The Young Innovator Awards. See other Open Acts case studes.
We aim to share our knowledge and expertise with others and we invest significant time and energy into education and community work in the areas of innovation and sustainability.
Developing a culture of innovation in education is essential if New Zealand is to meet future workforce demands and capitalise on the opportunities they offer.
We are proud to be a major sponsor and driver behind programmes such as the Young Innovator Awards (YIA). YIA aims to inspire and engage local secondary students and young professionals in the process of innovative thinking and problem solving to design a product or service. The creative thinking and energy of the students inspires us; it’s a privilege to assist in nurturing that talent through this competition.
Following the awards, the Innovation Forum leverages YIA to bring an inspirational group of experienced leaders to our region. Here they share stories of success, failure, and inspiration and discuss how innovation has changed both their working and personal lives.
In order to further spread our reach and address popular product development topics, we co-host a series of Successful Product Development Seminars. They are designed for those who are looking to learn more about how to implement good processes, foster a culture of innovation, fast track product development and reduce risks, and discover what options are available to assist along the way. These seminars serve to not only raise our professional profile but allow us to share our product development process and educate others in good product development practices.
We have been instrumental in developing sustainability programmes such as the Life Cycle Thinking Workshop Series, which shares tools with designers and businesses. We created a three part series that progressively teaches the ideas behind Life Cycle Thinking, from concept to practical implementation.
As designers and craftspeople we need to help the process of environmental renewal through choosing materials that are renewable and sustainable. With this in mind, we helped to develop the Metaform competition, which asked student designers to explore the potential of Green Seal, a new product that has the appearance and performance of a hardwood, yet comes from sustainably managed New Zealand plantation forests. Metaform encapsulated the idea of designing with nature’s system of transformation and renewal in mind and endorsed the great potential of NZ’s science, design, and innovative culture.
The Metaform competition sparked a partnership that brought together the Bombay Sapphire Design Room. In an intense three months we selected and curated over 100 art works, photographed them, created a catalogue, designed and built a huge display, and took it to the international media present at New Zealand Fashion Week 2004. The exhibited works spoke clearly about the creativity and skill of New Zealand’s home grown designers and crafts people.
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