The World Design Organization (WDO), announced at its general meeting held on February 24, 2022, that the World Design Assembly will be held in Tokyo in 2023. JDP submitted a bid for "Tokyo" as the host city for the 2023 event last June, and was shortlisted along with Alicante, Spain. The World Design Assembly has been held in Kyoto in 1973 and Nagoya in 1989, and this will be the third time in 34 years that the conference will be held in Japan.

The World Design Assembly is a three-day event with the WDO's biennial General Assembly at its core. It is an international forum where WDO members and others from around the world gather to discuss design education, the relationship between design and social themes and issues, and prospects for the future.

The theme for the 33rd World Design Assembly is "Design Beyond - Renaissance for Convivial Society"

The experience of the Corona disaster has made us reaffirm the concept of "design" as a mechanism for realizing human life in a humane way, and we have also reexamined design to date, which has focused on creating new businesses through innovation and solutions, and have come to realize that "gaining the feeling of fullness" lies beyond this concept. The purpose of this event is to consider what design can be to achieve it. 

WDO 33rd World Design Assembly Outline

Dates (tentative): Friday, October 27 - Sunday, October 29, 2023

Location (planned): Chiba University Design Research Institute, Tokyo Midtown, etc.

Executive Committee Chairperson: Mr. Kazuo Tanaka (WDO Regional Advisor,  President and CEO, GK Design Organization, Inc.,  Executive Advisor, Japan Industrial Design Association)

Administrative Secretariat (tentative): Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan Industrial Design Association, Tama Art University, Chiba University, Musashino Art University

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