The full-day conference brings together internationally renowned speakers who will highlight current trends, visionary impulses, and interdisciplinary design perspectives related to this year’s theme through talks and panel discussions. Following the daytime program, we invite you to join the mcbw get-together to wind down the evening and connect with one another.
With this exceptional line-up, the Design Summit becomes a day that is as dense as it is inspiring: from creative wellbeing and design as a mindset to AI, future labs, and design-driven innovation, all the way to architecture. Theory and practice, critical reflection and radical curiosity interlock seamlessly—creating a program that opens up perspectives, connects disciplines, and sparks renewed enthusiasm for shaping the future.
Alice Rawsthorn
Alice Rawsthorn is an award-winning design critic and author based in London. Her books include Design as an Attitude and, most recently, Design Emergency: Building a Better Future—co-written with Paola Antonelli, senior design curator at MoMA, New York. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and her weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade.
Roberto Verganti
Roberto Verganti holds the Josefsson Family Chair in Art and Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics—House of Innovation. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches Design Theory and Practice, and a co-founder of Leadin’Lab, the laboratory for Leadership, Design, and Innovation at Politecnico di Milano.
Marije Vogelzang
Marije Vogelzang is a visionary designer, speaker, and author, and has been a pioneer in food design since 1999. Her work has been showcased worldwide through exhibitions, installations, performances, dinners, and workshops that explore food from a design perspective. She teaches at various institutions, art schools, culinary schools, businesses, and through her online program.
Friedrich von Borries
Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Borries teaches Design Theory at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and works at the sociopolitical intersections of architecture, design, and art. Together with Alexander Doudkin, he co-founded getminds.ai, a platform that uses AI to open up diverse perspectives.
Emmi Salonen
Emmi Salonen is a designer and educator who founded the London-based Studio Emmi in 2005. Her work focuses on Positive Creativity—the idea that design can connect people, enhance wellbeing, and support sustainable choices. She is the author and designer of The Creative Wellbeing Handbook (BIS Publishers) and the creator of the Creative Ecosystem model, which helps reduce stress and burnout.
Hideaki Ogawa
Hideaki Ogawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, and has been based in Linz, Austria since 2007. He has worked as an artist, curator, and researcher at Ars Electronica and is now the Artistic Director of the Ars Electronica Futurelab, the organization’s R&D division, as well as Director of the Sapporo International Art Festival 2024 and Creative Director of Civic Creative Base Tokyo.
Michele Rossi
Michele Rossi is a partner and co-founder of Park Associati. An architecture graduate from Politecnico di Milano, he has also taught for many years, giving lectures at London’s St. Martin’s School of Art and at Politecnico di Milano.
Jessie Storey
Jessie Storey leads Product Development in EMEA for Steelcase, shaping products and experiences for the evolving world of work. She and her teams explore the intersection of technology, behavior, and space to create insight-driven design solutions.
You can find more information on our website: https://www.mcbw.de/en/design-summit-2026
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