Great news for everyone wanting to get involved with the festival. We’re extending the deadline to submit a talk or workshop from today (2nd March) to Friday 27th April.

So why the extension? We’ve had so many great entries already, and will be getting in touch with folks who’ve submitted over the next week or so to keep you updated on progress. We recently adjusted our timelines for delivering the festival programme and wanted to give longer for folk around the country to hear about us, and with the imminent comprehensive speaker announcement we felt that the call for entries should continue whilst we put the finishing touches to the festival in case any hidden gems arise.

However don’t delay! The longer you leave it to submit the less chance you have of being successful. There’s limited space left in the programme and we wouldn’t want you to miss out.

You can submit to be part of the festival here.

What we’re looking for from speakers / workshops

Not submitted to speak / run an event yet? Here’s some of the things we’re looking for from our submissions:

Creating a programme that’s representative

Last month festival co-director Dan did an interview with FormFiftyFive (link) that touched on the struggles with creating a diverse programme in the design industry in comparison to the broader arts. It’s really important to us to have good representation in our speakers throughout the festival, but so far submissions have been 80% male and almost entirely from white British / European folk.

We’ve been approaching outstanding women and people of colour throughout the build up and will continue to do so, but if you can help point us in the direction of some great speakers, or submit yourself for a talk / workshop it would help so much to ensure the festival is as diverse as possible. Equally if you are part of the LGBT community we want to hear from you too.

People from Birmingham

We want to hear from the people who have originated from or live and work in our fair city. This festival is a celebration of the local, national and international design scene. It’s really important to us to celebrate what’s good about the city, and shout it from the rafters. If you’re doing great work or have something interesting to say please get in touch.

An interesting approach, idea or challenge

We’re really looking forward to hearing about the great work designers are doing around the country, and some case studies really are worth putting on a pedestal. But we also want to make sure the festival is filled with really great design thinking, because after all there’s only so many times you can hear about ‘how we designed this thing for X’, so consider this when writing your application. We’d love to hear from people who are pushing the boundaries of technology, doing something incredibly different to their peers as well as people who focus on accessibility, race or gender issues in design.

Workshops for kids

We’ve got a few workshops planned for the little folk already, but if you think you can do a great one we’ve got some lovely spaces to engage with the next generation. This can be based around design, illustration, architecture, textiles, or something entirely different that touches on design – submit now describing the activity.

Some missing links in our programme

If you work in the gaming industry, service design, product design (physical), fashion or installation please submit a talk.