Australia’s longest running design trade event returns to Sydney in a new location, Sydney Exhibition Centre at Glebe Island. Visitors this year will be welcomed by an interactive entrance feature designed by Studio Design UK. Inspired by the designEX logo, the entrance incorporates multiple layers of carpet and a video mapping system. Other design features include a private meeting room, The Connection, a lighting design installation created by The Lighting Council and Illumnating Engineers Society and the a series of vignettes showcasing workplace design innovation created by futurespace.

Trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort is headlining this year’s speaker series themed The Future of Design. Edelkoort has worked with in industries from fashion and textiles to interiors and even banking. She has curated exhibition at Museum of Architecture in Moscow, Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne and Issey Miyake’s 21 21 Design Sight in Tokyo. Edelkoort will be speaking about architecture and lifestyle trends up to 2016.

There will also be workshops on materials and manufacturing technologies and designing for health and wellbeing. The workshops are designed to build on the themes and ideas presented in the speaker series and applied for everyday practice.

DesignEX will partner with The Other Hemisphere to bring a taste of cutting edge design from Milan Furniture Fair’s Ventura Lambrate, as well as showcase emerging Australian and New Zealand design talent.

28 - 30 May
Sydney Exhibition Centre
Glebe Island