Global businesses increasingly appreciate how design and design thinking can provide them with high-level, strategic value and competitive advantage. In an intensely competitive market, with ever more diverse and demanding customers, executives are often left unsure of exactly what products, communications and services to create for what segments of the market. Design, with its ability to understand users, redefine problems and create systemic, human-centered solutions, can help companies better understand their customer’s daily lives, and lead directly to valuable (and valued) offerings that are effectively tailored to their market.

The value of design for business was the subject of the Institute of Design’s 2003 HITS (Humans Interaction Technology Strategy) Conference (http://www.id.iit.edu/events/hits), which had the specific focus of how interaction design, in its broadest sense, can create business value. HITS was a great success, and the feedback from our audience was clear: more conferences addressing the design-business link are needed. While many organizations are starting to incorporate design thinking into their overall strategy, there is still much work to do to bridge the worlds of design and business.

The Institute of Design Strategy Conference seeks to help build this bridge. It is intended to be a business conference discussing design, rather than a design conference discussing business. Participants will be the leaders of strategy and innovation from their firms, as well as those who aspire to leadership positions in these areas. It will be loosely structured, creating many opportunities for informal discussion during breaks and meals. By doing this we expect to foster connections between business leaders and design leaders in a way that is interesting, informative and fun.

About the Institute of Design
Since its founding as the New Bauhaus in 1937, the Institute of Design (www.id.iit.edu) has grown into the largest full-time graduate design program in the U.S. The school offers professional Master of Design degrees concentrating in communication design, design planning, design research, and product design. It created the country’s first Ph.D. design program in 1991, pioneering the development of an international community of basic research in design methods. The Institute of Design also offers a nine-month (or two to three year part-time) executive Master of Design Methods degree for mid-career designers and managers seeking the latest design methods to use in leading corporate innovation.

About the Corporate Design Foundation
Corporate Design Foundation is a nonprofit educational and research organization founded on the belief that individual and organizational interests can best be served through the effective use of design disciplines: product design, communication design and architecture. It is the mission of the Foundation to improve the quality of life and effectiveness of organizations through design. At the heart of this mission is a desire to expand the awareness of design through the education of corporate leaders, managers and public sector executives. Through its programs, the Foundation promotes the research and documentation of the impact of design in business, and the development of new teaching curricula and materials  for use in business education.

About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for communication design, is committed to furthering excellence in communication design as a broadly-defined discipline, strategic tool for business and cultural force. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts. AIGA is the oldest and largest membership association for professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing. Founded as the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1914 as a small, exclusive club, AIGA now represents more than 16,000 designers through national activities and local programs developed by 48 chapters and more than 150 student groups.

About Fast Company
Fast Company’s service-oriented business journalism delivers compelling ideas and solutions to a new generation of leaders. The magazine helps them think smarter and lead better by deciphering the crosscurrents of a fast, constantly changing world, and uncovering the best thinking in practice. Traditional magazines try to move markets. Fast Company moves the minds that move markets.