Professor Gray will be speaking in the Innovation for Growth session about the shift from Designing Products and Services to Designing Experiences. His presentation will focus on how gaining understanding of behaviours and capturing the less tangible information can provide the platform for new ideas and the opportunity to gain competitive advantage in global markets.
“Companies increasingly need well differentiated products and services to compete and generate the growth essential to economic success. To achieve this they need to focus not just on the product or service but on creating innovative user experiences that will enhance their brand and reputation. I’m delighted to be speaking at the conference about a topic we live and breathe every day and hope to be contributing to a lively and memorable conversation with like-minded people," comments Phil Gray.
The Apeldoorn Conference is jointly organised by the British Council Netherlands, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The theme of this year’s event is The Life Cycle of a Brilliant Idea: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the UK and the Netherlands. Fifty British and 50 Dutch delegates, from the worlds of industry, science, academia, politics, government and civil society, will come together for three days to share ideas on how our two countries can build better, more open and connected innovation ecosystems at this time of economic uncertainty in Europe.
Quadro’s focus on this topic is based on its proven track record of identifying future needs and translating them into successful products and services that not only attract the end buyer but are also easy to use and deliver a memorable user experience.
Quadro’s participation at the event follows its recent acquisition by global technology and product development company Sagentia.
About Quadro Design Ltd
Professor Phil Gray and Morag Hutcheon founded Quadro Design Limited in 1998, an international strategic industrial design agency. With Phil taking the strategic lead and Morag, Creative Director, they provide a unique team that helps companies develop their business through the effective use of design. Phil is Visiting Professor of New Product Design in the School of Science and Technology at Middlesex University and a National Board Director of BDI (British Design Innovation). Morag received the coveted British Female Inventor Award in 2006 and Best Product Development 2006 prize and received the Chairman’s Medal from BFII (British Female Inventors and Innovators) in 2009.
About Sagentia Ltd
Sagentia is a global innovation, technology and product development company. It provides outsourced R&D consultancy services to start ups through to global market leaders in the medical, industrial and consumer sectors. With global headquarters in Cambridge, UK, and US headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, Sagentia works with clients from opportunity discovery through to concept generation and full product development and transfer to
manufacture. We deliver science and technology innovation and work with clients
to develop next generation products and services that provide commercial value
and market advantage.
About Apeldoorn Conferences
Apeldoorn Conferences are an important forum for the freshest thinkers from the Netherlands and the UK to meet, network and exchange great ideas and creative solutions to help solve 21st century challenges.
In 1999, Prime Ministers Wim Kok and Tony Blair decided to launch an annual bilateral conference series as part of the UK-Netherlands Framework For The Future. Their vision was to bring together a group of leading and promising thinkers from both countries on a regular basis to come up with creative solutions for issues of shared concern. The Apeldoorn: British-Dutch Dialogue Conference Series takes its name from the Dutch city of Apeldoorn, where the first ever conference took place in 2000.
Apeldoorn Conferences have become a forum where the most influential commentators, policymakers, politicians, business leaders, academics and civil society representatives from both sides of the North Sea come together to pool ideas, expertise and best practice, and create lasting relationships, alliances and networks.
Conferences take place on an annual basis, alternating between the UK and the Netherlands; they tackle a different contemporary theme each year. Attendance is strictly by invitation only.
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