What a night. There was a real buzz in the room on Thursday for the inaugural Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT).
It sold out within three weeks of us announcing it and we had another 50 on the waitlist.
Natasha Ballantyne and Maria Raymond kicked things off and welcomed everyone.
I then hosted a fun panel chat with Bek Kennedy from Australian Financial Security Authority, Simon Woods from Employment Hero, and Claire Webber from Intopia who shared a bit about what “design” means to them, how they spend their days, and the people they work with.
This set the scene for a soft version of open space to start codesigning what the community want from the AdlDT meetup.
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun and interactive night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
This meetup was brought to you by Scyne Advisory, Aplo, and Dynamic4. A huge thanks to Tash and Maz for inviting me in to collaborate and be an AdlDT co-founder with them. I’m looking forward to all the fun to come!
A massive thanks to our panellists, the whole organising team, and volunteers on the night for bringing it all together… Monique Moushis, John Robinson, Carla Raymond, John Patrick Juinio, Sai Maniganahalli, Jamie Halls… and Pulkit Verma and Ildiko Tuck for also taking photos.
It was awesome catching up with some old friends, some people who’ve come to SydDT in the past, and to make plenty of new friends in and around the Adelaide design community. Plenty of exciting things coming up for AdlDT!
Our next meetup is AdlDT #2: Design Leadership for Introverts with Tim Yeo on Thursday, 17 April. Tickets are already selling fast, so you better be quick and grab your ticket.
16 January Update
Exciting updates on Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT)… in the three weeks since we launched, we’ve grown to a community of 100+ members – and our first meetup on 20 February is already sold out with a few on the waitlist.
You can still join the community and waitlist for free… more spots might open up 😃
Natasha Ballantyne and Maria Raymond will be our MCs… and I’ll be hosting a panel with a bunch of awesome Adelaide local designers:
- Bek Kennedy – Director of Enterprise Service Design at Australian Financial Security Authority
- Simon Woods – Head of User Experience at Employment Hero
- Claire Webber – Accessibility Design Specialist at Intopia
Speakers
Bek Kennedy (they/them)
Director of Enterprise Service Design, Australian Financial Security Authority
Once upon a time lawyer turned design enthusiast. Bek works for a federal government agency as their Director of Enterprise Service Design. They love their work and team. Bek is eternally curious, loves to read and learn and collaborate to solve tricky problems. They are all about creating considered user outcomes and fun along the way.
To get to know Bek a little better they’re also a gym junkie and love to bake croissants from scratch – life is about balance right? Bek’s cats are their world – they are Cleocatra and Augustpus.
Simon Woods (he/him)
Head of User Experience, Employment Hero
Simon is a UX leader and design strategist with experience across fintech, retail, healthcare, and SaaS. At Employment Hero, Australia’s tech double unicorn, he has helped establish and scale the company’s first dedicated design and research function, elevating UX maturity and embedding user-centered practices across teams.
Previously, Simon was a Lead UX/UI Instructor at Monash University, mentoring aspiring designers. He’s passionate about making design more accessible, fostering collaboration, and ensuring research-driven decision-making shapes meaningful user experiences.
Simon makes short films and write the scores to them in his spare time (he was a finalist in a Sydney short film festival) and this is how he prefers to flex his creative outside of work and is currently working on a feature length script – note he failed English at school 😜
Claire Webber (she/her)
Accessibility Design Specialist, Intopia
Claire is a Digital Accessibility Consultant at Intopia, a social enterprise and B Corp digital accessibility and equitable design agency. She loves working with teams to create inclusive experiences. You’ll find her training designers, auditing, reviewing design systems, doing design reviews, and coaching teams.
She’s passionate about design, accessibility and inclusion and loves teaching others about accessibility & setting teams up with the knowledge and know-how to create inclusive experiences. Claire also is a co-organiser of DDDAdelaide, an inclusive non-profit conference for the Adelaide software community.
Outside of work you can find Claire knitting on the couch with her cat and two whippets, gaming or whipping up a storm in the kitchen.
Ben Pecotich (he/him)
Design & Innovation Director/Founder, Dynamic4
Ben is a designer, coach, and founder of Dynamic4 – a social enterprise and B Corp focused on leadership, design, and innovation for happier communities… and making the transition to more regenerative ways of living and doing business.
He coaches and works alongside leaders to solve problems that matter by designing and building business models, products, and services that customers and teams love, make money, do great things for people and our planet, and increases wellbeing.
For 30+ years, Ben’s led, designed, and delivered strategic change in financial services. digital & tech, health & fitness, and founded startups/social enterprises – in Australia, NZ, Asia, the UK, and Europe. He founded Dynamic4 in 2001 and takes a human-centred design and living systems approach to bring together strategy, design, and tech.
Ben’s the author of Solve Problems That Matter: Design, Build & Launch Your Social Enterprise Idea and co-founder of Sydney Design Thinking.
Meetup Announcement
Thursday, 20 February 2025 @ 5pm. Scyne Advisory, Adelaide
‘Twas the night before the night before xmas… and I said my earlier post would probably be my last for a while… but we want to get this on your radar with plenty of notice…
We’re excited to be launching Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT)!
The focus of our first meetup will be to explore the vital role of design in South Australia and co-design what the community wants from this meetup. Let’s call it drinking our own champagne… or South Australian red 😃
The Format
This won’t be a passive experience… it will be an interactive and participatory experience to co-design Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT).
There will be plenty of time to meet each other, catch up with old friends, and make plenty of new ones.
I’ll be hosting a panel with some amazing Adelaide designers (announced soon) who’ll set the scene by sharing their experience. That will flow into open space so everyone can engage and participate however they’re comfortable.
Key Topics of Discussion
- The Future of Design in Adelaide: Engage in a forward-looking discussion on the evolving landscape of design in our city. What opportunities and challenges lie ahead for designers in Adelaide? How can design drive more people-centred services through better digital and non digital experiences, innovation, and accessibility?
- Shaping Future Meetups: As part of our collaborative approach, we’ll co-design how future Adelaide Design Thinking meetups will be structured. What topics would you like to see? What format promotes the most meaningful dialogue? Your input is invaluable!
This is the night before the legendary Adelaide Fringe opens… so if you’re not local but plan on being in town, come and make some local friends 😃
Join us for a fun night of inspiration, conversation, and community-building as we collectively shape our future gatherings… and be part of the inaugural AdlDT. I look forward to seeing you there!
What’s Adelaide Design Thinking (AdlDT) all about?
I’m stoked to be collaborating with some friends who are Adelaide locals to help convene a connected community and ecosystem of people from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn, share, and get exposed to what’s possible.
This is for everyone who’s keen to take a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems – to help create great outcomes for people, our planet, and business.
I’m lucky to be collaborating with Natasha Ballantyne, Maria Raymond, John Robinson, Monique Moushis, and and Bek Kennedy and to share a bit of what we’ve learnt convening Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) over the past nine years.
Event Sponsors
This meetup is brought to you by Scyne Advisory, Aplo, and Dynamic4.
