BEDA Design Forum 2025 Highlights

On 15 May 2025, the BEDA Design Forum brought together some of Europe’s brightest design leaders, practitioners, and policymakers for a day of forward-looking discussion, collaboration, and inspiration. Hosted at the Design Museum Brussels, the event served as a vibrant platform to explore how design can address Europe’s most pressing societal and systemic challenges.

Throughout the day, participants engaged with a series of thought-provoking panels and presentations, all centred around the transformative role of design in shaping a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future for Europe.

Key Highlights

Skill Up! – Empowering Lifelong Learning through Design

Fabio Babiloni (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’), Claudia Siebenweiber (Berufsverband Kommunikationsdesign e.V.) and Mark Illi (BEDA) led the ‘Skill Up!’ panel, highlighting the essential role of peer-to-peer learning and vocational education. Their discussion emphasised how we learn and how continuous learning can empower individuals and strengthen the European workforce in the face of current and future challenges.

Impact by Design – The MADres Project

Regina Hanke, Mark Illi and Piotr Swiatek presented the MADres project – a compelling example of design’s potential to create impact across Europe’s digital, green and social transitions. Their session reinforced the design’s role as a catalyst for meaningful, cross-sectoral innovation.

Resilient Democracy – Building Trust through Engagement

Trevor Vough (Department of Public Expenditure NPD Delivery & Reform), Stina Vanhoof and Ivo Dewit (Service Design Network), Philipp Cartier (Gestaltungszentrale Politik) and Regina Hanke contributed to an insightful discussion on democratic resilience. The panel explored how design can help rebuild public trust and enhance citizen engagement in policymaking through participatory and inclusive approaches and systemic changes. The examples shared ranged from national to local and city-level initiatives, including applications within the political sphere.

Digital Ethics – Building Trust in a Digital Europe

Gert Jervan (Tallinn University of Technology), Marcello Coppa (Feel, GovTech) and Christina Melander (BEDA) led a panel focused on trust in Europe’s digital future. The discussion underscored the importance of embedding public values in digital transformation and ensuring transparency, accountability and ethical frameworks in emerging technologies.

Speaker Presentations

View all speaker presentations: drive.google.com/drive/folders/15x1dSK[…]Z9A?usp=sharing

A Shared Commitment to the Future

The BEDA Design Forum 2025 succeeded in creating a dynamic space for exchange and cross-sector collaboration. Attendees from across Europe actively contributed to the conversation, reaffirming the importance of uniting the design community to support Europe’s sustainable growth and democratic vitality.

As Prof. Gert Jervan, Dean of the School of IT, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), pointed out, designers have an essential role to play as ethical stewards in the digital age – creating experiences that prioritise trust, transparency, and accountability.

The forum concluded with a renewed commitment to advancing design’s role as a strategic and systemic driver of positive change across policy, education and industry.

Event Images: drive.google.com/drive/folders[…]?usp=share_link

Save the date: the next BEDA Design Forum will be on 7 May 2026