 Hi, my name is Marc and welcome to the Serbs Design Show. This episode is fully dedicated to the Doors Conference that will be taking place on April 25th, 2019 in Budapest. I've invited one of the conference organizers, Thomas Langley, to tell us a little bit more about what we can expect at this year's conference. What the experience is, what the venue is, which speakers will be presenting so that you can decide if this is a conference that you might be interested to attend. Last year, the conference was organized for the first time and it was a huge success. And I'm really excited to be part of this year's conference. So if you stick around till the end of this episode, we'll also tell you how you can make a chance to win a free ticket to the conference. So make sure you stick around till the end of this episode. Now, without further ado, let's jump straight into the talk without Thomas. We'll tell us more about the Doors Conference. Welcome to the show, Thomas. Hey, hi, Mark. Hi, everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to be here on the Service Design Show and we can talk about the Doors Conference and thank you for being a speaker on the conference. Yeah, that's maybe a surprise for some of the viewers. I'll be joining you in the conference and on stage. So I'm really excited about that. Before we talk, we're not going to talk about my talk, but we're going to talk about the Doors Conference because it's the second year you'll be hosting this conference. And I'm really excited. It looked really fun last year. I wasn't able to attend, but I saw some of the viewers actually joining the conference. So I was like, I need to know more about this conference. So Thomas, let's start with the basic question, the Doors Conference. Is there a theme this year for the Doors Conference? Yes, absolutely. We have a theme this year, which is change the mindset. So last year we had a general introduction on service design and then this year we are focusing on change the mindset and change the mindset. We try to go around two topics. One will be about how to build a service design driven organization. And another one will be the business value of design. And then basically what we're going to do is that the participants were able to see this from three different directions or three different angles. We will have speakers from design agencies like Leverks, Mordemetrics, DesignEatsNuke. Then we will have speakers from the public sector like the UK government design team. And we will have private sector speakers like Vodafone, IKEA, Accor, and a few more to be announced. So basically we picked this change the mindset as an umbrella team for the conference because we believe that under this we have this two very important topic. It's how to make design a cross functional talent in your company, how to make design the language that the common language. So how to set up from the organizational perspective, people and infrastructure perspective, but also to make it sustainable and the consistent topic in the company. We need to see the value of design, how that makes more profit, how it makes higher customer satisfaction. And then I think if you get these two aspects and then both of them is working, then you can talk about on the long run you are changing the mindset in the organization. So that's why we picked change the mindset as a team for this year's conference. Super interesting topic because I think this is something that a lot of service designers run into really quickly after doing their first one or two projects. Then they start to realize that they need the rest of the organization to be aligned and to change and to have a different mindset to actually make service design sustainable. Otherwise, they are just loose projects. So really cool. And a topic that's dear to my heart is as you know that I think we need to be much better at selling and communicating the value of service design. So yeah, absolutely. I think that's also a crucial it's it's a basic principle there. If you can make it, you can prove that it's increasing the profit, it's making higher satisfaction than that will be a consistent foundation of service design. Maybe that will be the topic that I will also touch upon in my who knows who knows who knows. So the doers conference, the name already gives us a clue, but what can the participants expect in terms of experience? OK, so first of all, I think doers is a very easy going and the chilled atmosphere conference. So this is this is mostly because of the speakers. So last year, I had also this fantastic experience that the C speakers are so approachable and they are involving so much into the conference, you know, promoting the conference, creating their speeches and how they how they interact with the audience on the conference. It was really fantastic. So like, just for a quick example, like with a technical problem, switching from one up to the other. So there was a little bit of a break and then Mark Stickdom was jumping up. He was going on the stage and grabbing the microphone and then he was doing their improvisation on a small service design session on yes, but yes, and session and then involving the whole audience. You know, we didn't ask Mark for that. He was just kind of like so motivated, you know, to to to kept the things going and feeling that gap. Or we had Vasili Vasiliades from Did It Vives and he was making the whole audience dancing as a cultural change topic. So I really like. So first of all, when we talk about the atmosphere, that's chilled, easy going. And I really expected this year we have the same I see from the speakers feedback that they are getting also emotionally. Involved into the conference. They like like like the team to to to bring the doers together to talk about real war stories, you know, not about fairy tales. So that's that's I think one part of the conference and also maybe a venue is adding a little bit to the experience. It's a concert hall. It's a music hall. It's not a very ordinary, even even space. So usually crude and both my studies making concert there, you know, and not service designers are talking about change the mindset. So I think that's also adding a little bit to the to the to the experience. And and also this year we will have a little bit of a refresh setup. We will have a main stage and on the main stage, we will have the different talks that you can hear and then on change the mindset. And then we will have a doers room, which is a new thing we are trying out this year. I hope it will work. So if the name is doers, then it's good if you could do some things. So there will be a special room and in this special room, we will have, for example, max ticket on and his team. So you can book Mark and the team for an hour in a group of people not alone. And you can ask questions about customer journey mapping. You can do a little bit of some exercise with them. But it's just like an opportunity to ask real pros about how to do the best way the customer journey mapping. We will have mobile from design. It will show you basics about sketching so you can learn it. I think when you are a designer and then you are running customer journey sessions or any kind of sessions, it's quite good if you know how to draw from a few lines something that well symbolize the thing that you are talking about. So Mauro will give a few lessons on sketching and most probably we have some facilitation and prototyping. So we are still managing that part. But for sure, this will be a very exciting space. So it will be a smaller concert hall space. We will have three or four stations. And then when you buy the ticket, then before the conference, we will send you a registration link. So you need to pick a slot when you will attend the sessions in the do a room because there's like a limited amount of people they can handle. But I think it will be for us, it will be an experimental thing to try this also. So it's not only people on stage, but it's also it's like a meet and greet and talk with some of the service designers. Yeah, and then we want to make it, you know, as convenient, as easy and as moose as possible because that's a service design conference. So we are very working on that. Yeah, so I think that's basically the thing here that it's you can actually do things. And again, I think what's important that the speakers are super approachable. So you can go there and then you can talk with other pros that you might not have the chance to have a one to one interactions or meet with him. But this is the chance on the doers to get some insights, tips and learnings from them. And I always like the off stage conversations like that was one of the reasons why I started the show in the first place because during conferences, mostly the most interesting conversations are not when people are on stage, but they happen during lunch, during dinner, during coffee break. So really cool that you're offering that opportunity. I'm really interested who is who do you hope will attend the conference? What what what can we expect in terms of the audience will be there? What do you hope that will be there? So we always try to bring both sides. So the the business side and also the design side. So last year we had 60 percentage was designer and 40 percentage was was was business. So it's nearly half half on the story. So anybody who is working in marketing, service design topics, custom experience, but also in finance, basically. So we're expecting from the business side people to join and and from from from agency side or from design side. Basically, senior service designers, designers, UX designers, anybody who is working on on the service design field. So we don't have a specific targeting that we are just for designers or we just for business, but kind of like a balanced approach. And I think the topic is also why you can hear about organizational part about the business value part. So I would say it's it's for all. Is it is it because it isn't just for people who are focused on Eastern Europe or do you help to attract people from across the world? So last time we had from 28 countries. That was like, I was totally surprised. I must tell you, I didn't expect it that month. Yeah. So so so I was really, really surprised. We had people from US, from Russia, from Spain. So so it's not just from Europe, but also outside of Europe. So no, it's not just for Central Eastern Europe. But it was kind of like the when we started the whole doers that was like a thinking to to make such a conference and bring the best speakers also to Central Eastern Europe as mostly maybe the conferences are focusing on Western Europe. Let's do something which is a little bit more located in in Central Eastern Europe. Budapest is an excellent location, easy to access from from from many different direction. And I think it's a very important even nowadays for for the Central Eastern European service design community. So that's the feedback we are getting. I know that many service designers are bringing their clients and then, you know, that's that's a possibility to them to come over showcase and show them a few good examples. So kind of like a like a tour, you know, to to the service design world. So yeah, that's what what is the thing because I'm really looking forward to the conference and I'm really excited to meet all those people and to interact with everyone. But what is the thing that you're looking forward to the most? What gets you excited when you think about the conference? OK, for me, how the doers room will work. That's that's a very exciting challenge. So it's we need a lot of discussion on that still in the background. I'm curious about the feedback on the on the doers room. That's that's one thing. I'm also curious about about the setup of the audience this year. So will we have from 40 countries or from 28 countries? So that that's I'm really looking forward to. And I think we have also a really excellent speaker setup this year. And it's it's completely refreshed compared to the to the to the to the to the last year, which was our intention also to always have new people showing it from a new point of view. So I'm really looking forward to each and every talk because it will be not a not a not a repeated point of view, but it will be kind of like really we have a lot of new new new speakers. And so that's one of the most challenging things I remember from my time as being an event organizer to actually enjoy the event and to actually enjoy the talks because you're you're sort of constantly working during the conference. So yeah. Now, the big question is where do people sign up? How can we sign up? Are there still tickets left now that we're publishing this video? Help us out. Can we still join the conference? So it's it's it's doers.com. So is the is the link in the show notes for that would be cool. And and we are still in the early birds. So just go and run and grab your ticket. It's the right time if you want to save some money. Yeah, I must tell you that this is February 2019 because if you're watching this in 2020 February 2019, you can still get the early bird. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So so it's part of our concept that we are running with very low ticket prices. So once you go over to the doers.com website, you will see that we feel it's very important to democratize knowledge and make it accessible for for everybody. If you are a freelance designer and you're not part of a larger organization, then you can still come to the doers conference. So go go over to the doers conference website. We have super low priced early bird tickets right now. And just grab one and come and join us on this fantastic event. Cool. So people can still get the tickets. But as we like to do here on the service design show, we also like to share with the community. And you were so generous to actually offer to free free as in free without without to fly the two free tickets to the conference that flight in the hotel. You need to arrange that yourself, but you can get into the conference for free. What do people have to do in order to make a chance to get one of these tickets? Yeah. So it's very easy. Just comment below the below the video and and and the comment should be just name one of our speakers for for this year. So just write in the name of one of the speakers, maybe one of the speakers that you are most excited about. And then just leave the leave the comment below. And then we will do a raffle two weeks times from from now in two weeks. And then and then yeah. And then you will have the chance to join for free the doers conference. Yeah. And we all already gave a hint who who is coming to the to this year. But I like the addition that you made. Which speaker are you most excited to see? And maybe also let us know why that would be great. And and we'll do a raffle in two weeks time. Thomas, thanks so much for sharing with us what the conference will be about. I'm sure I will be sharing some of the things after the conference during the conference. I'm really looking forward to meeting you there and also maybe some of the people who are watching watching this video. So good luck with the rest of the preparations. Thank you very much, Mark. It's great to be here and and we are looking forward to have you on the conference. I think the whole doers team. So it's actually three of us doing this and also Jordan Tamash, which is funny. Also is running the conference with us. So we're looking forward to having you there and run this show together. Thank you. See you soon, man. See you. So I'm really interested. Are you going to the conference this year? And if you want to make a chance to win that free ticket, make sure you drop a comment down below and leave the name of the speaker you're most excited to see. If you know somebody who might also be interested in the conference, grab the link of this video and share that with them. And if this is your first time here on this channel, don't forget to subscribe because we bring new videos that help to level up your service design skills at least once a week. For now, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.