Design Victoria

Design Victoria is a new Victorian Government initiative designed to increase industry awareness and utilisation of Victoria’s world leading design capability to grow their business, improve competitiveness, find new markets and increase the competitive skills for Victorian designers to succeed in local and global markets.

They have heaps of interesting free (!) lectures and seminars so if you are in Melbourne try to go there! I wish we had something like this here in Perth!
Coming up:

Design, Innovation, Opportunities and Dilemmas –A view from The Netherlands
Wednesday 6 February 2008 6pm to 7.30pm (followed by drinks)
Carillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre,
University of Melbourne
Professor Han Brezet Head, Design for Sustainability (D4S), Technical University of Delft; City Innovator, Rotterdam; TV Judge, 'Best Ideas of the Netherlands' is giving a lecture. He is also the creator of the dance floor I wrote about on this blog.

Seminar Sustainable Packaging Trends and Opportunities
Wednesday 13 February 2008
10.00am - 1.00pm
Village Roadshow Theatre, State Library of Victoria
Entry 3, La Trobe Street Melbourne
Sustainable Packaging Trends and Opportunities.
Designing packaging that is functional, cost effective, has no harmful side effects on human health and minimises the impact on the environment is an increasing priority for industry and consumers. This seminar brings together a panel of international and local expert speakers across the latest and emerging trends in packaging design for sustainability to answer the question:What role can designers play in designing sustainable packaging?