Civic Design 2021
December 8-10 | a virtual conference
A new conference for people who work in the intersection of design and the public sector.
View ProgramAbout #CD2021
Civic Design 2021 is for designers and researchers of all stripes—User Experience, Customer Experience, Service Design, and more—who work in or with the public sector. These designers are often new to the public sector, its culture, and how it gets things done—and haven’t been exposed to the public sector’s best practices. In fact, there are few opportunities to learn those best practices because civic design itself is barely defined or established. At Civic Design 2021, designers will benefit from a professionally curated, high quality, and inclusive conference that will help them to:
- Define and understand what it means to be a civic designer
- Learn how civic design makes an impact through practical sessions presented by experienced veterans of the public sector
- Consider how their work can and must impact the public sector’s future
Program Themes
Theme 1: Civic Design Today
What is our shared definition of civic design? We’ll take a clear-eyed, global look at the role and influence of design in local, state and provincial, and national governments. We’ll see how scale and location influence the delivery of accessible, inclusive, and responsive design solutions. We’ll define what civic design is in 2021, reflect on and learn from the work of our community, and establish a foundation for the practice for years to come.
Theme 2: Civic Design Tools and Mindsets
What mindsets and tools do we need as individuals and in our organizations for civic design to be successful? We’ll explore how civic designers are evolving organizational mindsets through relationships and systemic solutions. We’ll see approaches for embedding accessibility and inclusivity from the start. We’ll learn how governments can buy better design services, and how design industry and policy professionals can become effective civic designers.
Theme 3: Civic Futures
Where is civic design headed? We’ll knit together insights we heard from the current state of civic design with a look out over a hundred-year trajectory to explore how we might rise to meet the challenges faced by current and future generations. We’ll consider ways of working, ways of being, and necessary considerations for safeguarding our physical and digital selves in order to create the futures we want.
