Dezeen Magazine

MCBW Hit the future Bioplastic Fantastic. Photo by Christian Schmeer

Munich Creative Business Week 2015 announces events programme

Dezeen promotion: the programme of talks, conferences and exhibitions for this month's Munich Creative Business Week is now available to view on the event's website.

Taking place from 21 February to 1 March, Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW) will host events across the Bavarian capital.

MCBW 2015 Ingo Maurer
Products by Ingo Maurer, who is set to take part in MCBW. Main image: Bioplastic Fantastic by Johanna Schmeer, part of the Hit The Future exhibition

The theme for this year's festival is Metropolitan Ideas, which will include an exhibition about mobile cities at the BMW Pavilion in Lenbachplatz and a series of conferences taking place during the MCBW Forum at the Alte Kongresshalle.

Also at the same venue as the forum, innovative projects at the interface between architecture and urban planning by emerging designers will be presented at the Hit The Future – Metropolitan Design.

MCBW Hit the future MOBILEHOSPITALITY NY
Mobile Hospitality by chmara.rosinke, pictured in New York, will feature in the Hit The Future exhibition

During the interdisciplinary match-making platform, titled MCBW Start Up, each day will centre around a different theme: augmented reality, animation and transmedia.

At the Neue Sammlung design museum, an exhibition of furniture by Italian brand Mattiazzi is set to include pieces by designers Konstantin Grcic, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Jasper Morrison, Sam Hecht and Nitzan Cohen.

MCBW 2015 Kraemersche by KunstmÅhle_dezeen

Projects shortlisted for the Bavarian State Award for Young Designers 2014 will be presented at the BMW Museum, along with a new temporary exhibition about MINI that will display around 300 original cars from 1959 until today.

To see the full programme, find out more about specific events and to register to attend, visit the MCBW website.

Read on for more information from the organisers:


Munich Creative Business Week – the international design event in Germany

The program for Germany's biggest design event for customers and contractors, the Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW), is now available online. The host, Bayern Design GmbH, is offering a range of new innovations and an extensive program for experts and the interested public. With the topic Metropolitan Ideas, a guiding theme has been defined for the first time around which several events are organised. Moreover, the MCBW introduces the format MCBW Start Up, which specifically addresses young entrepreneurs and young designers. A wide range of conferences and exhibitions round off this extensive program.

EXcrop by Chloe Rutzerveld, to be shown at Hit The Future. Photograph by Bart van Overbeeke
EXcrop by Chloe Rutzerveld, to be shown at Hit The Future. Photograph by Bart van Overbeeke

Conference and Matchmaking Platforms at the MCBW 2015

Toca Me 2015 (21-22 February 2015) at the Alte Kongresshalle will provide the grand opening to the MCBW 2015. Toca Me brings together renowned names of the international design scene, such as Florian Schmitt, founder of the award-winning agency Hi-Res!, Sougwen Chung, visual artist from New York, the English illustrator Mr Bingo, Mirko Brosche (Munich), motion graphics artist and director Rob Chiu as well as rAndom international on the stage of the Alte Kongresshalle.

The A-type – Conference for Architecture and Typography at the Vorhoelzer-Forum of the Technical University of Munich successfully takes up the guiding theme Metropolitan Ideas on 22 February 2015. Amongst other topics, the event looks at control and orientation systems. Topics, that are of great relevance for densely populated cities. The same also applies for the international symposium Android Paranoid on 24 February at the Alte Kongresshalle, which will pose the question whether we are giving in too much to (building) technology.

On Tuesday, 24 February 2015, lectures will take place at the MCBW Forum at the Alte Kongresshalle. Following the key topic Metropolitan Ideas, designers and entrepreneurs will dare looking at the future of metropolitan cities and take a stand on the question "what if...?"

Under the motto Sustainable Innovations & Strategies, the 8th German Innovation Summit at The Charles Hotel will present exemplary innovations during lectures and interactive workshops. Amongst others, the invited guest speakers are from BMW, GE, OTTO-Group, Telefónica as well as Danish designer and actress Inez Bjork David. The conference participants – small and medium sized businesses as well as large scale enterprises – will benefit from the knowledge and experience exchange across sectors with real world examples and intensive workshops. The summit offers another great opportunity for networking during the MCBW.

Barcamp - Entstehungsprozess by Mark Osipov, shown at MCBW 2014. Photograph by Christian Boehm
Barcamp - Entstehungsprozess by Mark Osipov, shown at MCBW 2014. Photograph by Christian Boehm

On the evening of 24 February, the Creative Demo-Night will start with the interdisciplinary match-making platform MCBW Start Up which supports the creative industry at the Literaturhaus, Munich. With its format, the MCBW Start Up supports the transfer of ideas between designers and the economy.

The main focus of the conferences are Augmented Reality Day – Augmented Reality Everywhere (24 February 2015), Animation Day (25 February 2015) and the Transmedia Day (26 February 2015) at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film are media, interface design, visualisation and augmented reality.

The international symposium Design Thinking for Public Good on 26 February 2015 discusses global trends and challenges for innovation in the public sector at the Hochschule Macromedia. The focus lies on the potential offered by people-centred design as a systematic problem solver.

The international Women Buy conference on 26 February 2015 at the Oskar von Miller Forum, which will take place for the first time at the MCBW, against the background that 80 per cent of purchase decisions are made by women. A realisation, which even today, is often not sufficiently considered in product development process. Companies such as Harley Davidson, Gigaset, Volvo Trucks and LoweFriends will share their experiences in the areas design, marketing, product development and public relations.

A traditional conference highlight is the #qved – Editorial Design Conference Munich at the Alte Kongresshalle. The focus will be on the development of new magazines. Whether niche magazine, special interest, mainstream magazines or customer and corporate magazines: Editorials design always reinvents itself and #qved uncovers the different reasons and motives for why these new magazines are established (26-28 February 2015).

MCBW Forum will take place at Munich's Alte Kongresshalle
MCBW Forum will take place at Munich's Alte Kongresshalle

Exhibitions at the MCBW

Apart from the conferences, one of the strengths of the MCBW is its various exhibitions. Mobile Cities: Interaction between people, cities and technology will take place from 21 February to 1 March at the BMW Pavillion, Lenbachplatz. The exhibition will take up the key theme Metropolitan Cities. On 26 February a panel discussion with sociologists, technology experts, trend researchers and designers offers room for controversial discussions about innovative, efficient and personalised mobility concepts in urban spaces.

From 21 February onwards the Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich will present a selection of Mattiazzi furniture under the title Family Matters: Cohen, Lambl. Designers' Choice headed by the Munich-based art director and product designer Nitzan Cohen and graphic designer Florian Lambl. The exhibition features, amongst other things, drafts by the Mattiazzi designer Konstantin Grcic, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Jasper Morrison, Sam Hecht and Nitzan Cohen.

During the MCBW, iF Universal Design presents the new format- recommended: UNIVERSAL DESIGN by experts, academics and companies at the Oskar von Miller Forum. The exhibition displays around 100 products, concepts and models as well as their designers.

From 24 February to 1 March, Hit The Future – Metropolitan Design will look at the future of metropolitan cites at the Alte Kongresshalle. Here, innovative projects at the interface between architecture and urban planning by a young generation of designers will be presented: surprising solutions for global challenges of metropolis of our time and inspiring outlooks by companies and an audience of professionals as well as people interested in design.

The exhibition Bavarian State Award for Young Designers 2014 at the BMW Museum will allow insights into the creative potential of young designers. The prize-winning projects as well as the other works selected by the jury will be displayed in the foyer of the BMW Museum from February 24th until March 15th, 2015. Admission is free of charge. Another highlight is the new temporary exhibition The MINI Story, which is dedicated to the brand MINI. The exhibition displays around 300 original cars from 1959 until today. Furthermore, you will be able to see valuable small exhibits. The exhibition offers a lot of information and the history surrounding the MINI.

www.mcbw.de