Inspired by Zlin Design Week, fascinated by Zlín

I visited Zlín for five days in May 24 to get inspiration from Zlin Design Week for my study of information service design and came back full of positive impressions, impressions and information that gradually fit together like puzzle pieces and connect into new skills for the world of innovation that we are gradually shaping using service design methods, both individually and in work teams at work and school

The seemingly simple programme over one week hide a plenty of inspiration of topics that went into depth, speakers, discussions and informal gatherings that I hadn't even expected.

The festival and coference program was evenly spread out and the topics all built on each other. Personally, out of interest, I also explored the city itself, which is diametrically different from other Czech cities and has an incredible genius loci, so I will gladly come here again. Zlin Design Week is a festival prepared by students from Tomas Bata University and part of it is that the invited professors from foreign universities who lecture at ZDW also participate in the previous week of project-based learning at the university, which is a great benefit for all parties. The results of the projects, this year particularly in the use of AI, were presented and commented on in the full-day lecture programme 'Design at the Frontier'.

My ambition was to go through as many of the lectures and moderated discussions as possible and to link this to information about service design. I participated in as many of the side events as possible and as a bonus, looked around the unique city and its museums and installations dedicated to Tomas Bata.

I truly recommend to stay couple of days in a city to visit different places, museums connected to Baťa shoes company history and enjoy genius loci.