Insight India 2006-London

I have just returned after successfully organising 'Insight India 2006'roundtable in London, under the ambit of London Design Festival.This roundtable was organised by Onio Design in collaboration with Style-Visionof France. This first of its kind event organised by any Indian Design companyabroad, was attended by likes of Head of Design Procter & Gamble (Beautyproducts- USA), Steelcase (Office Furniture- USA), Hitachi (ConsumerElectronics), Pearl Fisher (Trends Consulting, USA), Symrise (Perfumes and FoodDesign, Singapore) etc.Aim of this event was to sensitize the European and American companies on DesignInsights and Consumer Trends for India.Onio also promoted the cause of Indian design by showcasing the works of twoother Indian designers there i.e. Abhijit Bansod (chief designer of Titan) andYogesh Purohit (Textile Designer). Other speakers included David Griffiths (heis a part of this egroup as well) and Prof. Venkat S. from IIIT.Participants were pleasantly surpised when they saw the quality of designunderstanding displayed through the case-studies and usage of cutting-edge toolslike Trend Research by design comapnies in India.Generally speaking, a very little information is available to world outside (notto talk of the awareness within the country), about Indian Design even afterseveral decades of presence of design in India. There is a significant amount of'visibility' work needs to be done by anybody and everybody connected to IndianDesign. I think we require Design Summits to be organised not only in India butall across the world. I am sure CII/FICCI is listenling....(in want of a DesignCouncil) ...Onio is now planning for a similar event in New York (USA), in collaborationwith Style-Vision again. Though the contents and precise structure is notfinalised yet, but surely Onio would like to take along some upcoming andinterested design companies. Do get in touch with the undersigned for the same.There is a huge update pending from London Design Festival...specially from theCII delegation...