Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT)

SydDT is a diverse community of 10,000+ members started in 2015. Our monthly meetup is one of the top design thinking meetups globally.

New members are welcome!

SydDT’s purpose is to build 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.

Our vision is design thinking is used as 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.

SydDT Events Coming Up...

What to Expect at SydDT

The SydDT community is known for being fun, welcoming, and inclusive.

We keep things pretty casual and know most of the value comes from awesome people in the community spending time with each other and building relationships.

Our role is to convene and make space for those interactions. That’s why we start with plenty of time for networking with drinks and pizza before jumping into the content.

Speakers with great experiences and insights to share on diverse topics are another key ingredient that draws people in and are a catalyst for many of the conversations.

New members are welcome! It’s free and simple to join the SydDT community on Meetup.com.

We charge a small ticket price (usually $10) for most of our meetups to help manage no-shows and to cover some of our costs. We also partner with values-aligned sponsors to keep the ticket price to a minimum.

Come and join us 😃

Join the SydDT Community

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SydDT community & audience

SydDT has always been about building a connected community and ecosystem of people from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn and share. To indulge our curiosity.

We’re proud to see this in our community – SydDT members are experience designers, researchers, service designers, startup founders, product managers/owners, consultants, academics, anthropologists, architects, software engineers, project managers, medicos, engineers, and many other roles.

We currently have a cap of ~80 people for most of our meetups and no two audiences are the same. The usual mix is about 20% who are regulars and there most months. Another 30-40% are the semi-regulars, and 50-60% are first-timers and people who make it occasionally.

SydDT format

We usually start with about 45 minutes of networking with drinks and pizza before jumping into the content.

We use a mix of formats for the content of the meetup and generally keep this to no more than one hour.

Content includes talks (ranging from 10-45 minutes), fireside chats, panels, open space, and interactive workshops on a broad range of topics – with a healthy Q&A that often turns into a group discussion.

We’re willing to experiment with formats and even co-designed a full song with a three-piece band at one of our meetups.

Then there’s more networking, usually at a nearby pub.

Our normal rhythm is the second Thursday of the month. This changes occasionally and we have more than one meetup some months.

Past SydDT Events

Over the past few years, we’ve recorded most of our meetups. Here are some recent meetups…

Check out more of our past meetups  with write-ups, photos, and videos.

The full catalogue of over 100 meetups is on Meetup.com.

Playlist

56 Videos

Check out the full Youtube playlist

SydDT Organisers

A small volunteer team make SydDT happen every month. The current team is Ben Pecotich, Kylie Mageropoulos, Kate Linton, and Lucas Mara.

Ben Pecotich

Ben Pecotich

Kylie Mageropoulos

Kylie Mageropoulos

Kate Linton

Kate Linton

Lucas Mara

Lucas Mara

SydDT backstory​

We had our first SydDT meetup on 11 June 2015. Kingsley Jones posted the group on Meetup.com and Ben Pecotich joined a couple of days later as a co-founder and provided the venue.

Over the next few weeks James Cooper and Lucas Mara joined in time for the first meetup, and Zoe Gibson joined a couple of months later. Kate Linton was a key part of the team from 2016 and officially joined in 2018. Kylie Mageropoulos joined the team in 2023.

Kingsley and James moved interstate after a few years and left the team – and Zoe moved overseas in 2024. You have to go a long way to get away from SydDT 😄

For more on the history and journey of the SydDT community and events, check out this reflection piece from August 2016 when we reached 2,000 members in 15 months.

Australia Design Thinking (AusDT)

SydDT is a part of the Australia Design Thinking (AusDT) collective, a community of place-based design communities with 12,000+ members.

AusDT has in-person events in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Byron, Melbourne, Gold Coast – and an online space. More to come.

Design Connection

SydDT is also a member of Design Connection, a collective of three Sydney design meetups founded by Ben Pecotich from Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT), Adam Faulkner from Enterprise UX (EUX), and Kevin Wilkins from Creative Customer Experience (CCX), with Susan Wolfe and Vera Chan being the backbone of Design Connection.

We’ve been collaborating on at least two megameetups each year since 2019.

SydDT Speakers

Speakers who have great experiences and insights to share on diverse topics are a key ingredient that draws people in.

Many of the people who’ve spoken at SydDT over the years don’t call themselves a designer. That’s not what’s required to speak at SydDT.

Our focus is on sharing experiences that create fresh perspectives from a diverse range of design and business practices, industries, contexts, and roles… to learn, share, and get exposed to what’s possible.

We have a specific focus on how design thinking is being used as a human-centred design and living systems approach to innovation and solving complex problems… that help create great outcomes for people, our planet, and business.

A mix of these themes are ideally spaced out over the year. People come primarily for the topic with design thinking as the lens on the topic. Some examples:

  • Strategic/high-level design
  • The practice of design thinking across different design disciplines (digital, built environment, physical product, and services)
  • Innovation, product, tech, business models, and entrepreneurship
  • Leadership, design leadership, and culture
  • Regeneration, wellbeing, and purpose
  • Corporates, social enterprise, startups, NFPs, small business, and government

Check out the full catalogue of past speakers and topics from over 100 meetups.

Representation

We’re committed to maintaining the gender and CALD representation we’ve had over the years. Our panels don’t have more than two blokes including the host.

We actively seek to include people with other diverse experiences. We preference people with lived experience of the topic… the principle of “nothing about me without me” is very important to us.

Value exchange

Unfortunately we’re not in a position to pay speakers. We believe in a value exchange though. We really appreciate the value speakers bring to the SydDT community… and we want speakers to get value from sharing their experience and insights at SydDT too.

We know you can’t pay your rent in exposure but some of the value our speakers receive include:

  • Public thanks and promotion of their contribution to the SydDT community on the meetup page, community messages (10k+ audience), meetup announcement and post-event social posts (40k+ audience size), photos and video recording (for most)
  • Share what you’re working on with how the audience can make contact and get involved – including any special offers – without it being a hard sales pitch
  • 5 tickets for guests at the meetup
  • Positioning as a thought leader and expert in their field with great value to share
  • Connections and relationships with people in and around the design community
  • Safe place to test and refine ideas with an engaged audience
  • Improve public speaking and communication skills with options on format and a friendly audience

We’d love to hear from you if you’re keen to speak – or if there’s someone you think we should invite to speak.

Thanks for speaking at SydDT. Here’s a summary of what we need from you to promote the event

  • ~100-word bio – with job title and company for the meetup page
  • Headshot, otherwise we’ll use your Linkedin profile photo for the meetup banner
  • Brief blurb for your session for the meetup page
  • Social media channels and accounts you want tagged in our posts
  • Slides in 16:9 Powerpoint format with fonts embedded – to be merged into the master deck

Let us know if you’ve got any other questions.

Thanks again!

SydDT Sponsors

Our sponsors are the reason we’re able to run SydDT every month. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to cover the venue and catering costs – or ticket prices would be unaffordable.

We’ve been very lucky to have support from amazing sponsors who’ve invested in the SydDT community over the past nine years. This started with iCentral as the venue sponsor in 2015.

Kate Linton/Thoughtworks sponsored the catering for SydDT #2 and were the primary venue and catering sponsor from SydDT #6 in February 2016 to SydDT #49 in March 2020. They’re still a regular venue sponsor.

Michelle Cabanela/ThinkPlace have been one of our key sponsors since March 2023.

There have been many other sponsors over the years and there are a few types of sponsorship opportunities available.

Values & expectations alignment

We only partner with values-aligned sponsors. Our purpose and vision outline what the SydDT community is about. That’s a core filter we use to decide if it’s a good fit.

Sponsors who get value from partnering with SydDT are those who genuinely want to engage with and support the design community and ecosystem. This is about long-term trusted relationships, not transactional sales.

As organisers and sponsors, our role is to convene. It’s not about us, it’s about the community.

If this aligns with your expectations and you’d like to sponsor a SydDT meetup, let’s chat.

Option 1. Venue & catering sponsor
From $0. Sponsor pays venue & catering costs directly

  • Venue and catering sponsor (to SydDT’s minimum standard)
  • Sponsor pays venue and catering costs directly
  • Ticket revenue to SydDT (usually $10 ticket price)
  • Optional: $1,000 cash sponsorship investment to SydDT for sponsor to make it a free event

Option 2. Catering sponsor
From $1,500. Sponsor pays SydDT to cover catering

  • Catering sponsor (to SydDT’s minimum standard)
  • Ticket revenue to SydDT (usually $10 ticket price)
  • Optional: Total of $2,500 cash sponsorship investment to SydDT for sponsor to make it a free event

Option 3. Custom package for co-branded collaborations
Agreed fixed price from $10k 

  • Event planning and management
  • Event promo, comms, and ticketing
  • Venue and catering
  • Hosting and MC
  • Speakers
  • Travel (when outside Sydney CBD)


For all sponsorship options, SydDT provides and manages:

  • Speakers
  • Hosting and MC
  • Event promo, comms, and ticketing
  • Venue, setup, and bump in (jointly when venue provided by the sponsor
  • Catering (unless provided directly by the sponsor)
  • Video recording and editing


Guidance on SydDT’s minimum venue & catering standards

Venue

  • ~100 capacity theatre seating
  • AV – prefer large screen/projector. Large TV minimum
  • Accessible venue with aircon
  • Easy access for audience, drinks, and pizza
  • Prefer Sydney CBD location
  • Prefer mic/PA in a space with good accoustics and no background noise

Catering

  • A mix of beer, wine, and soft drinks
  • Pizza with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Other catering is an option at a higher price point
  • Prefer self-serve drinks without need for RSA and security (from a cost perspective)


What sponsors get

Branding on SydDT event promo:

  • Meetup page
  • Messages to SydDT community (10k+ audience)
  • Meetup announcement and post-event social posts on SydDT Linkedin page and group, Facebook (11k+ audience size)
  • Meetup announcement and post-event social posts on organising team’s personal Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram (30k+ audience size)
  • Photos and video recording with sponsor on Youtube

Branding and promo at the meetup:

  • Brand on welcome slide
  • SydDT audience visiting sponsor’s office (when venue host)
  • Display banner and promo material (flyers, special offers etc for people to opt-in to future contact)
  • 2-minute spot during thanks to sponsors section of meetup welcome

10 tickets for team and guests at meetup


Keen to chat about SydDT sponsorship?
Send Ben Pecotich a message.

We look forward to collaborating!

See you at a SydDT meetup soon!

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