BDW is the biggest creative and educational festival of the region, aiming to give first-hand education to and bring together over 1,200 professionals of the southeast Europe region - in the course of 6 days, and through conferences, roundtables, case studies and creative process showcases. At the same time, BDW will carry out analysis of the local situations of regional transitions in order to educate 100 of the most creative people so that they can deal with problems facing local management systems in spheres of economy, business and state administration.
The First Belgrade Design Week festival sets out with a two-day conference market², a first ever speed-dating of the most important creative people in our advertising, all at one place and in one day.
The first day - The most significant local advertising, branding and design agencies as well as independent experts, will showcase their most successful projects in fast-moving, stimulating 20-minute individual presentations. The agency owners, creative directors, independent art directors and designers will all be offered an opportunity to point out and illustrate the differences in the methodology of creative processes. If you ever wondered how and where to choose an agency in Serbia custom-tailored to fit your needs, this is your day.
The second day of the market² conference is at least equally interesting. It is dedicated to the round table discussions on the four most important branches in the future development of business in Serbia commerce, the industry of food and beverages, tourism and finally the entertainment and media industry. Directors of the largest trade chains, banks, etc, will talk about the triumphs and flops in the retail war for power in the streets of Serbia; directors of the leading media houses, media producers and creatives will cross swords and join issues about the development of Belgrade as the centre of entertainment industry of the region covering 50 million people; the leading experts in tourism, historians and publicists will outline an identity of the City of Belgrade applicable to tourism; creators of the established and the new food brands from Serbia will go into details about strategies of penetration new global and regional markets.
You will have first-hand knowledge of how the major decision makers in the Serbian market think and react, and what are their plans.
The third and the fourth day are reserved for the central event of the festival: two days branding conference, the brand². This event can change the business-scape of Serbia forever, with 20 of the most important global experts bringing over their priceless experience as brand-leaders, both as the owners of the most important global brands and as their designers! This kind of a branding mega-stars line-up, all at one place, has probably never been seen anywhere! This is the reason why already in the first announcement of the festival, the BDW received booking for over 50% of the total number of tickets from the international guests, from London to Athens.
Equally spectacular event for all those who understand the significance of design in the modern world is a two-day conference design², taking place on the fifth and the sixth day of the festival. Its focus is the tangible, industrial design: product design and fashion. Guests and participants at the first day are today's biggest celebrities, who never before attended the same conference together: Gaetano Pesce, Karim Rashid, Konstantin Grcic, Ross Lovegrove, Luigi Colani..., as well as the Serbian stars of global design: Branko Lukić, Saša Lakić, Darko Mladenović... who will help us recognize and appreciate importance of design in the battle for a good place at the market. The festival closes with an afternoon session dedicated to fashion. All these years, fashion has been in the eye of the domestic public, but never in such a way and never with such guests. Why and how fashion is inextricably linked to creating and managing the commercial concepts and trends? This topic will be tackled through a series of panels by a host of top designers, stylists and photographers who shape the European and local scene. This day is a unique opportunity for fashion experts and connoisseurs who ever wanted to enter the fashion business backstage!
Beograd² will seize the streets and the facilities of Belgrade during the third week of April. If you want to participate in the beograd² event, we suggest you visit the gallery nearby, or the nearby museum or the festival info centre where you can get Belgrade Design Week guidebooks and programs. The moment you are on the streets of Belgrade April 17 through April 22, you are already at one of the beograd² events an exhibition, a presentation, a cocktail party, a topic discussion.
BDW PATRONS:
The City of Belgrade
The Sava Centar
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia
Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Serbia
Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Services of the Republic of Serbia
Ministry of International Economic Relations of the Republic of Serbia
Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Serbia
Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Serbian Chamber of Commerce
ASerbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA)
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)