Designer Bec Snelling (Snelling Studio) shares her journey of transforming her globally recognised brand to commit entirely to regenerative local production in Aotearoa. Drawing on her fine arts training and experience evolving the studio, she explores why design must return to its roots: focusing on quality, craft, and material integrity. Bec will detail how her multidisciplinary practice works with local artisans to produce objects and furniture intended to last for generations, using high-tech and traditional methods in harmony. This is a powerful, personal conversation on how place-based making fuels authenticity, elevates our national design identity, and creates long-term commercial and cultural value.

Join journalist and Creative Director of NZ Fashion Week Dan Ahwa and Porter James Founder Joshua Heares (ex-advertising) for a cross-disciplinary fireside chat. They explore the transition from media strategy to tangible product, asking: How does the “editorial eye” for composition and cultural narrative translate to building an enduring brand? This conversation delves into how a love for art, fashion, and the local landscape informs the creation of intentional objects and spaces. Discover how curating the modular wardrobe or the garden demands the same clarity of purpose and commitment to a truly well-designed life.

Join Frances Shoemack, founder of Abel, for a candid conversation exploring her journey from idea to internationally recognised fragrance house. She’ll reflect on the essential role of design in shaping Abel’s distinctive brand identity and sustainability values while driving global growth. Expect insights on balancing creativity with business realities and the unique challenges of scaling from New Zealand to the world. This session invites the audience into a personal dialogue on design-led entrepreneurship and the power of building a purpose-driven business with heart.

Fashion Revolution NZ challenges us to see design as a force for planetary good. This session moves beyond basic sustainability to explore regenerative design in fashion—how the industry can actively heal ecosystems and empower communities. Through compelling local and global case studies, we showcase initiatives that embed social justice and cooperative models from the ground up. Discover projects—from regenerative cotton farms to upcycled collections made with marginalised makers—that offer vital insights into nurturing both people and place.

As relative newcomers to Tāmaki Makaurau, the COX Auckland studio presents a forward-looking, bold urban design provocation for Aotearoa’s largest city. This concept directly tackles the housing crisis by unlocking underutilised public land and transforming it into vibrant urban fabric. The proposal integrates structural innovation, high-quality public realm, and landscape architecture to serve both the community and the economy. This session is about rethinking how city infrastructure can be designed with a deep respect for People, Place, and culture, sparking meaningful conversation on creating well-connected, commercially viable developments that meet the city’s urgent needs.

Light is the essential brushstroke that adds depth and humanity to architecture and urban spaces, yet its power after sunset is often overlooked. With 80% of our perception coming through our eyes, what we see – and don’t see – fundamentally shapes our sense of identity, safety, and connection to Place. This lighting design journey asks: How do buildings, streets, and cities come alive in darkness? Explore how strategic artificial light transforms environments, tells stories, guides movement, and engages people, demonstrating that well-considered lighting is critical to fostering belonging and social connection in the nocturnal community.

As our global population grows, we face an urgent challenge: how to design better spaces for more people with fewer resources. In this thought-provoking talk, Industrial Designer and Chief Product Officer, Sam Burton, introduces unió, a spatial living system grounded in sustainability and human-centred design. Sam challenges you to reimagine “living space” not as a fixed backdrop, but as a fluid tool for self-determination and social connection. This session explores the shift from static, space-hungry homes to dynamic environments that flex and respond to our daily rhythms, embracing a future where architecture is not just built, but lived. This talk will inspire new thinking on the homes of tomorrow and the impact of spatial transformation on the human experience.

As AI moves into design, our role is becoming critical, not diminished. Drawing from behavioural science research, this keynote reveals why designers are uniquely positioned to be the guardians of human values. Our natural empathy and human-centered approach are essential to ensuring automated decisions serve ethics, sustainability, and authentic human experience. This is about leading conversations to shape an AI future rooted in humanity.

Brands excel at getting people to transact, but struggle to truly connect. In this talk, Meredyth and Chris will show how they use a powerful people-led design approach that moves customer experience beyond functional services into moments of cultural resonance. Framed through the theme of People + Place, they’ll explore how designed experiences can become platforms for belonging, co-creation, and identity. This is a chance to see how design connects audiences not just to brands, but to each other, to culture, and to the places they move through.