Open Collab + DM20 – Connect

Led by Jo Greenhalgh, the annual Design Manchester workshop at University of Salford, has since 2016 welcomed through its doors students from colleges throughout UK and Ireland. This year it plays the pivotal role in a one-day online ‘distributed workshop’ in cities across Europe.

Based around the ‘Open Collab’ platform developed by Patrick Thomas and Jonathan Auch in Berlin, the workshop will facilitate up to 300 students working together, responding locally and across boundaries to a common brief.

Universities and colleges from the cities of Salford, Manchester, Birmingham, Berlin, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Rotterdam and Barcelona are invited to take part in the workshop, which will be punctuated by talks and discussions from external speakers invited to contribute online by the participating colleges.

Each year the student workshop has been held either the day before or immediately after the DM Conference taking the opportunity to invite speakers from the conference to participate. Past participants include: Swifty, Extinction Rebellion, Lucy Holmes, Harris Elliott, Hansje van Halem, Paris 68 Redux, Shangri La, Sneaky Raccoon,  etc etc.

This year the workshop is one of a number of events which link Design Manchester with Birmingham Design Festival (who have otherwise suspended all events for 2020), Dutch Design Week (which runs October 17–25), and Barcelona Design Week which commences as Design Manchester concludes and runs until 26 November.