Dezeen promotion: Munich Creative Business Week has launched the programme for this year's event, which will take place from 6 to 14 March 2021 and primarily digitally so that people around the world can participate.
The 10th edition of Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW) will focus on ways that design can be used as a tool for creating a better future.
Reflecting the current coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Germany's largest design event chose Shaping Futures by Design as this year's theme.
"The slogan, Shaping Futures by Design, has been chosen deliberately because at present the world is zeroing in on one topic alone: our future," said the event organisers.
"The Covid-19 crisis has unearthed a number of painful issues and has intensified others – in many cases design is both the solution and the great hope."
Coronavirus has also impacted the format of the design week, which has been reworked to be a blend of mainly digital and some in-person events, as well as those that combine elements of both.
Over nine days there will be a broad selection of workshops, conferences, symposiums, webinars, virtual exhibitions and live streams.
"We also underwent a transformation process during the pandemic and, not least because of our ten-year anniversary, intensely explored ways to reposition ourselves," said MCBW director Lisa Braun.
"We want to set a good example and we want to show that new formats including virtual exhibitions, live streaming, and design walks can forge new paths. I look forward to a whole new MCBW with many exciting opportunities and experiences, especially on the occasion of our jubilee."
The theme of the event will be interpreted in a video installation to be projected onto the facade of the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen film school in central Munich, which will host the MCBW Forum.
Named Dis Connected, the video installation by Munich-based animation studios Motomoto & UberEck will feature floating creatures dressed in black and white that aim to embody the contrast and the balance in an artificially created space.
"The goal of the video installation is to sensitise people to a new way of living that has been accelerated by the pandemic," said the event's organisers.
"Digitization has impacted the social behaviour we have 'acquired,' we are communicating in a variety of different ways, the term space has taken on a new meaning, and we are experiencing anonymity in a different way."
The MCBW Forum at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen will once again be the hub of MCBW 2021 - this year hosted virtually and as an anchor point for many events like the Oursuperstore or the Designwalk. In addition, it will act as a streaming studio for events like Forward Festival, MCBW Start Up Symposium, MCBW Talents or MCBW Designkino.
All events that are part of MCBW run from 6 to 14 March 2021 and are held primarily digitally to also encourage global participation. See the full programme on MCBW's website.
See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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This article was written by Dezeen for MCBW as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.