Dr. Antal Kelle

Artist

Rahul Minda

Head of Product Design and Development – Skillmatics

Devanshi Kejriwal

Creative Director, Skillmatics

Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi

STEAM Education Researcher, Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä; Experience Workshop Founder, Finland

Manish Kukreja
Manish Kukreja is an Engineer by profession & graduated from BIT Bangalore in 1995 with Honours. He played an important role in the company’s development, when in his first year, he developed 2 products that became an instant success. His product design acumen & production planning carefully helped the company double it’s no of sku’s in 2 years. In 1998, after 3 years of R&D, he successfully introduced the ‘Door Open’ feature in ‘Plastic Toy Cars’ for the first time in the world. Till then, the feature was available only in Metal Toy Cars. When the production base completely shifted from Bombay to Silvassa in 2003, he helped design the layout of the factory & its production process. From using links to nuts, simple solutions were adopted to help innovate new variety & features like moving hands & legs of a cyclist, animals, etc. Min Toy Private Limited was established in 2003 as the main manufacturing unit. MIN standing for: Made in INdia. One of the first to use 3D Printing technology to develop new products, brand Shinsei has led the way in innovation & development. Winning numerous awards for quality & innovation from 1990 till 2019. Constant feedback is taken and improvements are made on a regular basis. One main being the insert wheel production for 90% products, which not only made it safer for kids, but helped increase productivity by over 15%. In early 2020, the company featured in the Top 10 Most Promising Toy Manufacturing Companies in India in the Silicon India Magazine. In 2013, Manish Kukreja was elected as the Hon Secretary of TAITMA, The All India Toy Manufacturer’s Association. TAITMA is the first, oldest and the only Toy Manufacturers Association in India. Since then TAITMA has made tremendous progress. Understanding the importance of communication with the various government departments, Mr. Kukreja made numerous visits to various ministries to establish connections. In 2016, Manish Kukreja was elected as the President of TAITMA, thanks to the tremendous work done as the secretary. His continuous interactions with the government department helped the entire industry tremendously when, through logical reasoning & presentation, GST of games was reduced from 28% to 12%, a huge success for the industry. Similarly, the BIS implementation was handled efficiently. During the pandemic, many industries were on the verge of shutting down as the government stuck to the original BIS implementation dates. Mr. Kukreja gave an extensive presentation with logical argument to the government. An extension for four months based on the arguments given by the government which helped many industries avoid closure. By 2020, the company has over 200 different sku’s, perhaps the largest collection in pull back toys in India. On 5 th November 2020, Min Toy Private Limited received its BOS License for all its products. Mr. Kukreja has been a mentor & guide to many start up companies in toys like Play Panda, etc. He is also a regular consultant to many government bodies & foreign consultancy firms.

Dr. Antal Kelle

Antal Kelle ArtFormer is a Hungarian artist who works at the interface of visual art, design, science, and games. The term he has coined for this activity – artformer – is now his artist alias. Born in Budapest in 1953, he studied art and engineering between 1972 and 1983 in Hungary and the Bauhaus, Dessau. He has qualifications in engineering, art and design, and is a Doctor of Liberal Arts, and member of SZIMA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Art).

He has been engaged in artistic creation and design since the mid-1980s, especially in moving kinetic sculpture. He communicates his work – and the original ideas underlying it – through lectures, presentations, exhibitions and university courses, at places all over the world, including India, where in the NID (National Institute of Design), with Charles Eames Scholarship.

https://artformer.com/en/ , https://www.works.io/antal-artformer-kelle

Rahul Minda
Rahul is the Head of Product Design and Development at Skillmatics. He has over 8 years of experience in designing educational physical products. Prior to joining Skillmatics he was the Head of product development at Experifun – a company focusing on developing innovative STEM products for K- 12.

Devanshi Kejriwal
She graduated from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She has spent many years teaching children and specialises in creating educational and skill-building games.

Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi

Kristóf Fenyvesi, Ph.D. (b. 1979) is a researcher of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), trans- and multidisciplinary learning and contemporary cultural studies at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (https://ktl.jyu.fi/en). Fenyvesi in 2008 he launched Experience Workshop—Global STEAM Network (www.experienceworkshop.org). He edited math-art-education handbooks with several connections to design, contributed chapters to various prestigious education books, and other resources of mathematics learning in the STEAM context. Fenyvesi is a very active organizer and contributor of international scientific events, education programs, exhibitions, STEAM workshops and festivals, including the International Mathematical Science Creativity Competitions in Seoul (Korea), Science Agora in Tokyo (Japan), Open Design Africa in Cape Town (South Africa), or Ars Electronica Festival in Linz (Austria).

Fenyvesi has been the curator of Antal Kelle's several international exhibitions.

Links: www.experienceworkshop.org / www.learningbydoing.fi

Aishwarya Tipnis

Principal Architect, Aishwarya Tipnis Architects and Conservation Planner

Dr. Sanjeeb Kakoty

Associate Professor, IIM Shillong

Fabio Guaricci

Founder, TOY Design

Dr. Mariana Amatullo

President - CUMULUS Association, Vice Provost - The New School, New York

Prof. Lolita Dutta

Associate Director, School of Communication Design, U I D

Aishwarya Tipnis

Aishwarya Tipnis is an architect, educator and conservation professional based in New Delhi, India.

An alumnus of School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi, she has nearly two decades of experience in the field of architectural and urban conservation and has pioneered several urban conservation and building restoration projects in India. Aishwarya is the recipient of the highest civilian honour in the culture sector, the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettre (Knight of the Arts and Letters), by the Government of France in 2018 for her outstanding commitment to the preservation of French Heritage in West Bengal. She is also the recipient of the UNESCO Award for Heritage Conservation in the Asia-Pacific Region (Award of Merit: Mahidpur Fort & Honourable Mention for Doon School, Dehradun) in 2016.

Dr. Sanjeeb Kakoty

Sanjeeb Kakoty is an associate professor at IIM Shillong and Editor of the NUKSA the Pine Chronicle, Chairperson of the CeDNER ( Centre for the Development of the North Eastern Region) and the Incubation and Enterprise Support Centre of the institute. He has also been a guest faculty at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore.He obtained his PhD on the theme of technology and social change from NEHU, Shillong and also completed 3 TP from IIM Ahmedabad . Apart from teaching and research, he is also a documentary film maker and a writer, with three books to his credit. As a member of the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business, he was one of the authors of the Report on Management Education for the Future that was presented at the UN Earth Summit at Rio, 2012. He was also invited to the World Economic Forum in 2013, where he made a presentation about the urgent need of respecting diversity in a Globalized world Order. He was also appointed as International Consultant of Indian Media Markets to the Hamburg Media School, Germany, and has guided a number of researches by HMS students. He has also been involved with the social sector and is an adviser to the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust. His areas of interest, apart from culture and education, includes sustainability, communication and governance.

Fabio Guaricci

Italian designer, Fabio Guaricci is an acclaimed Toy Designer and Industrial Designer.

About the Session

What is playfulness? How can we identify (and conceive) toys that achieve the goal of being engaging and educational at the same time? What are the emotional levers that have made toys in the history become blockbusters and last for decades? This presentation unveils what is behind the curtain in the success of such toys like Barbie, Rubik's cube and Yoyo and how we can learn from them in understanding that a good toy is first of all an object that can "transform" the child into something else, even if this is not necessarily happening in the reality.

Dr. Mariana Amatullo

Mariana Amatullo was elected President of Cumulus in June 2019 after serving two consecutive terms of service as a Cumulus board member starting in 2013. Mariana is Vice Provost for Global Strategic Initiatives and Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York. Prior to joining The New School, she co-founded and led the award-winning social innovation department, Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. Mariana brings almost two decades of expertise managing a portfolio of international and national educational projects, research initiatives and publications at the intersection of design, design management and social innovation; her research focuses on the value of design in organizational transformation. Mariana lectures internationally about design and social innovation and serves on a variety of executive and advisory boards in design and the arts. She is the recipient of the inaugural 2012 DELL Social Innovation Award for Outstanding Social Innovation Education; a Salzburg Global Fellow, a Fellow with the Royal Society of the Arts and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Amatullo is the lead editor of LEAP Dialogues: Career Pathways in Design for Social Innovation (DAP, 2016) she is currently working on a global survey of design for social innovation case studies slated for 2021 publication. Amatullo holds a Ph.D. in Management (Designing Sustainable Systems) from Case Western Reserve University; an M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Southern California, and a Licence en Lettres Degree from the Sorbonne University, Paris, where she also studied Art History at L’Ecole du Louvre. A native of Argentina and the child of a diplomat, Amatullo grew up around the world.

Prof. Lolita Dutta

Prof. Lolita Dutta is the Associate Director of School of Communication Design at Unitedworld Institute of Design (UID).

About the Topics - Re-Imaging Childhood

When was the last time you played " gully cricket" or had a tea party for your dolls under a tree? Built sand castles, or went into the make belief world of GI joes, jigsaw puzzles and ludo? Childhood evokes nostalgia. and brings to your mind that wonder world of toys, and make belief, it is inspired, it is cognitive, it draws from our surroundings, it emulates art and tradition, but most of all awakens the child in us.

Re-imagining a childhood is a powerful tool which draws on experience, skills, and can allow us to determine a vision for future generations. This session between Sanjoy Roy and Lolita Dutta, brings together their collective experience , their inspirations , and a discovery into past heritages, which will envision and map a new future for toys and stories.

In conversation with Prof. Lolita Dutta and Mr. Sanjoy Roy

Sanjoy K Roy

Entrepreneur of Arts and MD, Teamwork Arts

Krishan Jagota

Lead, Product Design, Sideways

Colin Giles

Head of Animation & VFX Vancouver Film School

Jared Wade

Senior Vice President, Design Innovation of Hasbro, Inc.

Sonam Gyaltsen

Founder, Echostream

Sanjoy K Roy

Sanjoy K. Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is the Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 33 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across 40 cities in countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA, including the world’s largest free literary gathering — the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. Roy has received the National Award for Excellence and Best Director for the film Shahjahanabad: The Twilight Years.

He is a founder trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) working to provide support services for street and working children in the inner city of Delhi where over 55,000 children have benefited from education, training and residential services. In 2011, the White House presented SBT the US President's Committee of Arts and Humanities Award for an International Organisation.

Roy works closely with various industry bodies and Government on policy issues within the Creative Industries and Cultural Sector in India and is a senior office bearer on several committees working on policy infrastructure for the creative industries - he is Co-chair of the Art and Culture Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and former President of Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) and an advisor to the Arts Council of England Diversity board for theatre. He is on the advisory council of various International Agencies, Federations and Universities.

Roy has lectured and works in collaboration with Universities including those of Western Australia, DUT, Brisbane, Monash, University of Chicago, Harvard, MIT Media lab, Admas, Symbiosis, University of Houston, Columbia College, London School of Economics, University of York, Swansea, etc.

In conversation with Prof. Lolita Dutta and Mr. Sanjoy Roy

Colin Giles

Colin Giles has over 22 years professional experience in the animation industry, with extensive credits in both traditional and computer animation. Trained at Emily Carr University of Art & Design and a graduate of Capilano University's Commercial Animation program, Colin has since gained experience as a Creative Director, Character Animator, Supervisor, and Designer.

Highlights from his career include multiple Disney Interactive titles; television productions Robotboy, Mucha Lucha, Dan Vs, Ren and Stimpy's Adult Cartoon Party, Jacob Two-Two, and Thomas and Friends; commercials for Cartoon Network, Ford, Starbucks, and Kellogg's; feature films Happily N'ever After, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights and Sausage Party; and supervising a multitude of award winning student films at Vancouver Film School.

Jared Wade

At Hasbro, Jared Wade leads a team of world class Innovators, Researchers and Inventor Relations experts charged with igniting internal and external product innovation. This includes a team of Design & Development specialists equipped to supercharge white space opportunities and new technologies. Jared started his career as a Product Designer and over the years has led many different Design & Development teams around the globe working on iconic brands such as Transformers, My Little Pony, Power Rangers, GI Joe, Nerf, Playskool, Marvel, Star Wars, Beyblade, Sesame Street, Batman, Jurassic Park, Pokemon and many others. Jared is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

Sonam Gyaltsen

Echostream is an evolving community of designers, dreamers, doer’s with professional expertise in industrial and communication design. It consists of a team of trained designers (industrial designers and communication designers).

It started as a collective initiative to provide design services to the Government and village communities with the prime focus on larger development agendas in Sikkim. Since the year 2009, the year of inception, Echostream has worked in almost 20 different sectors in Sikkim.

Vision Statement Design for collaboration, incubation, services to build a creative mountain economy.

The Creative Mountain Economy is a model proposed by Echostream to integrate the aspirations of the communities living in a fragile ecosystem.

Sonam founded La in 2016, as Echostream's own product/ social enterprise which is focused in developing the creative industry capacity and capabilities in the Indian Himalayan Region starting with Sikkim. In 2016, it started building capacities in the bamboo and cane sector through product development workshops with selected master artisans from 23 villages in Sikkim.

Apart from this he is the founder of a Zero waste tea brand called T and a hospitality brand Work From the Himalayas which is focused on reviving the economy hit by COVID.

Prof. (Dr.) Thomas Garvey

Associate Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa and Executive Board Member & Treasurer, WDO

Prof. Sangita Shroff

HoD, Dept. of Design, Nirma University

Siegfried Zoels

Co-Founder & MD, Fördern durch Spielmittel e.V. (Toys for Children’s Rehabilitation)

Philip Royappan

Deputy General Manager (Marketing), FUNSKOOL

Prof. Samir Shukla

Professor, Gujarat University Design Academy

Prof. (Dr.) Thomas Garvey

Thomas Garvey

Associate Professor, School of industrial Design, Carleton University, Canada Executive Board Member and Treasurer, World Design Organization

Thomas Garvey specializes in product development and design for extreme and minimal environments. His interest in small-scale living spaces grew out of his work in New York on international space station interiors and led to doctoral studies at the University of Tokyo on the topic of housing and urban density.

He holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Carleton University, a M.Sc. in Communications Design from Pratt Institute in New York (funded by Design Canada Scholarships), and a Ph.D. in Architectural Planning from the University of Tokyo (funded by Japanese Ministry of Education Research Scholarships).

Prof. Sangita Shroff

Prof. Sangita Shroff heads the Department of Design at the Nirma University, Ahmedabad. She is an alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad (1976 batch), and has also studied design in London as an UNDP Fellow. Her primary specialisation is Visual Communication with further specialisation in Exhibition and Space Design. She has more than 35 years of experience in design education, research, training and professional design praxis.

Prof. Shroff has diverse professional design work ranging across communications, branding, exhibitions, museums, furniture, interiors, architecture, fashion, accessories, textiles and the Indian craft sector. She has actively worked with industry, central and state governments, UN bodies, NGOs, and craft clusters at the grass-root level. She has been actively involved with design education in India and has been a visiting faculty member at her alma mater and other design and architecture schools. Significant contribution has been in the research and development of curricula for various disciplines. She has been actively teaching several courses and providing leadership and direction to design programs and institutions. Her portfolio has also included faculty development programme.

For over 16 years, Prof. Shroff had held several academic and administrative responsibilities at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Delhi and Gandhinagar. She was the Director of the Indian Institute of Crafts & Design (IICD) Jaipur. Her broad spectrum of experiences and widespread network with the industry, the social sector, practising professionals and academicians across the board is highly valuable for the students and institutions that she has been associated with. Her primary interest is to add value to higher education through an inclusive, culturally centred and contextual mandate.

Siegfried Zoels
Managing Director and Co-Founder of Fördern durch Spielmittel e.V. (Toys for Children's Rehabilitation). Social scientist Experience in creativity seminars and workshops in the field of design and rehabilitation for designers, architects, educationalists and therapists from all over the world (since 1980). Realization of 18 UNESCO-Creativity workshops “Toy Design and Inclusive Play??? in different countries, e.g. Mexico, India, China, Armenia, Germany amongst others. 1990 – 1992, deputy mayor with the responsibility for family, youth and sports, district of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (after the peaceful revolution in East Germany) Member of the German Commission for UNESCO (2000 – 2020) Member of the ITRA (International Toy Research Association) President of the "Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e.V.", Berlin, (Non-profit association, dealing with the opposition, resistance and peaceful revolution in East Germany) (since 1994) President of the Association of Early Intervention Measures, County of Berlin-Brandenburg / Germany (since 1996) "Charles Eames Emeritus Fellow" of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India (2007-2009)

Philip Royappan

Philip Royappan is an avid marketer with over 21 years of experience primarily in the toy business. During his formative years, he explored rural sales in territories as varied as Rajasthan, Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh. The diverse brands that he handled included Kiwi Shoe Polish, Durex and Confectionary products such as Coffee Bite, Lacto King and Coconut Punch.

Philip’s journey into brand management began way back in 2003, when he joined Funskool, India’s leading toy company, as a Product Manager. Initially, he was in charge of the very popular “Board Games??? portfolio of Funskool and managed iconic products like Monopoly, Game of Life and Jenga. Philip has played a vital role in building the range of toys that Funskool has now – be it striking association with international brands for either license or distribution rights or be it designing and developing Funskool’s own brands. He has been instrumental in building Funskool’s own brands like Giggles and FunDough.

With an unerring focus on new product development, Philip works with a cross functional team to churn over fifty new products every year, across a range of categories from Infants & Pre-school, Games, FunDough , Puzzles etc. He is one of the experts in the Toy industry in India today. He has been pivotal in building Funskool’s distribution with international companies such as Disney, Viacom and Warner Bros.

Philip believes that the most important part of a toy marketer’s job is to keep his/her ears to the ground and understand the latest trends that children follow in a KGOY (Kids Growing Older Younger) environment. He feels this is the most important factor to stay relevant today. After all, the toy business may be fun, but it is surely a very demanding, serious business. Philip’s other interests are Medieval History, Travelling and Books of Fiction.

Dr. Bhawana Vasudeva

Head, Dept. of Architecture, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Dr. Manish Arora

Assistant Professor, Banaras Hindu University

Shahrukh Mushtaq

Incubation Manager IIEDC (Innovation Incubation Entrepreneurship Development Center), NIT Srinagar

Suhasini Paul

Toy Designer and TEDx Speaker

Dr. Bhawana Vasudeva

Currently serving as Head, Department of Architecture and Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning, Associate Director of Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara (Gujarat, India). she have been teaching and practicing as a freelance architect for the last two decades, completed Ph.D. from CEPT University, Ahmadabad, India, studied Masters of Urban & Rural Planning (M.U.R.P.) at IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India, and Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) at MANIT Bhopal, M.P., India

Dr. Bhawana Vasudeva has over 23 years of teaching experience at the undergraduate level in architecture, and seven years at the postgraduate level (Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, MURP). The teaching experience primarily consists of teaching and evaluation of various architecture and planning courses. I have contributed several research papers in conferences, seminars, symposiums, book chapters, and Journals. I have been regularly involved in various academic administration activities.

She has been engaged in various architectural design and planning consultancy projects which were carried out to achieve energy efficiency, heritage conservation, efficient use of built, semi built and open spaces, well-organized and comfortable interiors, overall face-lifting, redesign of large campuses, and improvement in acoustics and interiors of various built spaces. I have also served in HUDCO (Housing & Urban Development Corporation) where my responsibilities were included the appraisal of different architectural and planning projects, monitoring the progress of building centers that were established to promote cost-effective building construction and technologies. I am a member of the Council of Architecture (COA), Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI), Indian Institute of Architects Vadodara Chapter(IIA), Acoustical Society of India(ASI), Indian Association for Air Pollution Control(IAAPC).

Dr. Manish Arora

Dr Manish Arora
Assistant Professor (ST- II)
Department of Applied Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts
Banaras Hindu University

DESIGN INNOVATION CENTER (DIC) BHU - Currently coordinating MHRD's project DIC BHU under scheme of NDIN - National Design Innovation Network. Focused to interact with students from entire university (BHU) under Hub and Spoke model with IIT (BHU); MNIIT; IIIT and UoA from Prayagraj for practicing Design and Innovation academic support to students and teachers for production of Design and Innovation based product in social interest. DIC Major Activities : DIC BHU done 603 Activities including MHRD BOOK - Innovate the world ; 971 Total activities done by Center with its partner and 13 Patent registration with 4 technology transfer. E commerce platform; Established 3 labs - Graphic & Digital Media Lab;

Digital Innovation Gallery and Design cafe (Prototype Lab); Six Months Certificate Course in Design Innovation; Two month course in Web & Mobile Application Development. Proposed – Establishment of Institute of Innovation; Proposed major project History of Design in India

Suhasini Paul

Suhasini Paul is a Toy Design expert. Her clients include Kinder Joy, Disney, Hape, Chhota Bheem, ITC, Frank and many more Indian and global companies. She designs Surprise toys, Wooden toys, IOT toys, STEM toys, Educational toys, Baby products, Board Games and Children products. Her designs have been launched globally in major toy fairs. Actively involved in the following tasks:

1) USP creation through Design Research

2) New Product Design / Styling and development support

3) Innovative surface finishes / color applications and patterns

4) Product Graphics / Packaging solutions

5) Innovation seminars / workshops to enhance Creative confidence

6) Children workshops

7) Creating awareness about toy safety

8) Game strategy and design

Manish Bhatt

Founder Director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi

General M M Naravane, PVSM , AVSM , SM, VSM, ADC

Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army

Shri Hari Babu Srivastava

Outstanding Scientist & Director General (TM) and (SAM), DRDO

Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy

Secretary, Dept. of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO

Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, PVSM, UYSM, YSM, VSM (Retd.)

Former Director General Defence Intelligence Agency

Manish Bhatt
Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications Ltd. - the only Indian agency featured AMONGST TOP 16 - The World's Leading Independent Agencies 2015. Scarecrow is one of India's Largest Independent Agencies & one of India's fastest-growing ad agencies which has offices in Mumbai and Delhi and has handled communications of the brands like corporates like ITC, RELIANCE ADAG, RELIANCE INDUSTRIES, EMAMI, ZEE, DANONE, NESTLE, HENKEL, FUTURE GROUP, GENERALI, BARCLAYS, DBS, HOUSING.COM, PANASONIC, VIACOM, ZEE, DHARAMPAL SATYAPAL, BACARDI, RUPA, WAGH BAKRI, RELIGARE, CAPITAL FIRST, SHRIRAM, SBI, BHARAT PETROLEUM etc. Scarecrow had been crowned Agency of the Year at Radio Mirchi Kaan Awards 2014. Scarecrow was voted India's 2nd Happiest Agency Workplace, through a nationwide survey conducted by MONSTER.COM & AFAQS! Manish started his career as a Civil Engineer and has 20 years of experience in advertising. He has had a Creative Partnership with Raghu Bhat for 19 years. He worked at Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Contract, Ambience Publicis & Bates. He has won over 150 National & 50 International Awards / Finalists. He was ranked No. 2 (in 2006) & No.3 (in 2005) in the “Hottest Creative People from India” list compiled by Campaign Brief Asia Magazine, Australia. He is often invited to be part of the jury team at prestigious award shows like Cannes Lions, Adfest (Pattaya), Goafest (Abby) etc. He was featured amongst 63 prominent Gujaratis in a special list complied by Chitralekha Magazine, along with significant names like Narendra Modi, Ahmed Patel, Ashit Desai, Sanjay Lalbhai, Amit Trivedi etc.

Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy
Dr G Satheesh Reddy spearheads indigenous development of defence systems and technologies at DRDO. As the top defence scientist in the country, Dr Reddy guides the development of major programs on missiles and strategic systems along with futuristic technologies. A visionary and institution builder, his technology leadership has deeply impacted the development of ‘best in class’ systems for the Indian Armed Forces. Acclaimed as one of the leading aerospace scientists of the nation, Dr Reddy is also the Director-General of the Aeronautical Development Agency that has developed the 4th Generation Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which is being inducted into active service. With his vast experience in navigation and avionics design for missile systems for ships and submarine application, he directed multiple development projects for advanced defence technologies.

Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, PVSM, UYSM, YSM, VSM (Retd.)

Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, Yudh Seva Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, was commissioned into 4 RAJPUTANA RIFLES (OUTRAMS) in December 1983. He commanded 15 RAJPUTANA RIFLES. 2. A graduate of Defence Service Staff College, Wellington, he has attended Senior Command Course, Higher Command Course and prestigious National Defence College Course - 53. He has also attended Senior Offrs Course at Centre for Superior Studies of National Defence (CESEDEN) Madrid, Spain and Senior Executives Course on Transnational Security Cooperation at Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 3. The General Officer has served a total of eight tenures in Counter Insurgency/Counter Terrorism Operational areas of which six in Kashmir valley and a tenure each in Jammu region and Manipur in North East. The General Officer has been an Instructor at Infantry School Mhow and abroad. The General Officer has four tenuers in Perspective Planning Directorate and a tenure in Weapon and Equipment Directorate. He has been a Colonel General Staff of an Infantry Division on Western front and Brigadier General Staff of operational active 15 Corps. 4. In addition to normal command and staff assigngment the Generl Officer commnded Rashtriya Rifles in Kashmir Valley, a RAPID Division and distinction of commanding elite 15 Corps during most challenging environment of Pulwama IED blast and Abrogation of Article 370 & 35A. 5. The General officer was Director General Defence Intelligence Agency & Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence) under the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) till he superannuated from service after more than 38 years on 31 Jan 2022.

Major General M. Indrabalan

Additional Director General, National Cadet Corps, Bihar & Jharkhand

Rear Admiral Rahul Kumar Shrawat, AVSM (Retd.)

Chairman & Executive Director Naval Group India Pvt Ltd, Formerly , Chairman & MD , Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd ( MDL ) and Director General WESEE , Navy

Dr. Sudhir Mishra

Former CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace

Wg Cdr Saurabh Singh Chauhan

Indian Air force

Prahlad Kakar

Founder, Genesis Film Production

Major General M. Indrabalan
Maj Gen lndrabalan was commissioned Into Indian Army in 1986. He holds BSc,BTech,MSc, MBA and MPhil degrees and is currently pursuing PhD in youth development from NIT Patna. He is an alumnus of Kendriya Vidhyalaya,National Defence Academy and llT Kharagpur. A veteran of the Kargil War 1999, he has also been involved in counter insurgency operations in J&K and NER. In year 2000,he represented India as a military observer in United Nations Mission mandated to contain civil war in Sierra Leone,Africa. Post his tenure as senior faculty in Army War College,he is currently serving as ADG NCC Bihar & Jharkhand. He headed the DGNCC Study Committee on the introduction of NCC as an Elective Credit Course in Indian Universities. An ardent sportsman and adventure lover,he was member of an around the world Yacht Sailing expedition in 1989.

Rear Admiral Rahul Kumar Shrawat, AVSM (Retd.)
R. Adm. Rahul Shrawat graduated in Electronics & Communication Engineering from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Roorkee. He did his post-graduation in Radar & Communication Engineering from IIT Delhi. As an Electrical officer he served the Indian Navy for 36 years. He has been Joint Director at Directorate of Electrical Engineering and Director at DND Surface Ship Group at the Indian Naval HQ at New Delhi. As Captain / Commodore, he looked after maintenance of ships and submarines as General Manager (Technical) at Naval Dockyard, Vizag. As a Flag Officer, he served as the Project Director of a strategic project of the Indian Navy. He also served as Chief Staff Officer (Technical) at Western Naval Command, Mumbai. Later he rose to become Admiral Superintendent Dockyard (ASD) of Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. As ASD he was responsible for the entire Naval Dockyard and its activities and operations. He thereafter moved back to New Delhi as Director General WESEE, a prime organisation of the Indian Navy, dealing with real-time software, weapon system integration & cyber security. On 29th Feb 2012, he joined Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) as Chairman and Managing Director. He joined Naval Group India as Chairman and Managing Director on 01 January 2018.

Dr. Sudhir Mishra
Dr. Sudhir Mishra is former Distinguished Scientist & Director General (BrahMos), DRDO, Ministry of Defence and CEO&MD, BrahMos Aerospace. He has led highly motivated and technically competent team of Engineers, Scientists and Technicians located at various work centres, successfully developing and delivering the World’s Best Supersonic Cruise Missile to meet the requirement of Indian Armed Forces. Dr. Mishra is a Graduate of Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, M.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Ph.D. from National Institute of Technology, Warangal. He has more than 37 years of R&D experience in the area of missiles technology, production technology, technology management and defence diplomacy. His technical expertise and contribution has resulted in the realisation of several DRDO Missile Programmes. His “Mind to Market” approach has led to design, development, production and product support encompassing complete Product Life Cycle of BrahMos Weapon System. Under his leadership, "Team BrahMos" achieved newer capabilities and versions for Land to Land, Sea to Land and Air to Sea & Land applications. He spearheaded the BrahMos-Air Version programme leading to successful flight test of BrahMos from Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft against Sea and land target. Realisation of BrahMos-A is an historic achievement for India becoming first country in the world to have such unique capability. He has achieved unique distinction of achieving India’s first major weapon export order to Phillippines. He interacted and coordinated with several ministries and PMO to setup procedures, mechanisms and processes for defence exports. He is academician of Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. He is a fellow of Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), Aeronautical Society of India, Institution of Engineers(India), the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), Indian Institution of Production Engineers and Centre for Excellence in Project Management, New Delhi. He is a member of many national and international professional societies. He is awarded with Degree of ‘Doctor of Science’ by Shobhit University, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, People’s University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and Honorary Degree of ‘Doctor of Literature’ from SAGE University, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He has been awarded with the “DRDO Scientist of the Year Award” by the Prime Minister of India, “Distinguished Alumnus Award-2018” by IIT Madras, Eminent Engineer Award by Institution of Engineers (India), IIM-TATA Gold Medal Award by Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata, “Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Samman” by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, “Distinguished Alumni Award” by Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, “Super CEO Award” by The Machinist, Times of India Group, “Vigyan Pratibha Samman” by Council of Science & Technology, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh“, “Life Time Achievement Award” by Sriram College of Engineering & Technology, Jabalpur. He is member of Board of Management of Govind Guru Tribal University, Banswara Rajasthan nominated by Hon’ble Governor of Rajasthan & Chancellor and Member in the Advisory Board of many Academic Institutions, Universities and Societies. He has published several scientific papers and has delivered numerous lectures in National and International Seminars & Conferences.

Wg Cdr Saurabh Singh Chauhan
Saurabh Singh Chauhan is commissioned in the Aeronautical Branch of Indian Air force in 2004.On the academic front officer has done his B.E (Computer Science) ,M.Tech (Global Navigation Satellite System) and MSc in Military warfare. He has been actively involved in many projects since then which includes Major Overhauls of military aircraft in India and abroad, team leader for embodiment of modification pertaining to Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) on military transport aircraft and headed the team for implementation of aircraft structural integrity program on two types of military transport aircraft in Indian Air Force. Presently he is posted as senior engineer in one of the major transport squadron of Indian Air Force. Wing commander Chauhan has actively involved in the air trials and data analysis of various navigation receivers using IRNSS services with five, six and seven satellite and its comparison with GPS and GAGAN system services installed on military aircraft for last 5-6 year. He is presently heading the team for Prototype development and implementation of Aircraft Real Time tracking System using IRNSS on one of the largest fleet of Transport aircraft in Indian Air force.

Prahlad Kakar
Prahlad Kakar is an Ad-Film Director and Founder of Genesis Film Production.‘Ad Guru’ Prahlad virtually invented a genre of television advertising in India. His motto is 'To tell a story in 30 seconds in the most engaging way possible' His most memorable campaigns include – Pepsi 'Yehi Dil Maange More, Aha!'; Gold Spot - 'The Zing Thing' and Maggi - '2 Minutes!'; amongst others. Prahlad's passions include his Scuba Diving School, Lacadives, operational in Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. His irreverent humour and memorable brand building campaigns have created award-winning commercials.

Harsha Kikkeri

CEO, HoloSuit Pte Ltd

Richard McCallum

Vice Chairman, UK India Business Council

Kshitiz Anand

Associate Vice President, Design, Paytm

Siddhartha Jayakar

Founder & CEO, Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions

Kedar Nimkar

Founder, Audiogyan and Vice President, Design, Jupiter

Harsha Kikkeri
Harsha Kikkeri is the Founder and CEO of HoloSuit Pte. Ltd. He holds over 18 years of experience with 44 patents related to building reality motion capture suits, aerial and ground robots with expertise in drones, sensor fusion, computer vision, virtual reality and machine learning. Harsha is heralding the era of casual reality powered by HoloSuit. HoloSuit is the world’s first full-body motion tracking suit with haptic feedback - aka Ready Player One suit.

Richard McCallum
Richard is the Vice-Chairman of the UK India Business Council, since August 2013. He is based at the UKIBC Business Centre, Gurgaon and has responsibility for all UKIBC’s India operations. He is a graduate of the universities of Durham (History) and Cambridge (International Relations). After University, Richard joined the John Swire & Sons' management trainee programme based in Hong Kong and Pakistan. From 2005 to 2007, he was Manager Delhi & North India for Cathay Pacific Airways. From 2007 until 2013, Dickie was the founder-director of Flying Fox, an innovative adventure tourism company headquartered in Delhi. Richard has spent the last decade living in India.

Kshitiz Anand
Kshitiz Anand is an AVP of Design Paytm, and heads the Merchant Ecosystem Design team, Design Operations and Design Research. He earlier headed the UX team at 1mg. He is also the founder of Happy Horizons Trust, which uses Systems Thinking to create impact in areas of education, healthcare and financial inclusion. He is passionate about Designing Products for the Next Billion Users in India. Prior to this, he set up a Design college in India and headed the India Studio for a leading French Design School, L'école de design Nantes Atlantique. He has taught at the best of design schools in India like IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, Srishti Bangalore, JKLU Jaipur, DY Patil International University Pune, Shiv Nadar University Noida amongst others and also internationally in USA and France. Kshitiz is a sought after Corporate Trainer and over the past 12 years, he has done corporate training for teams across India, North America, EMEA, APAC regions from services to product companies. He has also trained numerous Government officials, Teachers and representatives from Non-Profit Organisations.

Siddhartha Jayakar
Siddhartha Jayakar is CEO and co-founder of Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions, a full-service Visual Effects Company that delivers world-class visual content to the global market. He has over 17 years of experience in the industry in both the US and India and has been credited on over 50 movies. He is also the recipient of the 2005 Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for his work on the DreamWorks Miniseries, Into the West. Siddhartha's innovative approaches and keen mind have led his company to become a force to reckon with, as they provide the finest productions in film television while still being economically viable. With clients like Marvel and Walt Disney Studios and projects which include John Wick 3 and Netflix's Sacred Games under their belt, Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions has proved itself as a globally renowned studio, with Siddhartha at its helm.

Kedar Nimkar
Product Designer Kedar Nimkar is searching for signal in this noisy world. For past 15 years, he has been building digital products; Cleartrip, BookMyShow and now VP of design at Jupiter.money. Kedar is curious in multiple disciplines spanning from Music, Architecture, Education, Films and more… In this pursuit, he started Audiogyan Podcast where he documents & shares ideas and philosophies of Indian luminaries.

Bandana Jain

Founder, Sylvn Studio

Dr. R. Shivaraman

Co-founder, Big Bang Boom Solutions

Maxima Basu

Fashion Designer

Prakash Khanzode

Co-Founder & Head of Product Design & Engineering, Onio Design Pvt. Ltd.

Nitin Zihani Choudhary

Production Designer, Art Director and Illustrator.

Bandana Jain
An alumnus of Sir JJ School of Art, she operates India’s first cardboard art studio, Sylvn Studio. She is a contemporary Artist working with a very unconventional medium Corrugated Cardboard. Her unique designs of sustainable furniture are a huge leap forward, and so is her mission to empower and employ women from rural areas. Bandana’s creativity is not only an aesthetic delight, but also a unique way to bring about change. Bandana’s artwork has been highly recognized by the well-known personalities and art connoisseurs in the industry. Through her art Bandana, wants to create a powerful social impact. She embraces sustainable living in her day-to-day life. Bandana extensively conducts knowledge sessions on Sustainable Luxury in top B schools and design colleges of the country. As a sustainable art enthusiast, Bandana elevates Indian Heritage and Culture. Her other interest lies in Indian Mythology, Mindful Meditation, and Cultural Diversity.

Dr. R. Shivaraman
Dr. R. Shivaraman, PhD (Nanotechnology – Magnetic Data Storage Devices) is one of the youngest PhD’s in Nanotech in the country. Having completed his Masters in Nanotechnology following his Bachelors (Computer Science), Shiva derives his expertise in a broad range of topics from the time spent in top research facilities such as University of Western Australia, Carnegie Mellon University, SRM University and Bhabha Atomic Research Center. Shiva co-founded Big Bang Boom Solutions, an indigenous defence solution provider and tech integrator. Big Bang Boom’s flagship product is its work on developing robotization and unmanned operations capabilities for the T-series Tanks (T-72 & T-90), India’s Main Battle Tank. Big Bang Boom also works on a BN based Hybrid Chobham Armor for individual use, use of drones for Riot Control, Blockchain for Defense Supply Chain Management, etc. Big Bang Boom in association with LOADs Korea won the DAPA Korea Defence Startup Challenge 2018 with a ground breaking solution to deploy Korean government’s proprietary defence tech to create an unmanned AI based autonomous pollution monitoring platform. After his academic career in which he published over 50 research papers and 2 patents, Shiva started his entrepreneurial journey with Accendere, a Research Incubation startup and spearheaded the Management Consultancy, Research Incubation and New Product Development verticals of Accendere. Accendere successfully established itself as the world’s first research capability augmentation company and counts amongst its client’s prestigious names such as the IITs and IIMs in addition to several other marquee private institutions across the world. Accendere went on the pioneer the WAIN platform to connect the academic research with its users / adapters from the industry creating a platform for funding, co-development and primary research acquisition. The WAIN platform has over 72k researchers and the students from RI’s around the country have managed to publish over 5000 high impact Research Papers and file several patents for indigenous developed technology. The “edtech” startup was incorporated with a capital of $2,000 (broke even in 2 months and 3 days - 63 days from date of incorporation) and the founders successful exited at a valuation of $4million after taking the merged conglomerate CL Educate Limited through a successful IPO (BSE & NSE) in March 2017. Shiva now serves as an investor and advisor for several startups such as • Empower Labs – Launched their flagship Augmented Reality Game ‘Delta T’ with over 70000 players in 150 countries. • Flique Sports – Semi-professional and casual football integrator with a proprietary platform to reengineer football scouting and recruiting mechanisms. • Hoo Food Innovations – A new age foodtech company reinventing ways to deliver and package food which a focus on bringing new cuisines from around the world into Indian consumption routine in a “hip” way. • Portmanteau Food Solutions – A homegrown food startup looking to reinvent traditional south Indian cuisine to international styles. As a researcher and a passionate educationist, Shiva is adept at solution engineering, and nurturing research potential across the country.

Maxima Basu
Maxima Basu is a costume designer, actress and director. With a phenomenal frontal experience in the industry, she has also worked for an international film "Echoes". Maxima is also an Earth lover and a scuba driver. She has worked for various films and has created a wardrobe ranging from majestic clothes to ragged clothes. Her wardrobe selection has intensified the films she was involved in. She has been the recipient of prestigious awards of screen such as the Guild Award for Best Costume Design (RamLeela), Screen Award for Best Costume Design (RamLeela) and Filmfare Award for Best Costume Design (Bajirao Mastani). She was the assistant director of Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

Prakash Khanzode
Prakash has a masters in Design from NID, Ahmedabad and a bachelors in Engineering from VJTI Mumbai. He is founder of Onio Design- a design & innovation consulting company for 22+ years. Prakash is passionate about innovation by Design and has helped international & domestic brands in creating highly innovative products under new categories. Currently focused on Design for Defence and Healthcare, Prakash works on cutting-edge technologies and new-age user requirements- relishes to provide support with hotbed of Innovation to many startups. Prakash has been instrumental in creating India’s first hospital bed design & first Bomb Disposal Robot, Daksh. Prakash also has been a visiting faculty at premier Design Institutes and is engaged in setting up new age Design Curriculums for a few rising institutes. Prakash believes that Design Thinking and Design Education would be hallmarks for all innovation-led economies and India has a lot to catch up on a global scale.

Nitin Zihani Choudhary
Nitin is a Production Designer, Art Director, Illustrator. He has won the Filmfare Award for the Best Production Design for Tumbbad (2018). Nitin is also known for Miniaturist of Junagadh (2021), Atrangi Re (2021), Ship of Theseus (2012). In this age where every movie is relying completely on CGI, Nitin believes in using the right amount of art and practical effects to get the most beautiful output on the screen.

Ketan Mehta

Film Director and Founder, Cosmos Maya

Masahiro Hara

Inventor of QR Code and Awarded European Inventor Award

Dr. Greg Autry

Clinical Professor of Space Leadership, Policy and Business, Arizonia State University, USA and Former White House Liaison at NASA

David Kusuma

President, World Design Organization

Suraja Kishore

Chief Executive Officer – BBDO India

Ketan Mehta
Founder & Chairman, Cosmos Maya | Indian Film Director

Recipient of National Film Award and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Masahiro Hara
Awarded European Inventor Award

From medicine to dining, QR code became the most effective post pandemic solution.

Witness the man whose invention has given the world the surge of touchless era.

We are beyond honoured to host Mr. Masahiro Hara the Inventor of QR Code at Ahmedabad Design Week 4.0.

Dr. Greg Autry
Dr. Greg Autry is a Clinical Professor of Space Leadership, Policy and Business in the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an Affiliate Professor with the Interplanetary Initiative at Arizona State University. He previously taught technology entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California, strategy, macroeconomics at the University of California at Irvine, and space entrepreneurship in an International Space University program at the Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Autry served on the 2016 NASA Agency Review Team and as the White House Liaison at NASA. He was nominated to serve as Chief Financial Officer pf NASA in 2020. Dr. Autry currently serves as Chair of the Safety Working Group on the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) at the FAA and as Vice President for Space Development at the National Space Society. Dr. Autry served for many years as Advisor and Senior Economist for the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a non-profit dedicated to reassessing U.S. Trade Policy. He is the coauthor, with Peter Navarro, of the groundbreaking bestseller, Death by China: Confronting the Dragon, a Global Call to Action and producer of the film version, narrated by Martin Sheen. Dr. Autry started his career as a software and network engineer and has founded and managed several businesses in the technology sector. His writings have been published in major news outlets including Foreign Policy, the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal and Space News. Dr. Autry has appeared frequently in major media outlets including the BBC, CNN and NPR. He has published several business case studies set in the commercial space sector through Harvard Business School Publishing. He serves on the editorial review boards of: The New Space Journal and The Journal Space Safety Engineering. Dr. Autry holds a BA from California Polytechnic University at Pomona and an MBA and PhD from the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.

David Kusuma
President, World Design Organization

Serves as Board Chair, Society of Plastics Engineers

Senior Vice President, Product Management & Innovation, Oregon Tool

Served as Vice President of Research & Innovation at Tupperware Brands Corporation

Developed 150 to 200 Tupperware products that were launched in more than 100 countries across world.

Suraja Kishore
Suraja believes creativity is the life force that expands our universe. He is passionate about nurturing creative energy to scale brands and business. He loves to work with like-hearted people who value doing good for people and planet as good business. Suraja loves juggling logic & magic, it is evident in his journey first as a copywriter, then as a strategic brand planner followed by leading business and clients. Prior to BBDO, Suraja has worked with McCann Erikson, Publicis and Lowe Lintas, India. He has worked on some iconic campaigns like Ariel #ShareTheLoad for P&G, #WhatAnIdea for Idea telecom, #JaagoRe for TATA Tea and #It’s between you for WhatsApp. Having worked with Unilever, VISA, Marico, P&G, Nestle, Godrej, Tata, Idea Cellular, Citibank, Ford and WhatsApp to name a few he has, over the years, built an enviable reputation in Indian advertising & marketing industry. He has been part of the jury for prestigious advertising & marketing awards such as the MRSI Golden Key Awards 2021, the Women Disruptors Awards, the Lisbon Ad Awards, the Drum's Digital Industries Awards and the Effies’ Awards. Suraja Kishore is the Founder of CCC – Post Graduate Programme in Crafting Creative Communication (CCC) at MICA, India’s most reputed creative programme in copywriting & art direction. He keeps his interest in academics alive as a visiting faculty to a few reputed management schools. ‘Nurture talents to grow business’ is his secret of success. A long-distance runner Suraja finds running meditational and he finds clarity while running that he shares it with the world on Instagram @skrunningthougths. He believes food is edible philosophy and that we are gifted a brand-new life every day.

Honey Bajaj

Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer, Stealth Health-tech). She was awarded Inventor of the Year 2016

Vinita Michael

Founder & Creative Director, Vinita Michael LLC

Yakup Bayrak

System Designer, Entrepreneur

S Sivakumar

Head – Industrial Design , Royal Enﬁeld

Sanjiv Waeerkar

Director, Ice Candy

Honey Bajaj
Honey Bajaj is a leader in innovation strategy and product design. She was awarded inventor of the year 2016 in San Francisco, a decade of Honey's work has demonstrated the leadership and technical talent to develop and deliver outstanding products. In 2019 she co-invented Embrace, a low-cost baby warmer which has saved over 200,000 babies across 22 countries. She designed and launched the Technology Entrepreneurship program at Indian School of Business Hyderabad, set up Studio 5B an innovation studio at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories to enable a patient-centric approach for innovation across business verticals. She holds degrees in English Literature, Product & UX Design from Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Master’s Degree in Engineering and Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and currently a PhD Fellow in Design & Technology. Her education at MIT was funded by Mr.Ratan Tata. She is also an Executive Member of Women Entrepreneurship Network at Niti Aayog.

Vinita Michael
Award winning jewelry designer and gemologist, Vinita’s eponymous label strives to bring together the magnificence of unique designs and intricate craftsmanship. Her pieces have adorned international celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra, Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone , to name a few. Besides developing collections for her own line, Vinita has also worked on special commissioned projects for international jewelry and hi fashion brands such as World Gold Council, Bluestone, Damas and Swarovski. Endorsing the importance of design in jewelry, she writes for jewelry and fashion magazines as a design columnist, and also conducts design workshops for aspiring designers as her schedule permits.

Yakup Bayrak
Yakup Bayrak is a Lycee Saint Joseph-originated Bogazici University graduate. Started his professional career at Akampus.com, one of the first venture-capital-backed Turkish startups and later on spent more than 14 years in e-business, digital agency management, and design consultancy on both agency and client-side such as Pure New Media and Bilge Adam, Microsoft’s Gold Learning Partner. Once he founded his first startup KeyFruit in 2009, he couldn’t get enough. Thus, he became a serial entrepreneur and founded SHERPA, a UX Design focused Design Studio, Turkey’s first Growth Hacking Consultancy Startup DAM Growth Hackers and tailor-made workshop organizer Dijital Stüdyo in 2014, Ciz.io, a digital toolset helping startup founders turn their ideas into up-and-running business models in 2015 and last but not least SHERPA Blog, Turkey’s one-of-a-kind UX design community platform. Starting in 2019, started exporting UX Design Services globally from the SHERPA London subsidiary. SHERPA joined forces with Turkey's leading cryptocurrency trading platform Paribu in January 2022. After this merger, Yakup Bayrak started to work as Chief Design Officer in Paribu, in addition to his duties at SHERPA. Father of two sons has one but a huge dream: “Bringing those together who will create and tell stories for the new digital world that can influence others to act.”

S Sivakumar
Sivakumar’s work with Royal Enfield has made him famous among the design fraternity. Native of Sikkal, near Tanjore, Sivakumar or CVA, as he is known in the industry, is from a renowned family of temple architects (sthapathis) and also a sculptor by himself. Apart from being an Industrial Design Specialist, he is a proficient Clay-Modeler too. His passion for Engineering and Art has made him to enter the field of Industrial Design. The Designer has worked only with two wheeler companies and has a special love for motorcycles. He believes that ‘Design is all about humanization of relevant technologies’ and at the same time he thinks every designer is responsible to create unique creations, which is possible only by having a great understanding of Rational and Emotional quotients of the society. He played a significant role in converting the business to a hugely successful one at Royal Enfield by establishing and leading an in-house Industrial Design department along with the contribution of some path breaking motorcycle designs in the industry. In the current role he is responsible for complete Industrial Design activities at Royal Enfield Design Studio - Chennai, right from the conversion of business idea to a product concept including Visualization & Digitization phases. Also he supports the realization phases of design and development in which he gets his team coordinated with the Engineering, Sourcing, MSE, Production and all Marketing functions. His department sub functions include Design Styling, CAS, CTG, Art & Modeling teams. He was also the First In-house motorcycle designer at Hero Honda where he established an Industrial design dept. and created a state-of-art design studio then there at Dharuhera. Some of his familiar Design projects that is highly recognized in the market are… Royal Enfield Classic 500 & 350 Royal Enfield Himalayan 410 Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 & 350

Sanjiv Waeerkar
Sanjiv is the Director of Ice candy, a company he started to cater to the increasing demand of creating original Indian content for the media and entertainment space. Sanjiv Waeerkar has been in the Animation Industry for the past 30 years and has a wealth of experience in this business. Sanjiv was a partner with Ronnie Screwvala in UTV Toons, and a pioneer in starting the outsourcing animation Business in India. After a decade of delivering animation TV series projects with the best of producers (Disney, Dreamworks, TV 12 Singapore etc) he moved on to work on the three 3D animation feature films “Arjun the warrior prince”,” Dream blanket “and “Alibaba and 41 thieves.” All produced by UTV toons. Sanjiv has also directed and produced, two TV Animation features titled “Cric X” and “The World champs”. “Cric X” got released on Disney XD in summer 2014. Sanjiv is the creator of “Bunty aur Billy” animation TV series aired on Disney’s channel. This series was co-produced by Ice candy and Toonz entertainment. The same show was titled “Cat vs Keet” on chootoonz channel where it is immensely popular and continues its popularity internationally.Sanjiv is the creator of "Simple Samosa" a show on local food items as chars. its Season 1 got released on Disney in summer 2018. This show is completely produced at Ice candy. Sanjiv is also a founding member of TASI, the most prominent animation body in India. He has been one of the spearheads and front-runner for the animation society of India. He is generally always invited to be a part of the jury for almost all International and National events catering to animation in India.

Kadambari Sahu

Senior Vice President - Design, ValueLabs

Anand Jha

Chief Design Officer, Miko

Sanyukta Shrestha

Designer

Shruti Kamath

Co-Founder & Creative Director, Athlos Activewear

Samir Chabukswar

Founder & CEO at YUJ Designs

Kadambari Sahu
Kadambari is an International multi-award-winning Designer and a Design Leader ( 170+ international awards ), working as SVP-Design at ValueLabs. She founded the User Experience Group at ValueLabs and is currently leading 50+ designers to create world-class, award-winning products and services to impact businesses and society positively. Her forte lies in building, growing, coaching, and mentoring high-performance design teams from scratch. She creates design culture by infusing design thinking within organizations and businesses to create a holistic strategy and customer experience. Her practice in design allows her to work on intangible and tangible aspects of design breaking the boundaries between physical, digital, and service design and creating a seamless experience across media, devices, touch-points, cultures, and geographies. She has worked for clients across geographies spanning North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Anand Jha

Anand Jha is the Chief Design Officer at Miko. With over 15 years of experience in design and product leadership, he has also served as the Vice President of Design at TATA 1mg. He has also been a panellist for Manufacturing design Leaders Roundtable and IOT Future Roadmaps.

We graciously welcome Mr. Anand Jha as one of our esteemed guest speakers at Ahmedabad Design Week 4.0.

Sanyukta Shrestha
A pioneer in Sustainable Luxury Women’s Wear and Bridal, Sanyukta Shrestha is a multi-award-winning designer with a cult following of women across the world celebrating the organic, vegan, luxurious, cruelty free handcrafted designs. Winner of ‘PETA Luxury Vegan Wedding Awards 2021’, Nepalese born British Designer has been recognised by the media as “the dawn of the sustainable movement”, “Green Goddess” and “the Greta of the Wedding World” and was among the first to introduce sustainability to the UK bridal industry in 2011. Honoured with several national & international awards for her graceful creations and innovative approach of empowering women in developing countries, one of the designer’s creations is preserved in The Fashion Museum, Bath UK since 2012 alongside pieces from Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Dior, and many historic treasures from the 16th century. Every design reflects many hours of meticulous work and pays tribute to the 1000 years old Nepalese Craftsmanship, creating a luxurious, sustainable and ethically made “one of a kind” gown. Her designs have been worn by celebrities like Victoria’s Secret supermodel Candice Swanepoel, American girl band Fifth Harmony, Soprano’s Natalie Coyle and Laura Wright and Amy Nuttall to name a few. Also seen at ‘The Oscars’, ‘BAFTA’, ‘Cannes’ and notable red carpets like Top Gun’s world premier and British Fashion Awards, Sanyukta Shrestha collection from ‘haute couture’ to ‘made to order’ are available at the London Flagship atelier and through selected stockists in the UK.

Shruti Kamath

Shruti is a co-founder and creative director at Athlos activewear. Her interests are art, design, active lifestyle and everything in its intersectionality. Through her work on brand building and designing functional apparel, she has established foundations for an aspirational activewear brand in India.

With Athlos, Shruti has built a brand from scratch while also heading the apparel design team. Balancing the cross-function between branding and product, the role has enabled creating products with strong personalities while keeping the customer at core of all design thinking.

Samir Chabukswar

Samir Chabukswar is the founder and CEO of YUJ Designs. With an experience of 2000+ projects, he is also a guest speaker at several national and international conferences.

We graciously welcome Mr. Samir Chabukswar as one of our esteemed guest speakers at Ahmedabad Design Week 4.0.

Prachi Sakhardande

Studio Head and Principal, Design & Research Microsoft

Lorenzo Imbesi

President, Cumulus

Tovi Sorga

Founder & Director, Tovi Sorga Design; Founder, ‘Alkemest Design

Harsh Wardhan

Innovation Program Lead, Google

Aman Mehta

Vice President - Product Design & User Experience, PharmEasy

Prachi Sakhardande
Prachi leads the Enterprise Commerce design studio at Microsoft. She has been a UX practitioner for the last 2 decades and has worked in various facets of the craft from HTML / CSS / Javascript coding to interaction design, user research, design led innovation and managing design and research teams. She has authored patents on UX design maturity framework that has enabled user experience to be an integral part of software quality assurance at a leading services IT company. In her current role, Prachi leads design and research studio for Microsoft's enterprise commerce experience.

Tovi Sorga
Tovi Sorga has been innovating and creating contactless wearables since 2016, when he began working with British bank, Barclaycard, to produce their first luxury payment bracelets. Since then, Tovi has designed payment wearables for corporate clients like Visa for the Women’s World Cup and Olympics, as well as access wearables for the hospitality industry and football clubs. His own branded luxury payment wearables, stocked in Selfridges department store, have received wide acclaim – with features on UK TV, as well as extensive press coverage across global publications like GQ, Cosmo, The Wall Street Journal and more. A print and accessories designer since 2009, Tovi has an innate aesthetic instinct and a discerning appreciation of what makes something truly wearable. He brings fashion and product design to technology, questing to make wearable tech as elegant and jewellery-like as possible - something beautiful of the highest quality, that the owner would be proud to show off. Having specialised in unique printed leather accessories, Tovi has more recently been innovating vegan wearables, working with his network of British and European manufacturers to pioneer 100% biodegradable accessories to make a completely sustainable range.

Harsh Wardhan
Innovation Program Lead, Google

Served as Sr. UX Researcher at Google.

Served as Product Manager and discipline scientist for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Risk at NASA JSC.

Served as Sr. Human Factors Engineer/Researcher at Leidos.Taught 1400+ engineers.

Specialisations include Product Management, Vision, Roadmapping, Persona Development, Cognitive Walkthrough, Business Development and more.

Aman Mehta

Aman Mehta is the Vice President of Product Design and User Experience at PharmEasy. With over 21 years of experience, he has also served as the Senior Vice President of UX Design at Zenoti.

We graciously welcome Mr. Aman Mehta as one of our esteemed guest speakers at Ahmedabad Design Week 4.0.

Daniel Boey

Fashion Director & Creative Curator, Daniel Boey Creatives and Author

Sanandan Sudhir

President & CEO - On2cook India Pvt. Ltd.

Siddhartha Jayakar

Founder & CEO, Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions

Daniel Boey

Daniel Boey is a Fashion Director and Creative Curator of Daniel Boey Pte. Ltd. He is recipient of the "ELLE Style Icon Award" and is widely recognised by the media as the "Godfather of Singapore Fashion."

We graciously welcome Mr. Daniel Boey as one of our esteemed guest speakers at Ahmedabad Design Week 4.0.

Siddhartha Jayakar
Siddhartha Jayakar is CEO and co-founder of Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions, a full-service Visual Effects Company that delivers world-class visual content to the global market. He has over 17 years of experience in the industry in both the US and India and has been credited on over 50 movies. He is also the recipient of the 2005 Visual Effects Society (VES) Award for his work on the DreamWorks Miniseries, Into the West. Siddhartha's innovative approaches and keen mind have led his company to become a force to reckon with, as they provide the finest productions in film television while still being economically viable. With clients like Marvel and Walt Disney Studios and projects which include John Wick 3 and Netflix's Sacred Games under their belt, Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions has proved itself as a globally renowned studio, with Siddhartha at its helm.

Aparna Piramal Raje

Author, Working Out of the Box: 40 Stories of Leading CEO, MBA, Harvard Business School

Revathi Kant

Chief Design Officer, Titan Company Ltd.

Amitabh Shrivastav

Founder, The Art Kommune

Manjri Vade

Contemporary Artist

Anar Patel

Founder, Craftroots

Kulin Lalbhai

Executive Director, Arvind Limited

Irakli Rusadze

Fashion Designer

Rajiv Sethi

Designer, Scenographer and Art Curator

Rajesh Kutty

Lead Interior Designer, Bentley Motors Ltd.

Alain Monnens

Studio Alain Monnens

Angela Guzman

Design Lead, Google

Ar. Rajiv Mishra

Director, Directorate of Art, Government of Mahrashtra and Principal, Sir J.J. College of Architecture

Carol Hanlon

Founder, TCF Global & BEC Global

Sanath PC

Founder & Sr. VFX Supervisor, Firefly Creative Studio

Sunil Sethi

President, Fashion Design Council of India

Julian Roberts

Fashion Designer and Academician

Pallavi Foley

Jewellery Designer and Artist

JoAnna Pettit-Almasude

Executive Director, The Red cART Studio

Uttam Pal Singh

Head, Discovery Kids, Discovery Communications India

Peter Bil’ak

Graphic and Typeface Designer

Stephen Mascarenhas

Founder & CEO, Cinegence Media Pvt. Ltd.

Manish Tripathi

Costume Designer of Ram Lalla

Ayesha Parikh

Founder – Art and Charlie

Abhimanyu Nohwar

Director – UX Design, Honeywell

Krishan Jagota

Head of Product Design - Sideways Consulting

Stephen Mascarenhas
Topic: From Classroom to Studio: Transitioning into VFX Industry Roles
Tips and strategies for students aiming to enter the VFX job market.

Stephen is the CEO and Founder of Cinegence VFX. With 25 years in the M&E Industry, he has been integral to the growth & success of Prime Focus and its 3D Stereo Division. Evangelizing careers in Visual Effects for People with Disabilities, his vision led to train & place over 30 People with Disabilities who have earned credits as VFX artists on some of the recent Hollywood and Bollywood films. He also won the National Award for his contribution to a paper on “STEM to STEAM” for Engineering Students at the National Teachers Congress in 2019. Stephen has also been a chef, an actor, a basketball coach, a teacher, a VO artist and a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports. Some of his recent work as VFX Producer for the work done by his team at Cinegence include Pathaan, Jawaan, Tiger 3, Upload Season 3, Class Elite, Scoop, Masaba Season 2, Guns N Gulaabs, Archie’s and Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan to name a few.

Manish Tripathi
A former National Advisor for Indian handloom brand, Manish has served as the official designer for IPL Governing Council and design partner at BCCI.
He has carved out a niche menswear and womenswear category through his leading labels AntarDESI and Naveli respectively. His current project being Design Mee, that serves bespoke fashion countrywide. His list of clientele ranges from eminent Bollywood celebrities to political figures.
He also puts special emphasis on contributing towards the upliftment of the handloom and handicraft industry of India. He has also been working with weavers community to revive the hand weaved fabrics in Indian and International Markets.

Ayesha Parikh
An art curator, Ms Parikh believes in the ability of art to transform society for the better. Her goal is to seek and experiment with innovative ways to increase people’s engagement with visual art. Ayesha Parikh has a background as an associate with McKinsey & Company

Abhimanyu Nohwar
Abhimanyu Nohwar is an Industrial Designer from the National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad. Over the past 20 years he has worked across most major sectors with a focus on UX Design, Industrial Design, New Product Innovation, Strategy, Policy, and Education. He founded and led a multiple award-winning multidisciplinary Design studio for 14 years; has written India’s policy on Design Education and Innovation in 2012; and most recently headed Strategic Design at BCG. Currently Abhimanyu is Director of User Experience Design at Honeywell.
He is deeply passionate about helping change mindsets towards openness and empathy for people and the planet, and finding ways to bring positive impact at scale. In his non-work life, Abhimanyu is a keen golfer and photographer, and enjoys travel and adventure.

Krishan Jagota
Krishan Jagota is the Head of Product Design. He designs products & experiences, lead the product design vertical & participate in brand strategy projects. Sideways is a one of its kind creative problem-solving company based out of Mumbai. It is a collection of people with different skill sets such as designers, technologists, behavioural architects, design researchers, business managers, writers and many more.

Sanath PC

Owner, Firefly creative studio Pvt Ltd

Uttam Pal Singh

Head, Kids Cluster, Warner Bros. Discovery

Mehak Mirza Prabhu

Corporate Storytelling Coach

Priyanka Sharma

Gujarat Bureau Chief - Republic TV

Merlin D’Souza

Founding Partner, Brandmusiq /Music Composer/Producer/Pianist at Music Mode

Sanath PC
In 2002, Sanath established Firefly in Hyderabad, partnering with Phani Eggone and Nagesh HN, both graduates of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The studio specializes in providing digital visual effects for Indian feature films and has gained a reputation as the premier choice for conceiving, designing, developing, and executing creatively and technically intricate visual effects scenes in Indian cinema. Firefly is particularly renowned for its expertise in visual effects design, creature animation, large-scale simulation, and destruction effects. Some of their notable projects include Anji (2004), Arundhati (2007), Magadheera (2009), Enthiran/Robot (2010), Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), Kayal (2014), and Baahubali The Beginning (2015). The visionary Visual Effects team at Firefly has earned numerous National, State, and Private Awards, contributing significantly to the development of a thriving visual effects ecosystem in Hyderabad and Southern India.

Uttam Pal Singh
Uttam has been in Kids content and Animation Industry for almost 20 years and has contributed to it in a 360-degree manner. From Animation to Design to Direction and Producing several award-winning Television series, Telefilms, Commercials, Campaigns, Corporate Films to now Heading a Kids Entertainment channel – Discovery Kids On his journey he has worked with leading Broadcasters, Advertising Agencies and Brands like - Cartoon Network, POGO, The Walt Disney Company, Channel [v], MTV, Star TV, Hungama TV, O&M, Leo Burnette, McDonalds, Future Group and currently Discovery Communications. He is the creative vision behind the rise of Discovery Kids in ranks, ratings and popularity recently and successfully launching a very popular and award winning series ‘Little Singham’ and the new favourite ‘Fukrey Boyzzz’ on Discovery Kids.

Mehak Mirza Prabhu
MEHAK MIRZA PRABHU, the founder of storytelling school “Jhumritalaiya” and, the life transformation program "Detangle.life", is a storyteller, poet, writer and a certified life coach. She has mentored over 500 students across the globe. She has written scripts for short films and web series for various media & productions houses and OTT platforms. She also dabbles as a creative director for live shows for various performing artists like mentalist Suhani Shah. She is renowned for her innovativeness in the art of storytelling through voice modulation and becoming various characters making her a power house performer.

Merlin D’Souza
Merlin D'Souza is an Indian composer and pianist from Bombay. She is a musician whose work includes composing for film, albums, theatre, and advertising. She is trained in western classical (Trinity College Performer's Licentiate) and liberated by jazz.Merlin's journey in theatre as a music director has seen her score for Alyque Padamsee's Romeo and Juliet, Pearl Padamsee's Godspell, Naseeruddin Shah's Julius Caesar, and Etienne Coutinho's Jazz., Raell Padamsee's: Sound of Music 2012, GREASE-2013.

Ankur Choksi

Co-Founder and Principal, Studio Lotus

Manish Bhatt

Founder Director - Scarecrow Communications Ltd.

Hariom Seth

Founder, Tagglabs

Saptarshi Prakash

Director of Design, Swiggy

Vijaybahu Joshi

Associate Vice President & Head of Experience Design, Jio Platforms Limited.

Ankur Choksi
Ankur Choksi, co-founder of Studio Lotus, has been a driving force behind its growth, particularly in Hospitality, Branded Experiences, and Adaptive Re-Use. With a two-decade career, Ankur is recognized for his diverse portfolio in Narrative-based Experiential Design, shaping Retail, Hospitality, Workspaces, and Brand Experiences. Studio Lotus is acclaimed as a thought leader, earning awards such as World Holiday Building of the Year, Hong Kong DFA Grand Jury Award, IIID Design Practice of the Year, and WAN Hotel of the Year. Ankur's interests extend to Design for Brands, Design Education, and catalysing positive change in communities through Design.

Manish Bhatt
Manish Bhatt, the Founder Director of Scarecrow Communications Ltd., gained global recognition by securing a spot among the top 16 independent agencies worldwide in 2015. Boasting a civil engineering background, Manish brings over two decades of advertising experience and shares a creative partnership with Raghu Bhatt spanning 19 years. His extensive career includes collaborations with renowned agencies like Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Contract, Ambience Publicis & Bates, accumulating a remarkable tally of over 150 national and 50 international awards. Manish's creative prowess earned him the No.2 (2006) and No.3 (2005) positions in the "Hottest Creative People from India" list by Campaign Brief Asia Magazine, Australia. Frequently invited to serve on esteemed award show juries like Cannes Lions, Adfest (Pattaya), and Goafest (Abby), Manish stands as a respected figure in the industry. Notably, he featured in a special list by Chitralekha Magazine, alongside prominent Gujaratis such as Narendra Modi, Ahmed Patel, Ashit Desai, Sanjay Lalbhai, and Amit Trivedi.

Hariom Seth
Mr Seth is an entrepreneur & creator of new media/ upcoming technology solutions and media digital products.
Any Early stage solutions require interconnected technologies that weave the “Fabric of the Future”.
He works on creating these fundamental technologies.

Saptarshi Prakash
An alumnae of IIT-Madras, Saptarshi Prakash is serving as Director of Design at Swiggy. He is a highly influential figure in the fields of design, startups & content creation and has conducted 100+ talks & workshops. Saptarshshi was also the founder of the Design Club of IIT Madras. He has the ability to explain complex concepts in a way that is easily understandable to everyone using everyday examples and analogies to simplify ideas.

Vijaybahu Joshi
Over 24 years of experience in Creativity Automation & Branding and Experience Design with expertise in areas of designing Automated Design Systems, UX Strategy Blue-Prints, Behavioural CX Audits, Interaction & Communication Design Solutions, Product Design, Exhibition Design, Brand DNA analysis, Design MI-Systems, Cognitive Branding, and Marketing Communication Design. In his current role, he manages multiple design portfolios and is engaged with various institutions and design events as faculty, guest speaker, jury member and more addressing diverse design issues related to neurodesign, national design policies, design practice, soft design skills, professional design practice and ethnography research methods.

Gautam Vazirani

Creative Strategist & Fashion Curator, RISE Worldwide

Dr. D Udaya Kumar

Designer of the Rupee Symbol

Aaquib Wani

Founder & Director, Aaquib Wani Design

Ashish Sompura

Chief Architect - Ram Mandir

Gaurav Juyal

Host, Art Attack India Learning Experience Designer

Gautam Vazirani
Gautam Vazirani has 16+ years of leadership experience in the fashion and lifestyle sector in India, working with corporates such as Raymond, Mahindra & Mahindra and RIL. He championed the movement for sustainability in the Indian fashion industry at Lakmè Fashion Week for over seven years. He has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Grazia and awarded ‘GQ 50 most influential young Indians’ for his game-changing initiatives. He began full-time pursuit of Vedanta - India’s ancient philosophy in 2020 under world-renowned philosopher, Swami A. Parthasarathy. His mission is to share enriching insights from the philosophy of Vedanta and help individuals, organisations to achieve a balanced and fulfilling existence.

Dr. D Udaya Kumar
Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is an Indian academic and designer noted for his design of the Indian rupee sign. His areas of interest include graphic design, typography, type design and design research with special focus on Tamil typography

Aaquib Wani
Aaquib Wani, Forbes 30 under 30 for Design ’21, is a self-taught experiential designer & art director with creative expertise in spaces, festivals, sets, interiors, interactive installations, weddings, visual, and graphic design, blending dynamic aesthetic palettes. Mr Wani has worked and collaborated with various brands including the international music festival - Lollapalooza, India Cricket Team, JSW for Asian Games, United Nations, Spotify, adidas, Coca Cola, MG Motors, Nestle and many more.

Ashish Sompura
Ashish Sompura is known for being an architect associated with the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, India. He is part of the Sompura family, which has a long tradition of temple architecture in India. Mr. sompura was also a part of Somnath Mahadev Mandir, Jain Temples of Delwara - Palitana Ranakpur, preserved archaic caves of Ajanta Ellora and some of the leading temple architects in India, UK, USA & Australia, Singapore & more . He is also a Guinness World Record holder Shri Akshar Purshottam Swaminarayan Temple at London.

Gaurav Juyal
Over 12 years of experience in formal & independent design education practices. Alumnus of National Institute of Design, his areas of specialisation includes design foundation studies, material intelligence, animation, student-centric curriculum development, art integration, multi-disciplinary learning and student culture in academic systems and is the founding faculty of Institute of Design in Jaipur.

Garima Maheshwari

Head of Design, Tanishq

Garima Maheshwari
Garima Maheshwari, the Head of Design at Tanishq, seamlessly combines scientific acumen with creative passion. Despite excelling in the field of science, she opted for Accessory Design at NIFT, finding the perfect balance between lifestyle design and technical intricacies. Her journey with Tanishq began during her graduation project, leading to a lasting association that allowed her to use design as a tool to create new and aspirational jewelry collections. Garima's unique background positions her to delve into the process of conceiving stylish and enduring concepts alongside her team. Her passion for jewelry design is rooted in the ability to go beyond mere aesthetics, using conceptual understanding and technical know-how to create a perfect fusion of science and art.

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© 2025 Ahmedabad Design Week. All Rights Reserved.

14th Feb, 2025	Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar	Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
10:15 - 10:30		Welcome ceremony (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )
10:00 - 13:00	Binoli Patel workshop (Venue :- G Block G33 )	Nidhi Sah workshop (Venue :- Maker’s Den)
10:30 - 11:30	Rohini Dandavate + Uday Dandavate Fireside Chat (Venue :- G Block G26 )	Gajesh Mitkari Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
11:00 - 13:00	IDO Design Studio Walk (Venue :- IDO Design Studio) Studio Carbon workshop (Venue :- Studio Carbon ) Clay Club Studio workshop (Venue :- Clay Club Studio)
11:45 - 12:45	Ajay Saran Sharma Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)	Kadambri Mishra Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
14:00 - 15:00		Dhisti Desai Fireside Chat (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
15:15 - 16:15	Uday Dandavate Book Reading (Venue :- G-Block G35 )
16:30 - 17:30		Niraj Shah DESIGN: WHERE IS THE HEART (Venue :- Amphitheatre )
09:00 - 17:00	KCEIL – Design Your Voice with Charumathi Muralidharan workshop (Venue :- G block- AV room) KCEIL- Vibe Vault – Design your own indigenous instruments. Learn how to play them with Leon Bob James Workshop (Venue :- G Block G28)
9:30 -	WDO Executive Committee Meeting (Venue :- University Secretariat ) WDO Board Members (Venue :- Visit to ADW )	WDO Board Members (Venue :- Visit to ADW )
10:30 - 18:00	Craft Mela (Venue :- Near F – Block ) DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh (Venue :- Basketball Court )	Craft Mela (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard ) Painting Exhibiton (Venue :- Rang Mahal ) Student Installations (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

15th Feb, 2025	Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar	Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
09:30 - 12:00	Inaugural + Venus Design Excellence Awards + Panel Discussion (Venue :- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Convention Center)
12:00 - 18:00	WDO Board Meeting (Venue :- University Secretariat )
10:30 - 13:00	Renu Pokharna Workshop (Venue :- G Block G34)
11:00 - 13:00	Digvijay Singh Studio Walk (Venue :- Digvijay Singh Studio )
14:00 - 15:00	Manish Bhatt Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium) Devina Kothari+Niraj Shah+ KIIF Fireside Chat (Venue :- G Block G28 )	Nikunj Goyal Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
14:00 - 16:00	Gajesh Mitkari Workshop (Venue :- G Block G26 )	Jay Thakkar Workshop (Venue :- Maker’s Den )
15:00 - 17:00	Indian Type Foundry Studio Walk (Venue :- Indian Type Foundry)
15:15 - 16:15	IIID Panel Discussion : Brand New World Panel Discussion (Venue :- G block- AV room ) Kriti Tula Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )	Munwar Khan Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
16:30 - 17:30	Kruti shah Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)	Niraj Shah Design: Timelessness in the Times of ‘Trending’ (Venue :- Amphitheatre )
10:30 - 18:00	Craft Mela (Venue :- Near F – Block ) DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh (Venue :- Basketball Court )	Craft Mela (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard ) Painting Exhibiton (Venue :- Rang Mahal ) Student Installations (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )

16th Feb, 2025	Karnavati University Campus, Gandhinagar	Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad
09:00 - 17:00	WDO Board Meeting (Venue :- University Secretariat)
10:30 - 11:30	Ankur Grover Speaker Session (Venue :- G block- AV room ) Bose Krisnamachari Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )	Atul Khola Fireside Chat (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box)
10:30 - 12:30		Savio Mascarenhas Workshop (Venue :- Maker’s Den)
11:45 - 12:45	Tribhuvan Babu Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium )	Devina Kothari Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
13:00 - 16:00	Anuj Sharma Workshop (Venue :- UID Fashion Studio )
14:00 - 15:00	Design meets AI – ADI Fireside chat (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)	Juhi Santani Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
14:00 - 16:00	Sheel Damani Workshop (Venue :- G Block G28 )	Gajesh Mitkari Workshop (Venue :- Maker’s Den)
15:15 - 16:15		Savio Mascarenhas Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
16:30 - 17:30	Gaurav Joshi Speaker Session (Venue :- D-block-Auditorium)	Uday Dandavate Speaker Session (Venue :- Urmila Kanoria Black Box )
16:30 -	Closing Ceremony ( 16:30 PM onwards) (Venue :- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Convention Center )
10:30 - 18:00	Craft Mela (Venue :- Near F – Block ) DOME-AIN of DREAMS : Immersive Exhibit by Himanshu Ghosh (Venue :- Basketball Court )	Craft Mela (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard ) Painting Exhibiton (Venue :- Rang Mahal ) Student Installations (Venue :- HVAC Courtyard )