We all are living in a rapidly changing world. And the way to thrive in this world is to keep on innovating. Where in innovation today is inextricably linked with design—and design has become a decisive advantage in countless industries. Design is not only about aesthetics but very much about how it functions and how it solves users' problems.

Apple’s rise offers a few important lessons about today’s connection between design and business. Moreover, tech startups like Airbnb, Uber, Slack and our own Zomato do have an edge over their competitors because they have incorporated strategic design into their day to day operations.

Headstart Ahmedabad along with Antrapreneur - The Business Incubator  and L J Group of Institutes wants you to leverage product design fundamentals to give an edge to your products and your organization. We have invited design stalwarts to share their valuable insights on this topic.

Speakers

Prof. Vinai Kumar, Design and NPD, and Design-led Innovation Professional

A man who’s been an integral part of the industry for over 25 years, Mr. Vinai Kumar now specializes in User Centred Design. He has worked with world-renowned institutions like National Institute of Design (NID), Human Factors International, (Pondicherry), Infosys Technologies (Bangalore), University at Buffalo, (New York). He’s consulted with British Telecom, Ipswich, U.K. and has conducted lectures and workshops globally, from India to America and Singapore. He is known for teaching Design Thinking in a manner that can be applied to almost any field from science to the business sector. 

Mr. Abhishek Jain, Design Consultant & Arts Educator

Abhishek is a creative consultant to various individuals, start-ups & corporates in India, UK and Canada. He is also a proactive proponent of organic, disruptive & creative education.

Starting out as a coder in 2001, Abhishek had a strong affinity towards art and design which inspired him to switch fields. He graduated with honours in graphic design from the Camberwell College of Arts, and has worked as a designer, developer and an educator across a range of media, including coding, graphic & web design, UX driven interfaces for screen and touch based devices, development of smart television apps, photo & cinematography. He has worked with Ahmedabad University, Better We, CIIE (IIMA),
CNN, Covent Garden Academy of Flowers, Everywoman Ltd, Get My Book, Hemkund Horticulture, Lalbhai Group, London College of Fashion, Sky Broadcasting, Southwark Council, University of the Arts London, Venture Studio, Winny Immigration and others.

Mr. Pritesh Bhatia, Founder, Street Notion Innovations | Asst. Professor, GLS Institute of Design

Pritesh Bhatia is a Post Graduate in Product Design from MIT Institute of Design, Pune. He has worked as Research Fellow in National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad where he was mainly involved with Value Addition, Research & Development of Grassroot Innovations. He has launched few of his conceptual products in commercial market in area of Food & Hospitality. All his work largely focuses on employment generation & micro entrepreneurship.

His work is covered in print media and also published at National level. He also has few Design Patents in his name along with couple other applied under Patent Act. His project ‘’Portable Food Kiosk’’ was shortlisted for National Innovation Awards, 2015.

Headstart is proud to be supporting organization for Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit being organized on Oct 21-22, 2016 at Mahatma Mandri, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. We encourage our community members to participate. Feel free to reach out to us in case of any queries related to the same. More details at http://vgstartup.com/

We're also organizing Product Showcase as a part of this event. This will be a great platform for product startups from Gujarat to showcase their product to a larger audience. Fill the form in below link to nominate your startup for showcase. Selected startups will get 10-15 mins slot to demo their product.

Product Showcase Nomination Form: https://goo.gl/forms/tktZB4B7KayoAKtz1