KOCHI: The ‘Design Kerala Summit’ scheduled to commence on Tuesday will give a major fillip to the state’s efforts to rebuild itself after the flood devastation by drawing on expert counsel for ensuring a futuristic and sustainable ecosystem.Touted as the country’s largest design festival, the two- day event to be held at the Bolgatty Event Centre by the Kerala Government will see think-tanks and decision-makers from all across the globe come together to ‘disrupt, design and ideate’ for a better tomorrow.
S D Shibulal, Kerala Government’s High Power IT Committee chairman, will inaugurate the summit. M Sivasankar, IT Secretary; Saji Gopinath, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) CEO and Ana Laura Farias, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design Summer School Head will address the gathering.
Prominent persons, including pioneering architect G Shankar, will address the summit in the following sessions follow. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will address the summit on the Wednesday.
A major highlight of the summit will be a ‘Design District’ which functions as a platform for technological installations on future technology, ecosystems and design concepts.
Maker Village, India’s largest electronic incubator, and KSUM will display their innovation-driven products at a specially curated section. They include a fully-automated hospital room, EYEROVTUNA (India’s first underwater robotic drone developed at Maker Village) and live tracking of vehicles. CERA Sanitaryware, who is the sponsor of the summit, will also come up with their installations.
‘Life Talk’ will be yet another major highlight where the fishermen responsible for saving lives during the devastating floods will share their experiences. Another speaker in the series will be Gopinath Parayil, co-founder of Chekutty Dolls that have come to the aid of weavers after the deluge. The central theme of the meet is to ‘design a sustainable ecosystem for the future”. Other topics at the sessions, include public infrastructure, technology infrastructure, tourism, handloom uplift and living spaces.