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Service Design Global Conference 

Organised by the Service Design Network, the SDGC first took place in Amsterdam in 2008 and has since landed in other design capitals such as San Francisco, Stockholm, New York and Paris.

The SDGC is the premiere annual international conference in the field of service design; a design discipline focused on the design of services. Returning to Amsterdam after eight years, the conference consists of two buzzing and vibrant days with inspiring talks and intense breakout sessions under the title ‘Business as Unusual’. SDGC attendees have first-hand access to a global network of practitioners and researchers who are on the forefront of translating service design methodology to value in a broad variety of applications. Welcoming both starting and seasoned service designers as well as professionals from other backgrounds, the SDGC presents outstanding international projects and offers hands-on workshops covering service design implementation in varying sectors. Two of the keynote speakers are: 

- BMW’s Head of User Experience Holger Hampf will be speaking about how the digital world is rapidly becoming one with the automotive world and how it forms one of the greatest opportunities for the automotive industry. 

- Renowned service design manager Paula Bello from Livework will talk about building in-house service design competencies in large corporations. She will elaborate on a successful case that she realised when working as the first service design manager at Kone, global leader in the elevator and escalator industry. 

A programme of more than 22 hours of presentations and workshops will be offered to attendees from both the Dutch as well as the European and global service design communities. The full programme and list of speakers will be published in September. 

Service Design Award

In addition to the programme of speakers and workshops, SDGC will host this years’ Service Design Award Ceremony, with winners being announced across three categories. All finalists are presented with an on-site exhibition, providing insights into the most successful service design projects that have been developed and implemented throughout the last years. Previous winners included Designit in the category “Non-Profit/Public” with a project carried out by Oslo University Hospital that reduced waiting time for breast cancer patients by 90%. More information about last years’ winners can be found at www.service-design-award.com 

General information 

Ticket sales for SDGC on October 27th & 28th have now started at http://service-design-conference.com/home/. As a community founded to advance the practice of service design, the SDN also hosts two pre-conference events on October 26th: A Young Talent Day as well as SDN Member’s Day. More information about becoming an SDN member and the pre-conference programme is also available at http://service-design-conference.com/home/ 

Conference Ticket:
€850,- Non-Members
€710,- SDN Members Student Ticket
€425,- Non-Members  
€360,- SDN Members Membership Packages 
€925,- Professional incl. 1 conference ticket & 1-year SDN Professional Membership
€4,190,- Corporate incl. 5 conference tickets & 1-year SDN Corporate Membership 

More info at: www.service-design-conference.com 

About SDN 

The Service Design Network is recognised as the global leader in advancing the practice of service design. Through events, knowledge-sharing, news, case studies, publications, trend reports, an Award programme and local Chapters, it aims to both support service design practitioners and increase recognition of the field. The SDN Members community represents corporate, professional and student members, and is enlarged by a substantial online community of over 30,000 people. The SDN currently has 18 Chapters worldwide. 

About Service Design 

Service design is a design field which concerns itself with the design of services. Taking a customer-centred viewpoint, service designers work to improve the delivery of a service, with the aim of maximising value for both the customer and the service provider. A relatively young design discipline, service design can trace its roots back approximately 20 years. With today’s exponential growth of complex, often digital-led services – alongside the recognition of customer experience as a positive differentiator – service design is rapidly growing and evolving. Service design can be applied by companies large and small, as well as in government, healthcare and the wider public sector. Initially carried out in agency-client settings, service design work is increasingly being carried out in-house, with companies recognising the ability of service design to drive innovation and foster an “outside-in” way of thinking. Sharing the same customer focus of related disciplines such as User Experience design (UX) and customer experience (CX), service design touches on many facets of an organisation, from marketing and strategy to IT and innovation. 

SDN Management Board member Jesse Grimes: ‘The impact of service design is greater than ever. Service designers find themselves bearing more responsibilities as they design not only customer experience, but employee experience and organisational strategy as a whole. Service design is behind both incremental and transformational changes within government, public sector and non-governmental organisations, healthcare, education and more. Furthermore, its techniques are being applied to a broad range of activities, from policy-making to enterprise design strategy, and from innovation to the world of lean start-ups.’