I have had an exciting few days in the city of Beijing. What an experience! I was invited to be part of the China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo International. I spent time with The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality and the Deputy Secretary General of China.

The outcome of my trip is the creation of a new Service Design Training Course. In collaboration with China University of Communication, Snook will work with twenty teachers to design a new Service Design course.

I don’t think I had quite understood how unusual it was to have “a young girl from the west” present at this kind of event. I am so flattered to have received such VIP treatment and met some amazing people! During my trip I met one person who knew of / had practiced Service Design, but their site seems to be under construction – I will be keeping a close eye…

During an interview with the Shezen Daily I was asked questions about the Chinese design industry, advice for young Chinese designers, the environment creatives need to flourish and the effect creativity can have on the economic crisis…

This little video below captures my short time being a China Girl 🙂

I delivered a ten minute talk about Service Design, Scotland as a creative city and the newly published This is Service Design Thinking.  I was lucky to have the great company of Rudolf Van Wezel, the founder of Creative Company Conference, an event that is known for it’s mantra:

“Business people  don’t need to understand designers better. They need to be designers. That makes them better business people.”

You can see me and Rudolf talk in the video below:

A huge thank you to Chen and Tony for making my trip happen!