Belgrade Design Week 2006
The first Belgrade Design Week festival set out with the two-day conference "market²", a two days branding conference "brand²" on the third and fourth day, and finally, for all those who understand the significance of design in the modern world, the two-day conference "design²", taking place on the fifth and the sixth day of the festival. Its focus was the ‘tangible’ design: product and fashion design.
On the first day, the most significant local advertising, branding and design agencies as well as independent experts, showcased their most successful projects in fast-moving, stimulating 20-minute individual presentations. Agency owners, creative directors, independent art directors and designers pointed out and illustrated the differences in the methodology of their creative processes before an agency-buying professional public and VIP representatives of the regional industry, media and administration, and a first ever “speed-dating”-project of the most important creatives in the Serbian advertising scene, all gathered at one place and in one day.
The second day of the conference "market²", was at least equally interesting. It was dedicated to roundtables with 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&media industry. Directors of the largest retail networks, banks discussed triumphs and flops in the retail war for power in the streets of Serbia; directors of the leading media houses, producers and creatives crossed swords and joined issues about the development of Belgrade as the centre of the entertainment industry in a region covering 50 million people; the leading experts in tourism, historians and publicists discussed identity programs for the City of Belgrade, applicable to tourism; creators of established and new food brands from Serbia went into details about strategies of penetrating new global markets.
The third and the fourth day were reserved for the central event of the festival: a two days branding conference, the "brand²". This event could change the business-scape of Serbia forever, as 20 of the most important global experts brought their priceless experience as brand-leaders, both as owners/managers of the most important global brands and as their creators/designers.
An equally spectacular event, for all those who understand the significance of design in the modern world, was the two-day conference "design²", taking place on the fifth and the sixth day of the festival. Its focus was the ‘tangible’ design: product and fashion design.
The festival closed with an afternoon session dedicated to fashion. All these years, fashion has been in the focus of the domestic public, but never in such a way and never with such guests. Why and how is fashion inextricably linked to creating and managing commercial concepts and trends? This topic was tackled through a series of panels by a host of top designers, stylists and photographers who shape the European and local scene.
