The first World Design Cities Conference sponsored by Shanghai Municipal People's Government officially launched on September 15th.
Gong Zheng, Mayor of Shanghai Municipal Government, lighted up the launching device. Xu Xiaolan, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Wu Qing, Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal Government, and Qu Xing, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO delivered speeches. Zhang Wei, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal Government, attended the event.
At the opening ceremony, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former French Prime Minister, Philippe Stark, French design master, Jean Nouvel, 2008 Pritzker Prize winner, and Ye Hongmu, CEO of L’Oreal Group, made suggestions for the construction of Shanghai as a Design Capital. A number of creative and design projects and international cooperation projects such as Shanghai International Design 100 Think Tank, WWF "Sustainable Fashion Center" of Donghua University, China Time-honored Brand Design Innovation Platform, Bank of China Design Industry Open Resource Interactive Platform, PARSONS China Design Innovation Center, Xiaohongshu Digital Design Innovation Platform and Sifang Puli Global Transportation Design Center were released centrally. The first "Frontier Design Innovation Award" was announced at the opening ceremony. Huangpu District was awarded the title of "Shanghai Design Capital Construction Demonstration Zone".
With the theme of “Vision in Perspective”, the first World Design Cities Conference was held in and around Huangpu Riverside Ship Pavilion, including the opening ceremony, the International Design 100 Peak Forum and the UNESCO Design Capital Summit, two exhibitions, and more than 50 summit forums and design activities. The main exhibition focuses on the five-dimensional structure of "Design Innovative City", including innovative development of design empowering industry, creating dynamic city space, optimizing social public services, lighting up people's better life, and building city brand together, with special French and Italian zones. The total exhibition area exceeds 6,000 square meters, with more than 150 brands and 800 exhibits, of which international brands account for 20%.
