Design Thinking Ghana Conference (DTGC2018)

*Want to reserve a ticket and pick up at the gate? http://bit.ly/DTGC2018Reserve  (options include 1-Day tickets)

The Design Thinking Ghana Conference (DTGC) is Africa’s premier Design Thinking conference. The goal of the conference is to bring attention to Design Thinking as a strategic problem solving and innovation process or tool, provide a platform for presentations on the application of this methodology in industry and point the audience to ways in which they can be more successful if they apply the insights and knowledge from the conference.   Last year, DTGC2017 engaged an international audience of Ghanaians and expatriates in presentations, mini-workshops, design charrettes and great networking activities.

This year, DTGC2018 is bigger and better, featuring a Design Thinking Week that culminates in a two-day conference  of exciting and educational activities.

DTGC2018 has the theme “Doing Design Thinking” featuring two program tracks: Competitive Advantage and Social impact. We believe that a reliable way to gain competitive advantage is to gain deep customer or user insights in order to better understand the customers’ needs to provide the best solution. If customers enjoy the best solution, their level of satisfaction will sustain the company’s business and also ensure the greatest impact.

Here are some descriptors of the value that the audience will get from the two tracks at the conference:

1. Participants will learn how to gather deep customer or user and market insights in ways that their competitors will not be able to fathom.
2. Participants will learn to unpack user needs and explore the best ways and practices of developing solutions to delight these users.
3. Participants will acquire the right tools for conceptualizing and testing their solutions, in the local and global context.
4. Participants will learn to explore opportunities for social innovation in pressing socioeconomic spaces.
5. Participants will get better appreciation for relevant stakeholders needed to bring a creative collaborative focus to social issues.
6. Participants will also learn how to build strong and sustainable business models for social impact. 

With deep customer insight, companies are sometimes able to create value beyond what their competitors offer and make significant impact.

There are many ways of unearthing deep customer insights, but the Design Thinking approach has gained much ground, recently, in the business world and this year’s conference promises to be revealing and insightful. 

Design Thinking Week: The Week-long program includes the following (stay tuned for more details):

• 2-day Fast Forward in Design Thinking Workshop
• Design activities with our partner organizations
• 2-day Design Thinking Conference
  • Keynotes
  • Invited project presentations
  • Panel Discussions
  • Breakout Sessions
  • Networking

Design Thinking Introductory Workshop

The HPI d-school at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, is running a 2-day design thinking workshop (space limited) as part of the DTGC2018 Design Thinking Week. Dr Rael Futerman, Program Manager at the d-school, will take participants through an action-based Design Thinking workshop. This workshop will introduce participants to Design Thinking tools, methods and mindsets. The UCT chapter of the d-school is the newest and third Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking in the world, joining the well-established d-schools at Stanford and Potsdam Universities. Outcomes from this workshop will be presented by participant teams during the opening of the conference.

Conference Keynotes

Dr Rael Futerman: We are excited to have Dr Rael Futerman, Program Manager at the HPI d-school at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, delivering a keynote address.

Arne Van Oosterom: We are also excited to have Arne Van Oosterom, Founder of the Design Thinkers Group, DesignThinkers Group, DesignThinkers Academy, and Design Thinking Network.  Design Thinkers Group is one of our key note speakers. The Design Thinkers Group is  one of the leading ‘design driven’ Innovation Agencies facilitating organizations around the world and we are pleased to have Arne as one of our keynote speakers. 

Presentations and other Sessions

We will have power talks that will inspire the audience to embrace Design Thinking further and invited presentations from organizations and groups that have used the Design Thinking process for projects in both areas of the conference theme. We also have sessions that help us dive a bit deeper into the Design Thinking skills and breakout sessions for the audience to network in areas of interest. 

Registration

We have a few categories for registration:

2-Day HPI d.school @ UCT, South Africa, Workshop:

Pay GHS 600 for the 2-day workshop and attend the 2-day conference for free. Limited seats. Certificates awarded.

2-Day Conference:

Regular Package Individual:

• Conference: GHS 200
• Early Bird: GHS150 (Ends 25^th May 2018)
• Tertiary Students: GHS 100 (Present ID Card)

Special Corporate Engagement:

• Pay a discounted conference registration for a minimum of 4 staff members at GHS 150 per staff.

                 THEN…

• Register your company to submit a problem/challenge to be used for a

workshop/breakout session if approved (additional GHS 500 to get a short-curated report).

                    OR…

• Register your staff in a 2-day post-conference design sprint where they work on a project of the company’s choosing from the stages of Problem to Prototype (additional GHS 300 per staff).

Workshop Dates:

2-Day d.school UCT, South Africa Workshop: June 20th and 21st, 2018

 Conference dates:

2-Day Conference: June 22nd and 23rd, 2018

Venue: CEIBS Academic Centre, 5 Monrovia Road, East Legon.

Time: 9AM – 5PM Each day.

Want to volunteer? - http://bit.ly/DTGC2018Volunteers

Want to get on the waitlist for scholarship to attend the conference? http://bit.ly/DTGC2018Waitlist

Want to reserve a ticket and pick up at the gate? http://bit.ly/DTGC2018Reserve