The World Industrial Design Conference 2021 was grandly held from October 22 to October 24 in Yantai, Shandong Province, China. With the great support from United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Global Design Industry Organization, the Conference was jointly hosted by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China and People’s Government of Shandong Province, organized by China Industrial Design Association, Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province and People’s Government of Yantai Municipal.

Themed “Design the Age of Digital Intelligence”, the Conference attracted governmental agencies, design institutions, universities ,entrepreneurs, scholars, designers and other innovation-leading talents, from over 60 countries and regions, namely, China, United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Brazil, Netherlands, Austria, Australia, Italy, Russia, Japan, South Korea, etc., to participate online and offline. Centred around Innovative Development of Industrial Design at The Age of Digital Intelligence, sharing of thought, discussions and exchanges of ideas and cooperation were held in sessions during the Conference.

At the opening ceremony of the Conference, Liu Ning, President of China Industrial Design Association and Global Design Industry Organization, delivered a keynote speech.

The speech is as follows:

Distinguished guests, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning! Today 2021 World Industrial Design Conference is grandly opened. First of all, on behalf of Global Design Industry Organization and China Industrial Design Association, I’d like to extend my warm congratulations to the opening of the Conference, my sincere gratitude to governments, organizations and experts including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Shandong Provincial People’s Government, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, who provide long-term support and contribute joint efforts to the Conference, and my sincere greetings to global designers attending the Conference both online and offline.

World Industrial Design Conference was launched in 2015 by international design organizations, enterprises,universities and designers from over 30 countries and regions at the time.After five sessions, members from more than 60 countries and regions have joined the Conference and initiated Global Design Industry Organization, which has become an international platform with important influence to promote the development of design across the world.

This not only benefits from our consensus and cohesion in industrial design, but also because we have now turned our vision of development towards a stage that is people-oriented, pursuing ecology, and driven by creating value for human society. Under this background, industrial design has been proved to be an important means to promote high-quality and sustainable development of economy and society. And it is increasingly playing an unprecedented role and charm.

Nowadays, digital, intelligence and networks are forming the power to decide the future trends, the fastest and most intensive revolution and migration has been started.The original awareness is constantly being disrupted, the exponential development of digital technology leads to emergence of various emerging industrial models like tidal waves, how shall we design our world and ourselves. Broad connectivity, supercomputing and digital intelligence promote great changes of our environment.

Industrial design is currently located at the center of intersection in the three-dimensional world, namely, digital space, physical world and human society. Digital intelligence of design welcomes great opportunities and challenges. Instead of relying on designers' inspiration and creativity in the past, with the motivation of Moore's Law, supercomputing enables real-time design with billions of objects at the same time, which instantly satisfy demands for large-scale customized design.

From mass manufacturing to mass customization, from industrial production lines to modular virtual production, the brand new age of design arrives along with the technological revolution and industrial transformation!

In the current view of intelligent manufacturing, digital intelligent design will transform user demands into sets of commands for the supply chain and intelligent factories, integrating the entire product life cycle of design, perception, decision making, implementation and service, etc. It realizes the super connection and the value transformation of user big data and mass customization, becoming an important engine and driving force of intelligent manufacturing.

For today’s innovators, this is an incomparable challenge, opportunity and fortune! We are also very delighted to see that China and some world leading technology companies, industrial Internet, design institutions and platforms have made breakthroughs in new design concepts, technologies, models, and applications. The national industrial design institutes promoted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will also be officially released today!

World Industrial Design Conference and Global Design Industry Organization will also give full play to the international and global role and capabilities, actively promote cooperation and build innovation platform infrastructure, and help all explorers, innovators and practitioners to win the future together!

                                                                                                                               ——Liu Ning

                                                                          President, China Industrial Design Association

                                                                        President, Global Design Industry Organization