BIG POTATOES

For his Battle of Ideas 2011 satellite event in Derby (The end is nigh: is survival all we can hope for?, on 11 October) James Woudhuysen wrote in the Independent Blogs about the modern day subsumption of everything to the Apocalypse and the lack of ambition of politicians:
In the 1980s [many thought everything] had to [...]

Friday 30 September, Battle of Ideas Festival, Victoria & Albert Museum
James Woudhuysen will be speaking at the V&A Friday Late debate Idea factories? Manufacturing and making in the 21st century (one of the Battle of Ideas Festival Satellite Events) on Friday 30 September. There is no cost to attend the event. James notes:
In Britain, illusions [...]

Friday 16 September, London Design Festival, Imperial College London
“We want the words: ‘Made in Britain, Created in Britain, Designed in Britain, Invented in Britain’ to drive our nation forward. A Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers” said Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in his 2011 Budget speech.
In his prime time BBC [...]

James Woudhuysen argues that the biopharmaceuticals giant Pfizer’s decision earlier this year to close the company’s labs in Sandwich, south-east England, exposed the Lib-Con coalition government’s lack of any strategy for growth. Analysing the trends in pharmaceutical research and societal attitudes to it over the last fifty years he argues that:
The agenda in society [...]

On the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight, James Woudhuysen praises Gagarin’s daring – and says we need more of it today.
Read on at spiked

In an ever-changing industry and uncertain economic times, is it really wise to invest so much time, money and effort into long-term business plans? David Hansson, partner of 37Signals and Basecamp supremo certainly doesn’t think so, and his new book ReWork has been hailed as an anti-management manifesto that sees short term cutbacks as the way forward. Martyn [...]

Thursday 13 May: Speech to BA Hons Graphic Design students, Bristol Faculty of Creative Arts, University of the West of England.
Designers are influencing change everywhere. We are told that ‘creative industries’ are a major boost to the economy; that ‘design-thinking’ is reforming the NHS; that better design can reduce consumption and protect the environment; that [...]

James Woudhuysen appeared on Material World (Radio 4), 29/04 with Sir Martin Taylor of the Royal Society (who oversaw its Scientific Century report) talking about whether scientific development and innovation can push the economic recovery forward. The show is repeated on Monday (03/05) at 21:00, and is also available on iPlayer and as a podcast [...]

Can design save healthcare? from Norsk Form on Vimeo.
28 April, at DogA (the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture), Oslo, Norway. The event was sponsored by Norsk Form and the British Council in Norway
Many countries are cutting back on expensive healthcare provision. In the UK all political parties want to cut bureaucracy and target the [...]

James Woudhuysen was interview by Grant Thornton at the The Economist Redesigning Business Summit The Big Rethink in March. The two day conference, produced in conjunction with the Design Council, was aimed at ‘giving business leaders the opportunity to sample the fresh thinking needed to seize opportunities in today’s volatile world’. In the interview James [...]